Blazin' Squad

Blazin' Squadwere anEnglishhip hopgroup.The group had six top ten hits, including "Crossroads",a cover version of theBone Thugs-n-Harmonyoriginal.

Blazin' Squad
Origin	Highams Park,London,England
Genres	Hip hop
Years active	2001–2004 2006 2009
Labels	East West Polydor Naughty Boy
Spinoffs	Friday Hill
Members	Freek Rocky B Melo-D Spike-E
Past members	Kenzie Reepa Krazy Flava Tommy-B Strider

Career

In The Beginning:2002

The band released a number of white label singles on the Weighty Plates label featuring remixes of the track "Standard Flow" from their albumIn the Beginning."Standard Flow" was remixed by Ras Kwarme andOrigin Unknown,with a version available featuring Jamaican dancehall musicianElephant Manon guest vocals. Even though the releases were issued as underground white labels, "Standard Flow" sold enough copies to chart as Blazin' Squad's first Top 100 chart entry, peaking at number 78 on the chart of 17 August 2002 with three weeks in the countdown.

For their official debut, the band released a cover of theBone Thugs-N-Harmonysong "Crossroads"for Warner Music's East West Records label. This single was the first to reach the UK Top 40, and debuted in the number one spot on theUK Singles Chartof 31 August 2002.The song was highly re-recorded and hardly contained any lyrics of the original. The single was heavily criticised by the media, some of whom claimed their rap skills were 'not to be taken seriously', and others sidelining them to a younger audience. Despite this, however, their debut album,In the Beginningachieved gold status in the UK and spawned two further top ten hits, "Love on the Line"and double A-side single,"Reminisce/Where the Story Ends".The album was released to general critical censure.Jon O'Brien ofAllMusiccalled them the "self-proclaimed pioneers of 'chav' culture ".

Now or Never:2003–2004

The group went on to achieve further chart success in 2003, with two further top five chart hits. "We Just Be Dreamin'"reached number three in July 2003, and"Flip Reverse",which was co-written by former member Liam D'Souza reached number two in November." Flip Reverse "was subsequently used to re-launchTop of the Pops,with a special performance recorded outside theBBC Television Centrewith 100 or so hooded back-up dancers. Despite the chart success of their singles, the group failed to match their success with their second album,Now or Never,only peaking at #36 on theUK Albums Chart.A live recording of a concert in Liverpool was released on DVD for Christmas 2003 but failed to achieve any commercial success. It also failed to re-ignite the low sales of the album. "Here 4 One" was issued as the third single fromNow or Neverin early 2004, peaking at #6 on the UK Singles Chart, but sales failed to be strong enough to warrant a third album deal.

Friday Hill andTimes Like These:2005–2006

In 2005, Strider, Flava andKenziesigned a record deal withPolydorrecords, and began recording an album under the nameFriday Hill,named after a location in their hometown inChingford.In October 2005, the group released their debut single, "Baby Goodbye", which reached #5 in theUK Singles Chart,selling over 80,000 copies. In February 2006, they released a second single, "One More Night Alone", which reached #13 on theUK Singles Chart.Their album, entitledTimes Like These,was also released in February 2006, but only peaked at #67 on theUK Albums Chart,and such, were soon dropped from their label.

In July 2006, Rocky-B, Reepa, Spike-E and Melo-D made an announcement that they were going to reform as Blazin' Squad, and record and release a new album under Peach Records. They released a single, "All Night Long",in August 2006, however, it only peaked at #54, which resulted in their record deal being scrapped and a further disbandment.

Greatest Hits:2009

In June 2009, Strider, Flava, Kenzie, Krazy and Rocky B announced they would be re-uniting as a five piece, and subsequently released their comeback single, "Let's Start Again".The single fared slightly better than the previous single but could only peak at #51 on theUK Singles Chart.Despite their record label wanting to drop them following the lack of success of the single, they had signed a binding contract to release an album. The label issued a Greatest Hits compilation via digital download and thereby ended the contract with the group.

Members

• James MacKenzie AKA "Kenzie"(2002–2004, 2005–2006, 2009)
• Ollie Georgiou AKA "Freek" (2002–2004)
• Marcel SomervilleAKA "Rocky B" (2002–2004, 2006, 2009)
• Chris McKeckney AKA "Melo-D" (2002–2004, 2006)
• Stuart Baker AKA "Reepa" (2002–2004, 2006)
• Lee Bailey AKA "Krazy" (2002–2004, 2009)
• Sam Foulkes AKA "Spike-E" (2002–2004, 2006)
• James Murray AKA "Flava" (2002–2004, 2005–2006, 2009)
• Tom Beasley AKA "Tommy-B" (2002–2004)
• Mustafa Omer AKA "Strider" (2002–2004, 2005–2006, 2009)

Discography

Albums

Title	Details	Peak chart positions		Certifications (sales threshold)
		UK	GER
In the Beginning	Release date: 25 November 2002 Label:East West Records Formats:CD,cassette	33	—	UK:Gold
Now or Never	Release date: 20 November 2003 Label: East West Records Formats: CD, cassette	37	57	UK: Gold
Greatest Hits	Release date: 22 June 2009 Label: Naughty Boy Records Formats: Digital Download	–	–
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions			Album
		UK	GER	IRE
2002	"Crossroads"	1	82	13	In the Beginning
	"Love on the Line"	6	—	28
2003	"Reminisce / Where the Story Ends"	8	—	28
	"We Just Be Dreamin'"	3	75	31	Now or Never
	"Flip Reverse"	2	22	15
2004	"Here 4 One"	6	—	18
2006	"All Night Long"	54	—	—	Greatest Hits
2009	"Let's Start Again"	51	—	—
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Blazin' Squad - Weighty Plates Singles

• Weighty Plates Volume 1: Standard Flow Remixes(Number 78 in the UK Top 100, 2002)
• Weighty Plates Volume 2: Standard Flow Ras Kwame Mixes(with Ras Kwame and Elephant Man)
• Weighty Plates Volume 3: Standard Flow: Origin Unknown & DND Remixes

Friday Hill Discography

Album

Title	Details	Peak chart positions		Certifications (sales threshold)
		UK	GER
Times Like These	Release date: 27 February 2006 Label:Polydor Records Formats: CD,Digital download	67	–
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions			Album
		UK	GER	IRE
2005	"Baby Goodbye"	5	—	—	Times Like These
2006	"One More Night Alone"	13	—	—

External links

• Blazin' SquadonMyspace
• 2009 Interview & Feature on Music.Virgin.Com