| Blazin' Squad | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Chingford, London |
| Genres | Pop, hip-hop |
| Years active | 2002&ndash2009 |
| Labels | Records (UK) |
| Past members | |
| Strider (2002-2004, 2005-2006, 2009) Flava (2002-2004, 2005-2006, 2009) Kenzie (2002-2004, 2005-2006, 2009) Rocky B (2002-2004, 2006, 2009) Krazy (2002-2004, 2009) Melo D (2002-2004, 2006) Reepa (2002-2004, 2006) Spike-E (2002-2004, 2006) Freek (2002-2004) Tommy-B (2002-2004) Jamsey (2004) |
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Blazin' Squad were an English pop-rap vocal group. The group enjoyed significant success in the UK, achieving six top ten hits, including "Crossroads", a cover version of the Bone Thugs-n-Harmony original.
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The band released a cover of the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony somg "Crossroads" as their debut single in August 2002, reaching #1 on the UK Singles Chart. 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 Beginning achieved 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 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" reached number two in November. "Flip Reverse" was subsequently used to re-launch Top of the Pops, with a special performance was recorded outside the BBC Television Centre with 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 the UK Albums Chart. A live recording of a concert in Liverpool was released on DVD for Christmas 2003, however, failed to acheieve any commercial success. It also failed to re-ignite the low sales of the album. The band soon attempted a kickstart of their career, adding new mamber Jamsey to the group, and using their previous album track, "Here 4 One", as his first single. The song peaked at number six during early 2004, but failed to be strong enough to warrant a third album deal.
In 2005, Strider, Flava & Kenzie signed a record deal with Polydor records, and began recording an album under the name Friday Hill, named after a location in their hometown in Chingford. In October 2005, the group released their debut single, "Baby Goodbye", which reached #5 in the UK Singles Chart, staying in the Top 10 for over a month and selling over 80,000 copies. In February 2006, they released a second single, "One More Night Alone", which reached #13 on the UK Singles Chart. Their album, entitled Times Like These, was also released in February 2006, but only peaked at #67 on the UK Albums Chart, and such, were soon dropped from their label.[1] 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 Nite Long", in August 2006, however, it only peaked at #54, which resulted in their record deal being scrapped and a further disbandment.
In 2009, Strider, Flava, Kenzie, Krazy and Rocky B announced that they would be reuniting as a five-piece, and in June 2009, released their comeback single, 'Let's Start Again'. They recruited modern artists Bashy and Chimpunk for a remix of the track, however, once again, the single only peaked at #54 on the UK Singles Chart. Despite their record label wanting to drop them following the poor success of the single, they had signed a bonding contract to release an album. As such, the label issued a greatest hits compilation via digital download, and thus, ended the contract with the group.
During an appearance on Celebrity Juice, Kenzie admitted the possibility of all ten original members of Blazin' Squad reuniting.
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions |
Certifications (sales threshold) |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [2] |
GER [3] |
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| In the Beginning |
|
33 | — | ||||||
| Now or Never |
|
37 | 57 |
|
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| Times Like These (As Friday Hill) |
|
67 | - | ||||||
| Greatest Hits |
|
- | - | ||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions |
Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [2] |
GER [5] |
IRE [6] |
|||||||
| 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 | |||||
| 2005 | "Baby Goodbye" (As Friday Hill) | 5 | — | — | Times Like These | ||||
| 2006 | "One More Night Alone" (As Friday Hill) | 13 | — | — | |||||
| "All Nite Long" | 54 | — | — | Greatest Hits | |||||
| 2009 | "Let's Start Again" | 51 | — | — | |||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
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