Gourt Home::Gourt :: Blade (rapper)
Blade was born in the Armenian quarter of Iran and came to London when he was 7. His first single, Lyrical Maniac (Raw Bass) recorded in 1989, soon brought Blade to prominence in the fledgling British hip hop scene.
Following this, rather than sign to any of the major UK hip hop record labels Blade began to record, promote and release his own material through his own 691 Influential label - often by stopping potential customers in the street, playing them the song on his walkman and selling them a copy from his bag. In 1992, Blade released the Survival of the Hardest Working EP (691 Influential) via mail order as an experiment in new ways of distributing his material. The experiment was a success, and in 1993 the double album The Lion Goes From Strength To Strength (No Compromise) (691 Influential) was released - funded partly by fans of Blade's music paying for their copies of the album in advance, in exchange for an exclusive 12 inch Clear the Way (691 Influential).
Blade is one of British hip hop's most respected artists, and is often invited to guest on tracks by other artists such as The Herbaliser and The RZA, but in 1998 a team up with producer Mark B to record the Hitmen For Hire EP (Jazz Fudge)) led to one of the most high profile albums of Blade's career. 2000's The Unknown (Word Play) was a big hit, and a rerecorded version of the first single You Don't See The Signs (Word Play) made it into the Top 20 in the UK charts. The rerecording was done with the help of Grant Nicholas, frontman of the British rock band Feeder.
Following this, Mark B and Blade went their separate ways, and Blade returned to producing and distributing his own music under the 691 Influential label, helped by his website. In 2004 he released the album Storms Are Brewing, and a new album with Baby J (producer of some of the songs on Skinnyman's Council Estate of Mind (Low Life) was released in 2006 to much critical acclaim. The album, Guerilla Tactics (2006), is available direct from Blade's website.
Discography
As Blade
- The Lion Goes From Strength To Strength (No Compromise) (691 Influential, 1993)
- Storms Are Brewing (691 Influential, 2004)
- Guerilla Tactics (691 Influential, 2006)
As Mark B and Blade
- The Unknown (Word Play, 2000)
External links
"Blade (rapper)"