Blaze Ya Dead Homie Interview (9/17/14)

Welcome to our exclusive interview with Blaze Ya Dead Homie! In our nearly 15 years of existence, we have NEVER had a chance to interview Blaze...until now! Blaze goes over several subjects including:

• How he got his start rapping
• His biggest influences early on
• Why he started pursuing rap full time
• Releases he's most proud of
• His time and departure from Psychopathic
• "Last House on Dead Street"
• Gang Rags: Reborn
• The other 2 versions of Gang Rags, including the tour exclusive "Extended & Uncut"
• Twiztid's new label
• Recording process for Dark Lotus / Rydas
• Possible future releases from Drive By, Zodiac Mprint, SWK
• Who Blaze bumps on the regular
• The Purple Show
• Where his merch is at
• Online Rumors
• Thoughts on the recent NFL controversy
• Juggalo Football League

There are even more subjects than that...so you can see that we delved into a TON of different things.  Now with that said, I know you're all clamoring to hear it!  So check out the options on how to listen below:   Stream or Download via SoundCloud: Stream via Youtube: [youtube]http://youtu.be/aDmXG2XgQaY[/youtube]   Interview Text: FLH: What up y’all? This is Scottie D from Faygoluvers.net and I’ve got an interview that’s been a long time comin’, we’ve got Blaze Ya Dead Homie on the line. What’s up Blaze? Blaze: What up Scottie D? It’s been a minute right? FLH: Absolutely man. We’ve been in the game, and you have as well, at least on our radar, almost 15 years. I don’t know how it is that we’ve never done an interview, but I’m glad it’s finally come. Blaze: Well, we’ve talked plenty of times, me and you. I mean I’ve seen you plenty of times at the Gathering and Dallas and all types of different spots. But yeah for sure, that’s what’s up. FLH: I’m gonna get started with a little bit of your backstory. I can’t imagine anybody not knowing what you’re about but for those who don’t, your website BlazeYaDead1.com gives a pretty in depth history on how you got started. But for those who don’t know, how’d you get your start rapping? Blaze: Ah man, it was basically following the footsteps of my peers and people around me that were doin’ their thing, and rap was big out here in Detroit. Not just rap, but it was a scene, a different style scene. People called it horrorcore, Esham called it acid rap. I heard all types of different things. But it’s different, it’s wicked. It was something different. And I think, when I started back in high school, I was just getting out of high school, and I would just be out rapping in parking lots and stuff. People were like, “Man why don’t you do some of your own shit?” Basically, I was rapping over other people’s verses forever. Then I hooked up with a ninja that was doing the same type of stuff. He was the first one, “Man let’s do somethin’ together.” That’s kind of where it started. We’d just get some stuff together and thru the course of that, I met Twiztid, who were House of Krazees at the time. I realized how stupid I was, young and green and didn’t know a damn thing. We were making posters and flyers and didn’t have anything out yet. It was like, “Oh yeah, we’re the greatest ever. 2 Krazy Devils, they’re the greatest.” And everybody was like, “Who the fuck were they?” But we had flyers out, and you never heard of who we were but you could see us on flyers. But I don’t know, we were just really green and didn’t know shit. We didn’t have a thing recorded. I ended up basically through, luck, or whatever it is, that I met Madrox and R.O.C. together and they were promoting a House of Krazees record, I think it was Home Bound at the time. Through that, we were just kind of talking and I kicked it to them for a minute, and it was almost like I knew these guys forever.  R.O.C. shot me a price on some studio time and told me, “Hey if you guys ever need some help give us a call because we know how it is getting in when you're starting out.” And when you don’t know nothing when starting out, you’d get ripped back then. Today you can go on the computer and make your own songs. But back then, it was a lot of work. We had 8 tracks and reel to reel. There was all types of different stuff and it wasn’t as easy as it is now. So we went to a spot, a reputed studio, and we asked about some studio time and they gave us the runaround about how much money it would cost, about five hundred dollars for a rap demo tape. The catch was, you never got to keep any of your material. So basically you rapped on it, you got a cassette tape of it, and that was it. Now if you wanted to make more cassette tapes of it, you’d need to reel to reel.  They’d get over on people like that. When we walked in there for the first time meeting with the people there, and five hundred dollars could of been like three million dollars to me at the time like, “No way I’ll never make that!” It was then probably 11:30, 12, midnight, I called R.O.C. right there outside the studio on a payphone. Walked outside, “Hey bro what’s up, remember me? We need some studio time. “ And yeah, that’s how it kicked off, for real. FLH: So R.O.C. recorded the few tracks you did as 2 Krazy Devils? Blaze: Yeah R.O.C. did a lot of the production on that and his cousin Evol did a lot of production on that, a little bit of pre-production in the beginning. It was mostly R.O.C. and the other ninja, Skrapz. He did a little bit of production here and there. And yeah, that’s how it was, that was our beginning. And I remember our first ever instrumental, it was something done by Marcus, R.O.C.’s cousin. It had wolves in there and “Owwwwowwrorrorog” and we were like “Yeah that’s great! Are we really gonna rap to that? But I told you we were great, anything sounds cool, we just wanna rap.” But that’s kind of what it was, and like I said, to their credit, House of Krazees, Twiztid, they saw heart in what we were doing, we were willing to put in work to get better and that’s kind of what it was. FLH: Who at the time were your biggest influences? Blaze: My influences at the time? I had a lot of different ones. I grew up with so much different music around me. I have a lot of family, so just, music came from all over.  I would hear all types of different things. What I put into my music might not be what the sound was that I liked at the time, but I was influenced by all types of stuff. There was heavy metal and rock and stuff that was really hot to me at the time. It was hot, it was dope, it was sweet. Like Black Sabbath, me and my brother used to rock out to Sabbath. Crazy shit. Like I said, there was different styles of music that might not pertain to anything I do now, but to me, that’s what kind of sounded great, the mixture between. If you like at some of Esham’s old school stuff, some of that, it sounded a lot like some Sabbath or Alice Cooper or Metallica. All the hardcore shit. Just a different rock. I was mainly influenced by west coast music and when I kind of expanded and seen stuff I was like, “Woah there are actually groups that do music in my city?” House of Krazees was the first one I seen but I seen through them, ICP was already doing it, they already had it going on. I’ve heard of Esham before, since he was from the east side, kind of where I grew up. But I didn’t hear of ICP until midway through my senior year, maybe a little bit after that. I heard it through a girl, that’s what it was, a girl I was talking to. It was Beverly Kills, I don’t know if it was old or new at the time, but that’s the first I heard of them. I heard people in the neighborhood doing it. Kid Rock came from Romeo, and I’m from Mount Clemens. But Kid Rock got his real start in Mount Clemens where I grew up, so I heard of him for years, him and Uncle Kracker, he wasn’t Uncle Kracker at the time. He’s been doing it. But these guys were in the area where I grew up. We’re not the same age at all, so we don’t know each other like that, but from the same area where I’m at. So yeah, music has been around, and I picked up on a lot of different stuff on the outskirts and west coast rap and a lot of rock music, and even funk music. I’ve listened to so much different shit it’s crazy. FLH: At what point in your musical career did you decide to pursue rap full time, and quit working any odd jobs you might of had? Blaze: I swear to you, I swear to God, I had a job up until the point where I started working for Psychopathic. To me, it was all work my whole life, work work work, have a job, do somethin’ do somethin’. To the point where most people in my family were like, “Hey you gotta goto college, college is where it’s at.” I dabbled, I went there and dabbled, and I went there during the time of doing music and that’s when I figured out this isn’t the life I want to do. A lot of people say, “I want to be a fireman when I grow up” or like Snoop, “I want to be a motherfuckin’ hustla.” To me, I never had that.  There wasn't anything specific for me. I want to do a lot of things, and I think I could do a lot of things, but that was kind of my main start, let’s move towards this, continue from there. Try to branch off and do some different things. FLH: Out of everything you’ve released with either solo or group projects,  what’s the album you’re most proud of? Blaze: The album I’m most proud of? That’s tough to say. Right now, it’s cliche to say, but the album that’s about to drop on the 21st, Gang Rags: Reborn. Like I said, this is the first time that it’s not touched by anybody besides us. It’s by me, by Twiztid, by Se7en, it’s a different mix, it’s a different sound. It’s probably the best I’ve ever sounded and maybe the most realistic sounding Blaze you’ve ever heard. You’re like, “Oh your jumbling your words and this and that, or you don’t sound like you’re mixed very good.” I think this holds up to a lot of things and you’re like, “Oh I can understand you.” You might be able to go in and write down my vocals and won’t have it all jumbled and wrong. Most of the time when I go see online and like, “Damn I didn’t say that!” Pretty entertaining. But before that, man it’s tough, but Colton Grundy to me is one of those albums that was a stamp of what I was doin’. It took awhile to release and there are things that happened during that time where I was gone and stopped doing music for a minute and had some deaths in the family it wasn’t cool.  Part of me wasn’t into it at that moment. But when it finally did come out, I was a hundred percent into it. That was one of the records I was so proud of. “This is Blaze but Blaze in a different light.” It’s a hip-hoppy style, it’s a little different, I was very proud of that. But each record I do there’s something I’m like, “Oh man I love this about this.” I can go on forever. Clockwork Gray, I love Wishing Well, it was just so, you know, there’s certain things in songs and certain areas that I’m like, “Yeah that’s the shit.” FLH: I’m definitely gonna expand more on Gang Rags: Reborn, but I got a few other questions before I hit that. I wanted to know, in your roughly 13 year career with Psychopathic, it seems like Blaze solo records were far and few between, I know you had some issues going on in 2003 and stuff like that, but was the rarity of release by choice? Blaze: Technically, I would say in the beginning with the first couple of records, it was by choice. Up until Colton Grundy and stuff, it kind of was. This was kind of how the music business was going at the time. “Hey, drop a record every two years, drop a little something in between, EP wise.” But at the label it seemed like I was waiting behind a certain person, waiting behind him, waiting behind him, waiting behind him. Whoever I was waiting behind, it was like, “Well we can push him back to the backburner for a minute, it’s alright, his record will be out in another...we’ll work on that next.” So, I didn’t mind taking a step back and waiting because in a sense, I was all for the company, I was all for one, one for all. One hundred percent, I was down for whatever.  Let's just keep it movin’. In a sense, each record that came with was consistent, and it was consistently Blaze. This is what he does here and there. But in between, I would’ve loved to have more projects in between. In a sense, that hindered me on different things, like videos, and stuff like that. It’s just the game was at the time, and when it started moving and getting different like, “Oh let’s put out three records a year.” By that time, I’m already way back behind everybody. That’s kind of where it was. FLH: Do you think that now you’re during your thing with Twiztid and the new label, do you think you’ll have more albums and videos released more frequently? Blaze: Yeah, for sure for sure. I think it’s not like you're waiting on other people when there’s so many other artists there you gotta look out for, everybody’s gotta get their time and their month and shine for each record and it seems now, we have less, and we can do more. Now it’s just about me getting in the studio more and that’s basically all it is. That’s what I’m working on now, just living in the studio, back to what it was, well back before. Let me go back.  Kind of the reason why a lot of my stuff had that in between misses and nothing there is because people believed that I was giving them something through Lotus and Rydas. Not to say I’m a Ryda, I’m not a Ryda, but it’s music still coming from me technically and maybe to some people's idea, they thought it was enough. They’re like, “Well he can wait another, his next record, we’ll wait a little bit.” It felt like my music, I still had stuff happening. I think that’s part of it. It wasn’t a hundred percent me saying, “Let’s wait forever.” It wasn’t them saying, “You gotta wait wait wait.” Like I said, it’s the music business, the way it was, and kind of how it changed throughout the course of me being there and continuing. FLH: Right. It’s a little bit misleading when looking at your discography, showing your solo releases. But when you kind of piece it all together like you said with Rydas and Lotus. Blaze: You’ll see that I have stuff going on, it just wasn’t my record each time. There got to be points where I would openly try to conflict with certain things with Rydas. Like to the point where I would joke with some of the guys like, “Man I fuckin’ hate the Rydas! Fuck them! They’re taking my shit!” But it was all for one, one for all. FLH: So obviously with you and Twiztid leaving Psychopathic, there was a lot of bullshit drama talk online. What I wanted to ask though, what was it like getting back into the studio when you guys were recording Lotus, was it a different vibe or did it feel like just getting back together with family? Blaze: It was a lot of the same. To me, it seemed like it was almost back before when we used to do stuff, when we first started together. It seemed a little nicer in that aspect. Because we all know each other, we’ve been working together for years, we’ve been friends and family for years. Like I said, it wasn’t awkward, it was “Hey what’s up? Just seen you a couple weeks ago. What’s goin’ on? We’ve got music to do.” That’s kind of how it always has been with them. We’ll always be family of some sort. Whatever you wanna call it, it doesn’t matter, we’re still family. We’ve got love for them, they’ve got love for us. It’s just about everybody expanding and growing up a little bit, everybody getting their own thing sort’ve. But I mean, that’s the best I can say. If everybody was family, then they wouldn’t be mad at family building, just moving on and continuing. It’s not like we’re moving out of the way, we’re continuing to move up with everybody, and hope everybody moves with us. FLH: Yeah that’s been the concensus of everybody I’ve asked about the subject, everybody says the same thing and it all seems legit. Blaze: Really there’s no room for that. We’ve been doing this stuff for years. We know what we've built together, and nobody’s trying to destroy any of that. It’s not about the destruction of anything. Nobody wants to see Psychopathic gone, and nobody wants to see us gone. We're like a team building, and if anything expanding and get bigger.  Build this underground scene back to what it was when we first started again. FLH: One thing that I’ve been curious about on a big collaborative project like a Rydas or a Lotus, especially a Lotus, do you guys talk about song subjects and song titles, and then bring your verses into the studio, or do you all write and record them on the spot?  How does that all work? Blaze: It all depends. For the most part, it goes the second way you said it. We all talk about titles, we all throw stuff out for different things, and then we go from there. Everybody writes their verse, then we collaborate on writing choruses and mostly write your verses in the studio and spit it in the studio. Get it all done there and usually we try to knock a thing out in a day. We’ll take the whole track and use that whole day. Sometimes we’ll work faster and it’ll be a little quicker, sometimes it’ll be slower, it all depends on how everybody’s doin’ and what the topic is. Some of the things on the first Rydas, you’ll see it took me a little longer on a couple of the songs because I’d be closer to the end. I’m sittin’ there like, “I’m almost done! Can y’all stop spittin’ for a minute and let me hear the loop again?” But yeah, as time kept goin’, you’ll see that I moved in between the verses and a little closer to the front, a little in between, and I wasn’t always the last guy done after that. FLH: That’s interesting, so basically when a verse is done... Blaze: Yeah sometimes it’s like, “Yeah I’m in there, I’m in there. Oh yeah, I’m goin’ I’m goin’.” When I first started, I really felt out of place, cause I was the only new guy. In a sense that I didn’t have any verses going in, the only thing I had was a song on a Twiztid record, a couple songs with them. And I did a few songs of my own stuff before that. But nothing substantial that anybody heard before. So it was a little intimidating, I was in there with ICP and Twiztid. Sitting in here with guys I respect that are very talented, and I’m like, “Shit I’m kind of out of my league right now.” So as time went on, I felt more comfortable and they made it that way. They made it feel more comfortable with everything and they’re like, “You're part of this shit.” As time went on, I got more comfortable with everything, and kept pluggin’ away. FLH: Let’s talk Gang Rags: Reborn. I know there was a snippet of a track released called "Dead Like Me" which sounds super dope by the way, it seems like people are still confused on what this release is all about. Can you tell us the difference between this release of Gang Rags: Reborn verses the Psychopathic and Extended and Uncut releases? Blaze: Okay first things first, Psychopathic release with the rag in it is a complete separate album. It has nothing to do with Gang Rags: Reborn. If you like "Deadman Walking", you’ll still find that record the same way. It’s not on this record. If you like "Dub Sack" or "Holy Shit" or one of those, it’s not on this record.   This record is basically...what happened was, when I first started taking care of this record, me and Madrox collaborated on a lot of stuff, a lot of the writing, a lot of different things when it comes to Blaze, from day one. We had an idea for a record, titled Last House on Dead Street. We started recording, and got a song into the record, and things started happening with the scene, with juggalos. People were like, “Oh no! People are calling us a gang!” It started happening at this point, back then. So we were like, “Why don’t we address that? We'll address it through a record and go at them. Let’s call it Gang Rags.” We'll shelf Last House on Dead Street,like I said, it wasn’t even started yet, it was a song. People believe that the record is there, I never started the record.  It was just a title. So basically, we started on Gang Rags, which ended up becoming the Extended Edition. Well, the Extended Edition, they really didn’t want me to release it with anything because I already had a Gang Rags record released because they wanted me to do something with Mike Clark and I’ve never done anything with Mike Clark before and I thought that was cool. They said, “Well you already have so much done for this Gang Rags record, why don’t you just finish that? Then come on with us and we’ll do a few tracks and put it on your record.” I was like, “Okay that sounds cool.” Technically, they said, “You do this but you have to back out of the Twiztid tour.” At the last minute, I kind of felt I had to do the record, gonna have to back out, sorry fellas, and stay back. While I was doing this record, we continued, and J and Mike were like, “You know it might sound kind of weird with different beats on here, going from one sound to the next sound. Let’s just continue working, and we'll just put a full record together.” That’s what created Gang Rags with the rag in the album. So I already had material sitting aside, like I said I thought it was seven, it was more like twelve or thirteen songs, something like that, sitting aside, that were technically called Gang Rags. It was my version of what Gang Rags was supposed to be. So I’m like, “I’m not gonna throw this material out, and I’m not gonna lie to everybody. I want people to have it.” And we’re going back to what we were talking about before, where I didn’t have enough music out, not doing enough stuff. Basically this idea I had, “I’ll bring it out on tour with me as an exclusive, everybody can get a chance to check it out. It's music that I’ve done, it’s there, it’s not fully ready to be released, but it’s music. Check it out, you can have this. It’s a tour exclusive CD!” That’s kind of what happened with it. As I put that out, they didn’t really like certain things about it. They didn’t hear certain songs off the record. They said, “Pull it off the shelf.” They destroyed it midway through sale, I might have sold maybe eight hundred copies, something of that nature, for this Gang Rags Extended Edition. So, as soon as that was done, I asked them, “What can I do to get this up to code so I can still sell it?” And they told me I had to change a few songs, I put R.O.C. on, I moved some people off, I changed some things, I put it out, and it maybe only had another five hundred copies. That’s all that was bought. They didn’t wanna test or mess with it too much because it wasn’t a real release. They weren't gonna push it nationally.  They just wanted it to stay like that, a tour exclusive. If anything, maybe a thousand copies might of gone out or eight hundred one way or something close to that, and then 500 of the other...1300 copies and that was it. So when it was said and done, when the label was done, this music just sitting here, and I said “Hey what are you guys gonna do with it?” “Well, we don’t have any interest in doing anything with it.” That’s what they told me. So I was like, “Hey can I get that?” So basically I had to work the skirt to get the music ownership to me. This is basically my first record that’s owned by me and Twiztid, the music and everything is owned by me, so I didn’t think it should be wasted completely. And, like I told you before, I didn't feel like it was completely done either.  It was just music for people to hear, enjoy, and then move on to the next. But like I said, I don’t think it really got its fair shake. So I went back on it, got ownership of the record and all the stuff on it, I took it from there and started remixing. I went straight all the way back to the top to the beginning and went back on it, remixed everything straight up, maybe put some people on there, and change everything. It’s the best sounding record I ever had to date, it’s my opinion.  That's my personal opinion, everyone’s got one like assholes and whatnot. But for real, I just felt like it never got its due and I wanted to give everybody a chance to hear it.  There's a lot of people that are like, “You should leave Gang Rags alone!  Dub Sack is my shit!” Well, you never heard this, because this doesn't have "Dub Sack" on it. This is exactly my point.  People don't realize that it's a different album and doesn't have anything to do with that. There are some songs you may have heard but it’s never like you’ve never heard them before. And there’s four brand new tracks. It’s not the end of me, it's just something that should have its due for people that hear it, then I’m moving on to the next.  I’ve got more for you and I’m gonna continue onto that too. It’s gonna be like you never heard it before, it’s gonna have videos for it and things that it should of had in the beginning, basically. FLH: Man that’s awesome, I’m definitely hyped to hear it, especially after that 45 second snippet that we got. Let me ask you, how do you feel about your album Gang Rags: Reborn being the first one released on Twiztid’s new record label? Blaze: Ahh man, I think it’s the shit. I mean, I’m super hype! I think it’s devastating and in a sense I would love to have a brand new record and in a sense, this is what it is to me from what it was. It’s a brand new record from what it sat as and what it is now. It’s like if people don’t like the new title, get over it, and shit. Get over it. It’s reborn, I’m reborn. Brand new life. And if you don’t believe me, come check me out. FLH: You mentioned just a minute ago that you were working on a new solo album. Is that right? Blaze: Yeah, I'm starting to get on that next. FLH: Okay so, way back in May, almost six months ago, Twiztid tweeted that we’d be seeing the Gang Rags: Reborn album, which is obviously coming out October 21st, and a new solo project hopefully before the end of the year. I’m sure the solo album isn’t happening before the end of the year? Blaze: I don’t think it’s happening now. We were definitely trying, but there’s always something going on. I ended up hitting the road with Killa for a couple of Drive-By dates, and doing some stuff, and setting it back a little bit. I mean, I’m hoping to get it out by the beginning of next year. Like I said, me being the first artist out, you got a couple of different artists on a label now, everybody’s gotta get theirs in too. I’m gonna keep mine goin’, blam blam blam, knockin’ ‘em out, you know? FLH: You got a working title yet? Blaze: Nope, I’m still working, everything’s working titles. I’ve heard so many people go, “Errrr do Last House on Dead Street!” I don’t know if I’m ready for it, man. I really feel like it could possibly be something of that nature. I have a feeling it’s gonna be my wicked record. I wanna do something that’s a little more geared towards the wicked shit. On this next record, I think it’s gonna be something closer to that. FLH: Are you so early on in the process that you don’t have any beats picked out or collabs you’re working on or anything like that? Blaze: I’ve been trying to get at a couple different things here and there. I did some stuff with Intrinzik. I’m trying to get out there and do some things, I’m not opposed to doing music with anybody. There’s this ninja out in Poland wanting me to get on his shit. I'm trying to check it out, keep fucking around with some different things. I’d love to get some more people on mine as well, different artists and whatnot. I think I just did something with (hed) pe a little while ago too, so I’m doing stuff here and there. FLH: Who does Blaze listen to on the regular? What’s on your iPod? Blaze: Oh shit, who do I listen to on the regular? I don’t even have an iPod. I do have an iPod, but I don’t listen to it anymore. FLH: You got a discman? [Laughs] Blaze: [Laughs]  Let me think of somebody that is actually interesting. Right now, I’ve been listening to everything and anything, pretty much. Anything new. I’m trying to get into what’s happening out there, but also stay away from it. I don’t wanna be completely riding what the mainstream is doin’ but then I don’t wanna be so lost that I don’t know what’s happening. It’s like, I listen to a little bit of everything, but a lot of it is junk. It really is, it's a lot of junk. I haven’t bought shit in so long. You know who I’m really pissed about? U2. FLH: Oh fuck them, man! Blaze: I’ve got a fuckin’ iPhone and these motherfuckers gave away their stupid ass song and every time I plug my phone into anything, it starts playing U2. I’m like, “Who the fuck is this? This is bullshit!” FLH: It’s not only a song, it’s a whole album. Blaze: It’s lame. It’s lame as fuck. It don’t sound good, it’s lame, this is bullshit. So I’m sittin’ there, listening to crap in my opinion, this is whack. It’s cool they gave shit away, but don’t push that crap down my throat.  Straight up. FLH: Alright man, so I know that you’ve been involved with a lot of groups over the years. Drive-By, still yet to be released Zodiac Mprint, still yet to be released Samhein Witch Killaz, is any of that on the table? Do you see recording any of that in the future? Blaze: For sure, Zodiac is for sure. Me and R.O.C. have already started, I’m not for sure exactly how much, just kind of recording some stuff together, just went from there. I’m pretty certain we’re gonna put that together. There are some other things in the works, I don’t have full details on anything. Samhein Witch Killaz I really don’t have any details on that at all. In all honesty, when that first started, I didn’t wanna be part of it. I wanted to be a part of it, but I didn’t wanna be in the group. I was like, “I’ll work with y’all but you don’t gotta put me on any songs.” I’ll just be here.  I'll do choruses or something. With them, it was like “We should put you in it so it’s different from what House of Krazees was.” And I was like, “Alright well technically it’s not called House of Krazees anyway, so I get that.” So that’s where Samhein Witch Killaz, and my involvement, came from. FLH: Do you see any Drive-By happening in the future? Blaze: Me and Killa just did a Drive-By EP. We dropped one a couple of months ago I think. We did another EP. Basically, we dropped an album and two EPs. It’s testing the water type stuff, if kids like it.  It's just different things. Just a way for me and Killa to still do music together. We still have fun with it. It all depends on if kids still wanna see it. For the most part, it’s fun, we have fun doing it. It sounds different because it’s a different part of me and him. It all depends on if everybody else wants to still peep it. FLH: So I’ve got some random questions. First, where’s all the merch, man? Blaze: It’s in this god damn warehouse. It is, it’s in a motherfuckin’ warehouse. They’re still trying to get everything corrected and shit to get it up. I know it’s gonna be on Twiztid-Shop, it will eventually be available there. We’re just trying to work the kinks out on how everything will be handled.  TCB as they say. FLH: There were quite a few questions about maybe having another Purple Show comedy webisode in the future. You see anything like that ever happening? Blaze: I don’t know, I’d love to do it. Back then, we were such kids, we were just fuckin’ around with a camera like, “Here ya go.” Nowadays our shit looks so bootlegged, I think we’d just look completely cheesy. I’m doing this little "Coffin Break" segment on Twiztid’s YouTube right now, trying to work my own skirt, maybe get my own channel one of these days. It’s mostly just some shit talkin’ though.  I like to talk shit. FLH: You gonna be doing that weekly? Blaze: I’m trying, I really am. I’m back on my Twitter, my Instagram, I’ve been actively trying to get back on there. I see that people don’t care bout Twitter as much anymore, I think everybody’s at Facebook. So I am one step behind, because, I am dead, and whatnot. Yeah, I’ve been actively back on my Instagram, BlazeYaDead1 and Twitter, same thing. And YouTube, because it’s so much easier. FLH: Just upload it direct from your phone, right? Blaze: Yeah for real. Before, it was questioning what you were gonna say. “Should I say this? Cool. Wait, no no, hold up. Hey wait.” Now it’s to the point where I don’t really give a fuck.  I really don't.  I'll say whatever. FLH: I don’t remember where you said, about this rumor going around online, I know it was either Yada Media or The Underground Podcast, you talked about when you were first with Psychopathic, that a lot of people thought you were black. I wanted to ask you, you see all these ridiculous rumors online, what’s your favorite or most shocking one, and are you ever tempted to respond to them? Blaze: To me, it’s all crazy. Most of the time, some of the stuff is funny, me being black, that’s funny. Like, “Ah whatever.” I never try to correct anybody because I don’t really care. Like I said, who gives a shit? Now it’s people doin’ it as a joke. I don’t even know, I’m so lost right now. Rumors of me being born out in Romeo, that’s fuckin’ great, it’s still on the Wikipedia page, I still get people saying, “Oh you’re from Romeo, Michigan?” “I sure am! Not.” I worked there once, never lived there. It’s a farm town. FLH: Is that looked down upon or something? Blaze: To me, I laugh at it. Maybe. Maybe people are trying to like, “Romeo, he’s from a fuckin’ punk ass farm town.” It really is. When you go mile roads, Eight Mile is where Detroit is. Romeo is that thirty-two mile road. I grew up towards sixteen mile road which is like eight miles south. It’s just weird, that’s a far ass ride. It's a big difference. Mount Clemens is a smaller version of Detroit, and Romeo is a version of, shit, I can’t even think of a place I could tell you that you’d be like, “Oh it’s like that.” The only places I could think of are other places that are small towns the same way but they’re all in Michigan. Armada, or Dexter or Artadate.  That's what it's like. It's a small ass town. It’s a one lane town, with a downtown that doesn’t have real big buildings. That’s why it’s funny to me, like, “Holy shit. Okay. Whatever.” FLH: Alright so you make it no secret that you’re a huge sports fan. What are your whole thoughts on the whole Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, all the shit that’s going on in the NFL? Blaze: You know that’s all wrong, these motherfuckers have been doing this shit for years, that’s the crazy thing. It’s been going on forever. I think Roger Goodell , he should go, but they’re not gonna send him out of there. He’s their golden boy. They primed that guy since he was young, just to put him in this position of power. He’s got all power and that’s the problem with the league right now. You got one guy that’s got all the power and control of everything but he doesn’t know that he has to use it a certain way. Like I said, sponsors end up becoming something. Cover Girl is a sponsor for the NFL, but they have women getting beat on every day, and these women aren’t gonna speak up because they’re getting checks, they’re like, “Fuck this I don’t care, I’ll take the money.” Is it right? Is it wrong? I think it’s all wrong. It’s like, hundred percent, you’re not suppose to be slapping women in the face. What happened with Ray Rice, the thing that’s fucked up now, is that they’re looking at everybody on a case by case thing, but they’re not. They’re like, “Okay this guy, Ray Rice, his case already happened, he got the two games, then the film came out.” He was already punished and slapped. You can’t go back, it’s just like court. If you already fuckin’ went to court and already seen what happened, they can’t go back and go, “Oh now we’re gonna charge him with this because, no, we’ve seen it.” Well fuck you, already been to court, it’s like double jeopardy, can’t just keep slapping people back. To me, it all was wrong in the first place. Did they do their job of checking up on it? No. Fuck no. And that’s what the NFL did. They swept it under the rug as quick as possible, because that’s a player that’s making them millions of dollars and need that guy in there. They need that. So they’re trying whatever they can to protect their players and sometimes it’s not protecting, it’s fucking up the league even more, making them look ridiculous. Because you got people in there beatin’ up on people, you got people gettin’ drug charges, and getting knocked out of games and seasons. Then a person beating up on his wife gets a two game suspension and that’s why the uproar is going on. It’s like, “Wait man, where’s the difference?” There’s this guy smoking weed and this guy beating his wife, it’s two different things. And the Adrian Peterson thing, everybody is gonna go back on that, well that’s what happened to me when I was a kid. But does that make it right? Today’s day and age, you gotta think with brains. That’s the one thing I assumed they’d have. Anybody that’s been to college all them fuckin’ years, now is making millions of dollars in the league. You gotta have some type of brain somewhere, some common sense is what it really comes down to. Common sense tells you, you can spank your kid, but don’t beat their ass with a switch and leave marks on them, obviously. It’s like, “What the fuck?” Then you got people like Reggie Bush going on defending it, “Oh if my daughter started acting crazy, I’m gonna spank her ass too!” He’s backpedaling, yeah he’s backpedaling. FLH: Absolutely, yeah. Well hey man, I’m gonna end on a little more positive note. People are asking about, when are we gonna get the Juggalo Football League back up and running again? Blaze: Ahhh man, I’m still trying. I talked to DJ Fillin a couple days ago, and it’s the same thing, “We’ve gotta finish this!” We still have most of everything still situated, and know where everybody’s at with their stuff. I know Dani 2 Dope, I think her name is, she’s still got everything too, she’s still holding it down cause she was a part of the league. I’d love to mess with it and do it, but maybe I just have to find a spot to do it, and technically I don't have a radio type show to do this type of shit. But yeah, I love doing it, but the only problem was, it was only for a select few. I kind of felt like everybody else that wasn’t doing it, was just like, “Oh this sucks. I gotta listen to these, this is stale.” I wish I could do it to where it could be full on, where I can get everybody in it. My original intent was to create something we could all do. Maybe I’ll try it next year. I’ve seen Twiztid was doing it, with somebody else, a fantasy league. I’ve seen Monoxide sent something out there and said, “Hey I ain’t got time to be the fantasy commissioner or whatever, but if somebody else wants to do it, I’ll play.” I think it might be cool to do that, but we’ve got to find something that everybody can play with, just thousands of people playing that shit. FLH: Well you brought up something I didn’t even think about. Are you guys planning on doing something as far as an online radio show or anything like that? Has that been talked about? Blaze: I’m not sure, we haven’t talked about any of that yet, to my knowledge, they haven’t. We’ve just been cranking out records, trying to work on that, back on the road, trying to get back in the studio. That’s basically what it is. Working on that. And I’m trying to do these Coffin Breaks, get back in the game on Twitter and Instagram. Just trying to get back into being relevant, and talked about, and talked with! FLH: For what it’s worth man, your Gathering set was fucking off the chain, I always enjoy your shit!  I wanted to ask you, got any final words for this interview? Blaze: Ah man, final words? Come on. I love y’all motherfuckers. You guys are the shit, you guys been holding it down for years, that means everybody out there listenin’, thank you guys forever. And I’m not done, I still got a lot to say, a lot more to do. This is kind’ve my rebirth, I’m reborn, that’s what Gang Rags: Reborn is. I’m trying to do it all right this time. Just continue, keep it movin’. You said it best, I don’t have a lot of records out, that means I got a lot more shit to talk about. So straight up, there’s a lot more to do. FLH: Absolutely. So, you’ve guys heard it all. Gang Rags: Reborn comes out October 21st. Blaze: Look out for that Napalm video! FLH: Napalm, absolutely. We've got Blaze Ya Dead Homie with me, this is Scottie D of Faygoluvers, and we’re out. Blaze: Yay yay!   ___________________________________   Thanks and much love to the following:

• Blaze Ya Dead Homie(for taking the time to do this)
• George Vlahakis
• Majik Ninja Entertainment
• Xanarki (for transcribing the entire interview)
• Rachel Paul (for the Blaze interview graphic)
• Everyone who takes the time to check this interview out and continues to support Faygoluvers!