Born Omari Carlington Thompson in St. Catherine, Jamaica, Blass has been singing from his schooldays. After graduating, together with six of his high school pals, he formed the Cell Block Crew. After voicing several tunes for Vertex Records, the band had high hopes, but their dreams were thwarted after the sudden death of one of the members and the crew ended up splitting up before being able to make a name for themselves. Blass still kept teaming up with Slash, also a member of Cell Block Crew, for a while, recording for Vertex and Clive Hunt, until they both decided to pursue solo careers. Since then, Blass has been working on his debut EP 'Journey', due for early 2015.
As an appetizer Blass and Dutch DJ Dreman are releasing this 'Have A Blass' mixtape offering a nice overview on Blass's talent and skills as it compiles a selection of his tunes from the past five years. After a short intro, DJ Dreman drops a gal tune on a slow dancehall riddim, quickly followed by a rougher track on the Work So Hard riddim, 'Can't Draw We Out' featuring Slash. Then it's time for weed anthem 'No Wings To Fly', followed by 'Hustle For My Paper', which isn't about finding rizzla but rather dollars, a topic dear to Blass and many other deejays of his generation. As you'd probably already guessed, 'Mama' is an ode to his mother over a hip-hop flavoured dancehall beat. It's back to the ladies for his collaboration with Delus (Konshens' brother), 'Been Around The World', a slow addictive wine. After all that sugar, it's time to prove he's a rudeboy as well with 'War Dem Want' and 'Gun & Knife War', which could be considered the Jamaican version of Nas' 'I Gave You Power', with both weapons trying to persuade the protagonist of their viability. The mixtape concludes with 'Hustler's Anthem' featuring La Profecia Crew from the Canary Islands. On 'Have A Blass' Blass sounds versatile and dynamic, but we'd prefer to wait for the release of his 'Journey' EP to offer our final judgement. 'Have a Blass' can be downloaded for free on: https://soundcloud.com/ireggaenation/blass-have-a-blass-by-dj-dreman-mixtape
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