Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, producer and vocalist Ricky Blaze rocked the Jamaican dancehall scene when he teamed with Gyptian and got behind the boards on the singer's massive hit "Hold You." The producer was only in his teens when one of his riddims was shopped around the dancehall scene, then vocalist Ding Dong picked it up and delivered the massive 2006 hit "Badman Forward, Badman Pull Up." His breakthrough year came in 2010 when Gyptian chose a Blaze production and turned it into "Hold Yuh," and later "Hold You," which was the singer's international breakthrough hit. Blaze used the same riddim for his 2010 single "You and I," then his single "Feel Free" landed that same year with Nicki Minaj as guest, with Diplomats member Jim Jones added to the remix. A year later he joined Diplo's Major Lazer crew with vocal work on the "Keep It Goin' Louder" single, which also featured Nina Sky, plus he also made his solo debut in 2011 with the Atlantic Records EP My Name Is Ricky Blaze. In 2012 he released the Crash the Party EP via Fool's Gold Records, in 2013 he joined Jim Jones on the We Own the Night EP, then in 2014 he dropped the "Take Ya Money" single featuring Chelley on the Ultra label. In 2016 he released the solo cut "Look" along with the Conquer the Moment mixtape, which spawned the single "Apart" featuring Alexus Rose. ~ David Jeffries