Blaze The Beat Challenge Winner Announced at Life Is Beautiful Pre-Party and Busta Rhymes Interview

Photos and words by Katlyn Shannon 

Everyone’s favorite house hold snack is giving back! Doritos of Frito Lay of America collaborated over the summer with Busta Rhymes, Terrace Martin, and All Def Music to create this beat using an actual bag of Doritos among other various food preparation related items like a torch! “Why”, you ask?

If you’ll recall, Busta Rhymes busted out one heck of a rhyme a few years back ft on the Chris Brown track “Look At Me Now” that was featured on the Super Bowl. The Blaze The Beat track stemmed from the Super Bowl ad. In an interview with thesource.com Busta Rhymes stated ““Everyone in the country saw the Doritos Blaze Super Bowl commercial a few months ago…Now I’m looking to pass the torch to the next generation of lyricists and give them a platform to showcase the fire they can spit.””.

The team made the track available for public access for video submissions for a chance to compete. The rules were very clear and can be found here.  This was done to reach out to the community in search of budding talent with a hunger to change the game to allow any qualifying person to enter this contest brought to life by the Doritos team. A prize of $50,000 and the title of the first ever #BlazeTheBeat challenge champion was on the line, and people were after it like it was all that and a bag of chips. Submissions like these started pouring in.

Busta Rhymes has always been passionate about his craft, and Wiz the same. They made the decision to team up and make an event to give others a stage they always wanted but weren’t sure just how to get to. This idea came to fruition in a big way, five finalist blazing hot fire with a dash of sass, the Doritos #BlazeTheBeat Official LiB Preparty kicked off on Thursday September 20, 2018. Opening performances by Goldlink, London On Da Track, and Taylor Bennett took place at The Foundry inside the SLS Hotel in Las Vegas, NV to warm guests up for the epic battle that was about to take place.

The Doritos team provided attendees bags of Doritos Blaze flavored chips and had friendly bar tenders to assist those who found the spice too much to handle. The Blaze chip taste to me like they took the Sweet Chili flavor and the Salsa Verde flavor and mixed them. It’s incredible, because let’s be honest, besides original those two are the best anyhow.

Things heated up as the night progressed and after London’s fire performance, and Taylor’s inferno one, I didn’t think I could handle the heat – then the sun came out. The finalist went into battle, displaying their talent to the crowd and the judges, including Mr. Busta Rhymes. One of the performers, by the stage name of Enoch Tolbert, started his performance with a shout out to his niece, and by letting fans know it was going to be his 24^th birthday at midnight.

He must have spoken flames into the mic that melted into some brains, because moments later Armani was announced the winner of the Blaze The Beat competition and $50,000. What a birthday gift, huh?!

We had a chance to sit down and discuss the experience with Busta Rhymes, and let me tell ya, he flipped the mode all the way up. Listen to his words and view our conversation here!