#JOHNNY BLAZE GROWING UP HIP HOP HOW TO#

Likewise, he only recently came to appreciate the gospel music he’d been surrounded by as a child, recalling being a young hip-hop and house fan who’d argue with his family to play something other than gospel music on the family stereo: “Oh, they’re killin’ me. God called me back, and I just started goin’ back into church,” he says. And then at a point in my life, I just got fed up. “When I was young, I was in the church, then I came out the church, started hangin’ in the streets.

, “Jesus Is The Way,” also reworks an older Club track, “Priceless” by DJ Mook and Nafoe, with religious themes.īlaze’s new musical direction came about after a return to his religious roots. In fact, one of Jonny Blaze’s biggest club hits, 2003’s “Hey Ryders,” was later remixed to great effect by Rod Lee himself. “He didn’t like it,” Blaze says, adding, “I felt bad.” But he also says that he simply tweaked the song’s title and chorus for an otherwise new track, and that Baltimore Club has a long tradition of producers building on each others’ work. Though intending to give a shout-out to Lee, Blaze notes that the track has strained the relationship between the two producers, who came on the local club scene around the same time in the mid-’90s. The track that helped build the album’s advance buzz, “Pray My Pain Away,” puts a spiritual spin on the classic Baltimore Club cut, “Dance My Pain Away,” by Rod Lee. , with slower and more melodic hip-hop and R&B-flavored tracks as well. “I’ve played ‘em for my church, I’ve played ‘em for a club audience.” Asked whether it went over better with one crowd or the other, he says “it’s like half and half.”Īnd though much of the album features the classic Baltimore Club formula of chanted hooks and synths over 130-BPM breakbeats, Grant varies the tempo for half of “I’ve played ‘em for everybody,” he says. Seems risky and bound to offend as many people as it excites, Grant reports that he’s gotten good feedback from both religious and secular audiences. After all, Baltimore Club has long been alternately celebrated and dismissed as one of the fastest, silliest, and often most vulgar strains of regional dance music in the world. Although contemporary Christian music that merges traditional gospel with more modern, urban styles is a growing market, Grant’s particular twist is still pretty unique. Two years ago, DJ Jonny Blaze announced his new “gospel club” direction with the release of the single “Here We Go.” Another single, “Pray My Pain Away,” followed later that year and caught the attention of Tate Music Group and 695 Entertainment, an independent distributor that specializes in country music and gospel.

#JOHNNY BLAZE GROWING UP HIP HOP HOW TO#

Theme song even birthed one of the scene’s biggest dance crazes of the last ten years: now, every Baltimore Club kid knows how to do the SpongeBob.

Johnny blaze growing up hip hop