Manila Bulletin: Spanish-American-Filipino (with Ilonggo roots) Adlai Stevenson H. Gurrea (a.k.a. Blaze) listened to Guns N’ Roses, and Skid Row when he was younger. Then he discovered Bone Thugs N’ Harmony. “I said ‘what the hell is this?’”
He ran to the record store (a few blocks from where he lived), sang a chorus from the song he just heard, and was given a cassette. “It was all I listened to for two days… paglabas ko rapper na ko (laughs).”
Filipino-Egyptian-Arab Christopher P. Dantes (a.k.a. Kane; and yes, he’s related to Dingdong) was in Africa then, also listening to “Rod Stewart, Ugly Kid Joe, and Metallica… Then it was reggaeton and dancehall, music you’ll hear in Africa.”
He would eventually find his way to Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg in the early ’90s. “It was then that my brother sent me Francis M. and MastaPlann.”
Their first meeting happened when Kane approached Blaze backstage at a hip hop event in 2002. “I said, ‘hey you’re mista Blaze, I listen to your songs,’” said Kane.
“I know Sly Kane, and I didn’t believe what he told me at first,” Blaze recalled. “I thought, ‘Yeah right,’ but he starts rapping my song… So that was our first date (laughs).”
Kane noted, “We (have been) jamming ever since.”
