It’s safe to say that Just Blaze is incredible.
The sample god keeps bringing heat like Prometheus to us mere mortals.
Now with a label and artists to manage,
he shows no signs of burning out.

Story Sean Lewis Sharp | Photography Joseph Cultice

Behind the concrete walls of a PaterAson, New Jersey, Boys & Girls Club, dreams are being made. Dressed in homemade outfits with matching bandanas, a group of youngsters happily contort their bodies in a dance competition featuring the music of Justin “Just Blaze” Smith, one of the city’s hometown heroes.

“He had no choice but to be here,” jokes Just’s mother, a local high school principal, about her high-profile son’s attendance at the community event. A thin woman with a broad smile and a propensity for storytelling, Ms. Smith insists that from an early age she taught Justin the importance of giving back. Even after achieving international celebrity by crafting mega hits for Jay-Z, Cam’ron, the Game and countless others, it is a lesson not lost on the busy producer, who has recently launched his own label, Fort Knox, with Warner Music. He has traveled from Manhattan through horrendous rush-hour traffic to make the show where he is the guest of honor. “Just a little thing like showing these kids that someone who is from where they are from can make it and succeed is important,” he says while signing autographs and taking pictures with anyone who asks. “It’s just my way of saying that the same way I did it, they can do it, too.”

Like the kids dancing for him, Just Blaze’s hip-hop journey began here in Paterson. “He was listening to music before he was born,” his mother offers with a smile, while standing outside of the center after the performance. “When he was a baby, we called him Boogie Oogie (after the Taste of Honey record), because on his first birthday at two in the morning, he woke up and just started singing boogie.”

From his first infantile babblings, Justin’s musical involvement progressed as he and his brother began rapping, break dancing, DJing, and making beats together. Just, who says he didn’t like the sound of his own voice, started focusing more on producing and DJing, and by age 14 was spinning records at local parties.

“There was one party I did when I was that age, where the speakers blew,” Just begins with a reflective smile. “I called my mom and she brought over her new stereo system for us to use. The speaker wires were too short to reach the amp, so she stayed underneath the table and held the wires together for the rest of the night so that I could finish doing the party.” Ms. Smith, who remembers the night vividly as being extremely cold, says, “I would rather hold some speaker wires together for a little while so that my son can finish a party than to hold on to prison bars because he’s locked away.”

Though supportive of his musical endeavors, Ms. Smith’s patience would be put to the test when in his third year of college at New Jersey’s Rutgers University, Justin decided to drop out of school to take an internship at the Cutting Room Studio in Manhattan. “I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Just says very honestly about the moment he told his mother of his decision to leave school. “My mom is an educator, and I’m about to tell her I’m going to drop out of Rutgers to try my hand at music?”

Taking a deep sigh, Ms. Smith admits, “I told him to go for it. I saw college for him as an extension of high school at that point, because he was living at home and music seemed to be his passion. I just made him promise me three things: be happy, be healthy, and be respectful of others, and he would have my blessings.”

Eight years, 200 records, and multiple platinum plaques later, it is apparent that Just Blaze’s gamble paid off. Sporting a brand-new fitted cap, a T-shirt, and a diamond-coated watch, he is sitting behind his desk at the famed Baseline Studios, which he purchased in December of 2003. “It was a seven-figure investment,” Blaze says honestly about his purchase of the studio where Roc-A-Fella artists recorded a number of their hits during the label’s initial storied run. Even with the restructuring of the label, several Roc artists still make their way over to the studio and the building holds nostalgic value for the producer. Baseline was the place where Jay-Z first told him to stick around because he was going to “make him a star.”

“I was basically trying to teach myself to make beats on Logic, using Sample Cell as my sampler,” he explains. “Nowadays, laptop setups for protocols is common, but this was, like, ’99, 2000—like, it was unheard of. So I built a setup in the house and decided that I was going to make beats on Logic.” One result was “Streets Is Talking” from The Dynasty album.

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