Blaze N Kane: Rising rappers

MANILA, Philippines - Viva’s rap/hip-hop duo Blaze N Kane has gone through a lot as artists.

Blaze is a Spanish-American-Filipino who is Adlai Stevenson H. Gurrea in real life and originally a rocker. To reach Manila, he sold his speakers. He saved money to do a demo cut only to be rejected by record labels.

Fil-Egyptian-Arab Christopher Dantes, who is a cousin of actor Dingdong Dantes, was hooked on Rod Stewart, Ugly Kid Joe and Metallica. He turned to Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog in the early ’90s. He was then introduced to Francis M and Masta Plann by his brother.

The two rap artists met during a hip-hop event (FUBU) and have been jamming together since then.

Blaze N Kane’s self-titled album under Viva Records bears the influences of Francis M whom they idolize so much.

Cuts like Laging Nandyan, Change and rapid-fire rap of 3-Min MicKilla are proudly OPM. In fact, all of the songs in the tandem’s 17-track CD are original.

Blaze N Kane stressed that its music is not rap or all noise. “It is singing, too, melodic style rap,” the duo said.

The memory of the master rapper Francis M is alive everytime they perform.

“Francis was a great guy to be with and he was always ready to render advice. We hope to inspire people and motivate them with the hardships we went through,” Blaze said. “We want to be remembered not only as rappers but as entertainers as well.”