Early days

All of the ten members grew up in Highams Park, Walthamstow East London and attended Highams Park School. The group made their first single with the production team TNT Xplosive called "Standard Flow". They went on and signed a recording and production deal with Terry Mcleod and Tapps Bandawe aka TNT Xplosive on their indepedant label Xplosive Records, who then licenced the band to EastWest/Warner Music.

"Standard Flow" became the bands first single to be released, this featured the dancehall legend Elephant Man and was released to pirate radio stations on the Weighty Plates label. Xplosive Records and EastWest/Warner Music followed this with their first commercial release "Crossroads" which debuted at number one in the UK Charts.


Breakthrough and debut album

TNT Xplosive and EastWest/Warner Music both agreed to work on the single "Crossroads", which was originally recorded by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony as "Tha Crossroads" in 1996. Using their own version of the chorus the band wrote their own MC verses. The track was released as their first single once they left school at the ages of 16, where they also had a history of academic success.[citation needed] "Crossroads" went straight into the UK Singles Chart at number 1 in August 2002. During their short time of 2 years together, the group achieved 6 consecutive UK Top 10 hits, however they faced a lot of criticism. Their rap skills were not taken seriously by the British media, sidelining them to a younger audience. Despite this, their debut album In The Beginning achieved gold satus in the UK and spawned two further UK Top 10 hits, "Love On The Line" which reached number six and a double a-side single "Reminisce/Where The Story Ends" which reached number eight in February 2003.

The group were popular with commercial radio gigs and roadshows as well as pre-teen pop-music magazines such as Top of the Pops and Smash Hits[citation needed].

[Further success and Now or Never

The group achieved further chart success in 2003, with two UK top five chart hits. "We Just Be Dreamin'" reached number three in July 2003, whilst "Flip Reverse" reached number two in November. "Flip Reverse" was used to re-launch the BBC's Top Of The Pops. A special performance was recorded outside Television Centre with 100 or so hooded back-up dancers.

Despite the chart success with their singles, they failed to match it with their second album Now or Never, which failed to reach the UK Top 40 album chart. A live recording of a concert in Liverpool was released for Christmas 2003. However, it failed to re-ignite the flagging sales of their second album, nor did a follow-up single "Here 4 One", which peaked at number six in the UK, during early 2004. The group also completed a sold-out UK 21-date tour in 2003. The tour was managed by successful[citation needed] rap touring promoter mogul Aaron Hill. He has a hand in promotional internet videos with dizzie rascal currently.


Decline in popularity

2004 was quiet for the group, until January 2005 saw Kenzie appear on Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother, finishing in second place. The original Blazin' Squad split shortly after. Kenzie went on to form Friday Hill with 2 other Blazin' Squad members. Friday Hill's music was more pop-based and different in vein to the music of Blazin' Squad. They released two singles in the UK, "Baby Goodbye" which peaked at number five on the Official UK Singles chart in November 2005, as well as "One More Night Alone" which reached number 13 in February 2006. They also released an album Times Like These, which failed to chart.

Blazin' Squad did make a brief return to the UK charts in October 2006, but as a four-piece. The single released was a summer-sounding "All Night Long", which reached number 54 in the UK Singles Chart. The group expressed their disappointment via their official myspace.

After this disappointment, the group split and Blazin' Squad was left to rest for the time being. There have been petitions and Myspace pages set up to re-unite Blazin' Squad again[citation needed], it is known that certain Blazin' Squad members are in talks to do a reunion tour in 2008[citation needed], adding further to this speculation a newly set up Official MySpace was set up with five of the original members and a new track "Lets Start Again", which is listed to be released April 13th 2009. [1]


Criticism

The band were notoriously criticised, even after the release of their second album, as they were seen to be pioneers of the chav culture, and some said that they were to So Solid Crew what S Club Juniors were to their senior counterparts, S Club. They were also seen to only appeal to the young population of the UK.


Split

The split occurred in 2005, shortly after Kenzie's appearance on Big Brother. MC Kenzie, MC Flava and MC Strider started their own band (preferring to be called Kenzie, James and Mus respectively), known as Friday Hill. The trio released their debut single, "Baby Goodbye" in October 2005. Blazin' Squad did consist of Marcel (MC Plat’num), Stuart (MC Reepa), Sam (MC Spike-E) & Chris (MC Melo-D). They decided to call it a day in 2006. Lee (Krazy) has gone solo and is currently working on his solo album in the US called the 'Lee Bailey project'.


Comeback

Blazin Squad are set to be making a comeback with the song "Let's Start Again" , a snippet is available on the MySpace. The song is expected to be released on 13th April 2009.

Only 5 of the original members will be returning though. They are Kenzie, Krazy, Strider, Flava and Plat'num B. However it is believed they will go by their first names due to the group's music sounding more different and personal.

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.