Just Blaze rose to prominence as Jay Z’s go-to producer in the early 2000s, alongside Kanye West and Bink!.

Justin Smith explained the Just Blaze moniker to Complex:

People hear ‘Just Blaze’ and they think it’s about weed. [The name Just Blaze] was a running joke with the guys from Harlem World. It was between Huddy Combs—Huddy 6 rest in peace—and Super Sam. Super Sam was another dude who was down with Ma$e’s management team at the time.

Originally, they were saying my name should be Just Hot and I was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ Somehow, from there it went to Just Blaze. I didn’t like the name. When Harlem World came out, they put Just Blaze on it and it sold 500,000 copies. I said, ‘Alright, let’s keep it.’