In his editor's manifesto of the premier issue of Blaze, Jesse Washington describes how a gun was pulled on him by an irate hip-hop star. Why? Because Blaze was about to run a bad review of an album the rapper had produced. Washington was also threatened not to breathe a word of this to anyone.

Washington says this is the price you pay for daring to be revolutionary. What a price! Washington goes on to say that in Blaze, by allowing artists to respond to reviews, an unheard of practice in other publications, would open the lines of communication between the artist and the reader. Perhaps this would allow artists to vent their grievances without resorting to firearms.

Reviews aren't the only area in which Blaze dares to break out of the status quo of hip-hop journalism. Blaze covers the news that other magazines don't have and takes chances that other magazines won't.

A sample of the premiere issue's articles: Snoop Dogg's new alliance with Master P and No Limit Records, getting in the brain of Method Man and being on the road with Def Jam's "Survival of the Illest" tour.

Blaze's unflinching honesty and revolutionary editorial content was well received by advertisers. Of the premier issue's 230 pages, 120 are adstaking the lead in the number of ad pages for a new launch in 1998.

The high percentage of ads could have had something to do with Blaze being brought to you by the folks at VIBE and Spin. These heavyweights of the music magazine arena certainly boosted advertisers' confidence that their products will get seen.