Just Blaze has enthralled rap fans by unearthing a treasure trove of unreleased music, including never-before-heard material from JAY-Z, Ghostface Killah, Madlib and more.
The former Roc-A-Fella hitmaker shared a series of photos on Instagram on Tuesday (January 17) showing several CDs he had dug up from his vast storage vault while having a clean-out.
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The collection included unreleased tracks from The Neptunes titled “Christies” and “Operator,” a Timbaland and Static Major Pro Tools session from 2002 featuring “three versions of hooks,” 9th Wonder beats and a Just Blaze and Ghostface Killah disc from 2006 labeled “Missing Audio Files.”
JAY-Z historians were in for a treat as Just’s haul also boasted a Hov and M.O.P. CD from 2002 dubbed “Laze Copy” and a JAY-Z and Just Blaze collaboration called “Hello Young Lady,” which was recorded at New York City’s Baseline Studios — Roc-A-Fella’s former home base — in April 2001.
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Perhaps the most tantalizing of the batch, however, is a CD from 2007 featuring the names of JAY-Z, Madlib, Sleepy Brown, Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek and Trey Songz, which Just Blaze referred to as a “doozy.”
“Back at storage cleaning out. Found some heavy sessions today,” the producer wrote in his Instagram caption. “Last slide is a doozy. RIP @staticmajor_ and our brother Kamel. Cc @shwoodley1 @youngguru763.”
Blaze’s trip down memory lane was met with plenty of excitement from his Instagram followers, which included a few famous faces.
“Imagine how much incredible music has just never been heard…like beats and songs that are sitting somewhere,” Drake wrote in the comments section. “it’s like the ocean we just don’t know what’s there.”
Young Guru, JAY-Z’s longtime engineer and another key player in Roc-A-Fella’s history, added: “@justblaze memories!!!!!” while Rapsody, Miguel, Sleepy Brown, DJ Scratch and DJ Khalil were also left buzzing.
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Although the music has yet to be heard by the public, Just Blaze has spoken about some of it in the past. In a 2013 interview with Sway In The Morning, he revealed “Hello Young Lady” is a sequel to JAY-Z’s The Blueprint ballad “Song Cry” and almost appeared on both 2003’s The Black Album and 2013’s Magna Carta Holy Grail.
“Me and Jay did a song, I think it was from The Black Album, maybe. It was called ‘Hello Young Lady’ and it was kind of like a ‘Song Cry’ part two,” he said. “And the reason we didn’t put it out was because subject matter-wise, it was so close to [‘Song Cry’].
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“Basically, it was like how ‘Song Cry’ was three verses, these were the next three verses of that same song. But it was so close it was just like, ‘Ah, we already did this. We don’t really need to do it again.’”
He added: “We did revisit that idea right when he first started figuring out what he wanted to do with Magna Carta and he came to see me. We actually did bring that record up. And it was a contender for a day or two…One day I’mma get him to put it out.”
As for JAY-Z and Madlib, the pair have yet to officially collaborate, but they were close. According to Fake Shore Drive‘s Andrew Barber, the Beat Konducta almost had production on The Black Album — “he just didn’t get the beats to Just Blaze in time.”
Barber also noted that “one of the beats Madlib sent ended up on the S. Carter The Re-Mix mixtape that’s why a Madlib remix of ‘Threat’ exists.”
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Hov showed his appreciation for Madlib in 2021 by including the producer’s Sound Ancestors cut “Two for 2 – For Dilla” on his “Block Vibes” TIDAL playlist, which commemorated the streaming platform’s parent company, Square, Inc., changing their name to Block, Inc.
