India : Blaaze

“ I grew up in Zambia, dad’s an architect, so we’d tour around the country with me doing break dance on these sets designed by dad! It was amazing”

Moving from break dance and inspired by the sounds that were doing the rounds in Zambia, BlaaZe picked up on rap, and found his calling, sitting and penning rhymes was a daily occurrence at home. Being lucky enough to perform for president Chiluba during the election campaign in ‘91, BlaaZe didn’t stop there, less than a year later he produced and performed on Zambia’s first ever music video “Advice 4 Livin’ with the Zambian national broadcasting corporation, this in his late teens.

Lots more happened since then, a couple of interviews with ZNBC – TV (Zambia), and Doordarshan TV – India (UK), a chart entry as a future hit prediction on Zimbabwe Radio, live performances for the Indian High Commissioner to Zambia on independence day in 1995.

Cut to a stint with then Radio Midday as a DJ on the ‘Mellow Hour’ and an exclusive New Year’s performance on Zee TV. He even presented a musical show for the promotion of Zambian music for ZNBC in 1995 as well as serving as an assistant producer of a current affairs program called ‘Focus”.

From then on doors opened, an opening act for Sasha, featuring on the soundtrack for the Femina Miss India ‘96 pageant. Being unaccredited as the rapper on “East or West, India is the best’ from the movie ‘Judwaa’, marking his entry into the big bad world of Bollywood. He then opened for acts like Shaggy and C&C Music Factory here in India, on the Rap video version of Ooh La La directed by Ken Ghosh and music by A.R. Rehman and also Dj’d on Radio Midday as a special feature presentation on the legacy of 2Pac.

“2Pac’s my guardian angel, I’m inspired by him, his work, the way he lived, everything’. Moving to California in January 1998 BlaaZe enrolled at Columbia College - Hollywood pursuing a BA Cinema degree and completed it successfully.

After coming back to India, he was snapped up by MTV, working there for over 2 years as a producer and director of various shows like “MTV Classics, World Chart Express, Megamix, Chillout, and MTV Select” also assisting director Aditya Bhattacharya on filming Lucky ALI ‘s ‘Kitni Haseen Zindagi’ in between and opening for the artist in Mumbai.

He then switched to presenting shows like ‘The Big Drive Home’ and ‘Rebel Yell’ on Radio City 91fm. He’s been documented by the BBC for the hip-hop show ‘Ghetto Fabulous’, performed a hip-hop version of ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ for the Bob Dylan tribute arranged by jazz legend Louis Banks.

Then A.R Rahman happened.  Worked on several film songs with A R Rahman, including, Baba, Boys, New, Saathiya, Yuva and as a lyricist on Kisna and the Chinese Epic, Warriors Of Heaven and Earth. Currently working on the theme song for the United Nations Millenium Campaign as a Rapper and Lyricist on issues such as TB, Poverty and survival. “I write about my life... I write about India, Zambia and anything else that moves me so much that I need to pen a few words down.”