By Jairo Rodrigues
Not all rappers do it for fame and the cash, some rap the stories of their lives, some fall in love with the poetic art and others, like Blaze Anthonio, strive to live their dreams.
Born Marlon Ashford Simon in the Bartica Public Hospital on June 7, 1991, Blaze Anthonio moved at the age of four to Crane Village on the West Coast Demerara, he later then moved to Best Village where he now lives with his family.
He recalled as a child all he could remember was his family being extremely busy. His parents were always working so he and his older brother would be left to look after his younger siblings. He mentions that there wasn’t much family time and that his family “would stay in our own world, every man to himself.”
He grew up in the country area, he describes his surroundings to be mostly timbered with interlocking canals and children staying home from school to go swim and catch fish. He jokingly describes the people in the neighbourhood just sitting, drinking and gossiping all day. “Drama was always one of the main factors. If it isn’t cursing, it’s domestic violence or marijuana smoking or young girls getting pregnant. As for me and the remainder of my siblings we were ordered by dad, who we feared much, to keep to ourselves so my family was very much antisocial…,” Blaze remarked. He further mentioned that they would just give a morning or evening greeting and go about their business, “I didn’t have much fun like the rest of the boys in the neighbourhood would have had.”
Before graduating from the St Joseph High School with 7 passes in CSEC, he attended the St Andrew’s Primary School (where he was transferred by his mom for spending out his passage money on a daily basis).
His love for music sparked at the age of fifteen when his brother bought him a CD player with an album from hip hop legends Notorious B.I.G and Tupac Shakur. After continuously listening to the albums, Blaze found similarities between the music and his life. The artistic union saw him develop a love for rap music and made him aspire to be a hip hop artiste.
“I started listening to more rappers and digging deeper into hip hop and I began to fall in love with the flow of the lyrics and the melody of the instrumentals. There were songs that touched me deeply and stories I could relate to in every song, so I started to freestyle off my head speaking about my life and what I would like to achieve and that started the wheel, it was the dream within me to become a rapper.”
He said his biggest motivators would be his fans who support him and continue to push him in his dream career. Blaze said that they are many times when he feels like giving up because he spends all that he has on studio time and gains nothing in return. But then he would meet a fan on the road who would stop him to say things like, “I liked the freestyle that you did and you have a great voice so don’t stop doing what you do, just continue despite what people say.” He also finds motivation when people leave positive comments on his YouTube Channel or send him good reviews on Twitter or in his Facebook inbox. It gives him a good feeling knowing that what he is doing is actually spreading far and wide.
Apart from Notorious B.I.G he is inspired by the younger underground artists who are making the headlines and becoming well known mainly because they work ten times harder than the giants within the music industry just to achieve their goals. And since they are younger than him, it inspires him to work harder so that he can achieve greatness in a country where hip hop is not ruled out as a main genre of music.
He said, “Hip hop is the way is which I express myself to people. It has so much meaning to me that I cannot explain it since I basically cannot live without it. There is a song for everything and ever feeling and overcomes me, every action and though there is a song so it’s safe to say that hip hop means as much as life means to me; hip hop saved my life.”
At this point his songs are basically about the way he grew up, his lifestyle, his past relationships with the women he has dated, the way he would like to live and the goals he would like to achieve.
In the next five years he sees himself as an internationally recognised rap and hip hop artist, touring different countries and performing in places he “never knew existed”. He dreams of having his music played worldwide.
The Scene had asked Blaze a blunt question concerning his views on Don Gialiani, who is seen as the only real hip hop artiste in Guyana. Blaze said, “I respect Don for the fact that he holds that position until this day. However I do not see him as the primary hip hop artist in this country mainly because there are others, for example myself that are way more talented than he is. It’s just that we don’t tend to get the same level of exposure that he does. And to me he is not an ounce of threat, I see him as a regular artist in the battle for supremacy.”
Blaze plans on promoting this genre of music to the national stage by rapping about things that people out there can relate to, in their everyday life no matter the circumstance whether it’s about the struggle, emotional problems, financial problems, happiness, or just the everyday life that we all live. Once people can relate to your music then promotion would never be a problem.
He said that at this point of his career his most accomplished piece is yet to come but to narrow it down to the present he would say that it is his latest single that is called “Waiting on This Day”. It speaks briefly about the life he has lived and his experience within the music industry. Along with the hurdles he had to jump along the journey that puts him where he is today.
Blaze took The Scene down memory lane as he recapped the sequence of the nights that jumpstarted his career.
Back in April there was a hip hop competition called “Guyana’s Hip Hop Star” hosted by Hits and Jams Entertainment after it was declared that Rick Ross was going to be in Guyana.
He started off as a battle rapper and his popularity grew through the “Guyana Freestyle Cypher” which is basically a showdown held by Brutal Tracks Recording Studio. He entered the competition where he noted the majority of the faces were familiar to him. “Not to be boastful but I know that I was going to emerge the winner since battling was my specialty. After being declared the winner I developed a warm feeling inside of me, it was more like hip hop was showing me love.”
Winning the competition alongside A-TayJah, Blaze was given the golden opportunity to perform at Jamzone’s International Night with the ‘Big Boss’ himself.
He describes that mega stage to be an amazing experience. “It was purely amazing experience, being able to perform in front of thousands of people, it was the largest crowd I have faced thus far in my career and I hope to face a larger number in the future. The feeling was one of pride to know that was has started as a dream is now a reality.”
At present he is working on his first mix tape which he has not given a name to as yet, however he will be releasing a few more singles and videos before the year is out and he assures us that it will be something to remember.
Blaze Anthonio is a lab technician employed at the Ministry of Health’s Food and Drugs Department. His main ambition is to continue working towards achieving his musical dream. He said that he tends not to make plans mainly because they don’t work out. However he hopes someday that he will be able to further his education and whenever the time is right start a family.
He mentions that he is single and alone most of the times with nothing but the company of the music in his phone and the thoughts running through his head. “I have a handful of people I call friends that I hang out with from time to time. I hit the club every now and then to relieve the stress when it’s unbearable just to let the music wash away my problems,” he concluded.
Blaze would like to express gratitude to Hits and Jams Entertainment for the many opportunities they have given him and also to Underground Tunnel TV Entertainment who played a major role in financing his performance. “Also to all my fans and well-wishers I love them all, and to Stabroek News for the opportunity to be in the newspaper.”
Blaze is seeking sponsorship, contact and performance bookings and can be contacted on +592-653-2823. He is trying to raise money for the completion of my mixtape which the total cost is US$350.
