Producer and recording artiste Ricky Blaze, who produced Gyptian’s 2010 hit Hold You, says it feels amazing having learnt that the song was certified 2x platinum in the United Kingdom two weeks ago.

Hold You earned the certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) after it accumulated sales and streaming to the equivalent of 1.2 million units.

“This feels amazing! We made this record in my in my recording studio at Flatbush in Brooklyn, New York. I produced, recorded, mixed, and released this record, so the success only made me feel accurate with my creative thoughts and feeling. It also puts me into dancehall and reggae history, which is a huge accomplishment,” Ricky Blaze shared in an interview with the Jamaica Observer while on a recent visit to the island.

Hold You was a huge hit, topping out at #77 on the Billboard Hot 100 (it spent 15 weeks on the chart), and rose to #31 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, where it spent 29 weeks on the tally.

Over in the United Kingdom, Hold You peaked at #16. The song also made charts in Canada, Belgium and in France.

Asked what he recalled about the recording session, Ricky Blaze said: “I remember playing around five beats for him [Gyptian], and when we got to Hold Yuh beat he started to harmonise and he then turned to his bredrin Lion and tell him,’Mi have a song weh fit perfect pon di beat.’ When I overheard him say that to Lion I said to him, ‘So go record it,’ and he went into the booth and the magic began.”

He recalled that the song was done in two takes.

“Gyptian is very great at freestyling a whole song as if he wrote it. It’s up to the producer to bring out the star quality in an artiste. I felt we had a hit on our hands once we finished recording and I gave it a mix. I listened to the record for three weeks every day just thinking of other islands that would appreciate a song like this except Jamaica,” said Ricky Blaze.

He added: “I realised that the song was onto something bigger when more and more people started reacting to the song and just hearing it everywhere. I knew that it would not only impact the [US], but all of the islands, Europe, and even South America.”

Hold You, which was a game changer for Gyptian, was certified gold in the United States in 2013. He won the MOBO and Soul Train Music Awards that year in the reggae categories.

Ricky Blaze said the success of the song opened many doors for him as a producer.

“It helped with just gaining more trust with my vision and ideas as a producer, artiste, and as a songwriter,” he said.

The producer explained how Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj got involved with the song’s remix.

“After it started blowing up in New York and entered Hot 97 playlist rotation Ebro, who is the program director of
Hot 97, and DJ Mister Cee, who was the mix-show director, reached out to her and told her that she should consider doing a remix, and she did consider not only doing a verse on the record but performing the song on all her tours, years after the remix was released,” he said.

Prior to producing Hold You, Ricky Blaze achieved success in the dancehall when he produced the breakthrough hit Bad Man Forward, Bad Man Pull Up for dancer-turned-deejay Ding Dong in 2006.

Since then, Ricky Blaze has worked with several artistes, including Vybz Kartel. He even had a radio and club hit in 2009 with I Feel Free.

Asked how he made the transition from producer to recording artiste, Ricky Blaze said: “I made the artiste transition in 2007 when I was trying to write and produce for others and they didn’t like my ideas. That led me to release the records that I wrote, which helped me to gain new fans and support.

“I started off DJ-ing in Brooklyn at local parties around the age of 14, where I learned how to organise different genre segments. I learned how to get the crowd to participate with the songs along with getting to understand swing and tempo,” Ricky Blaze, whose parents are from Jamaica, said.

Some of Ricky Blaze’s other hit productions include Touch a Button Nuh and Get Gyal Easy by Vybz Kartel, Red Carpet by Mavado, and Syvah by Ding Dong.

In 2012 Ricky worked with Atlantic Records recording artiste, singer, songwriter and producer Santigold. The collaboration produced a song entitled Disparate Youth and would serve as the lead single on Santigold’s 2012 album, Master of My Make-Believe. The song would peak at #9 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under Hot 100 singles chart.

In 2015 he would earn production credits on Kranium’s full-length project, Rumors.