So, turn it up!
It’s funny the way a word enters your life suddenly, and through repeated, often ridiculously illustrated use, becomes not only an instant part of the lexicon, but also transformed. Such a word came to me several months ago via a friend of a friend who was trying to describe a characteristic of, in her impression, the indolent just don’t-give-a-fuck African Americans in her new Brooklyn neighborhood.
That word is blaze. As first used by her, the word was a contraction of black and lazy. Take from this what you will. But somehow when trying to work the word into my own vocabulary, I really couldn’t get the lazy part to fit.
Blaze to me suggests a fire raging out of control; heat, light, movement, danger. Somehow, in my admittedly gay mind, this word came to represent the apex of outrageous–often black, but not necessarily–sassy sauciness. In fact the word mutated and did a 180 degree cabbage patch if you will, turning the definition into a badge of pride–the ultimate compliment. It’s about willing yourself into being the best you can be, no matter what you have or don’t have; no matter what others think or say. It is noun, adjective, adverb–a way of living and living it up.
Rather than use it in a sentence. I’ll give you a visual aid. One of my favorite pop discoveries of the past year is the improbably, yet inevitably, named UK duo BootyLuv. Veterans of R&B hip-hop group Big Brovaz, Nadia and Cherise twirled out their own and released the year’s best dance-pop album, Boogie2nite, somehow managing to contain 12 finger-wagging, sass-bomb tracks.
The highlight on an an LP that includes song titles like “Don’t Mess With My Man” and “(Shut Your Mouth) A Little Bit” is a epic, four-on-the-floor, hands-in-the air disco blaze-athon called “Some Kinda Rush”
The video, clearly made for about 12 quid, illustrates the blaze concept perfectly. BootyLuv know they don’t have Destiny’s Child’s stylist or video budget, nor do they have Alicia Keys “talent,” but that doesn’t stop them from giving it their all and having a fuck-you good time while doing so, ultimately burning the disco down. Their energy, optimism and spunk puts their overrated peers and highbrow critics to shame. Blaze on girls.
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