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Just Blaze and Baauer Take Trap-Rave ‘Higher’ With Jay-Z Sample

Baauer and Just Blaze

It was only a matter of time before Just Blaze unleashed a track like “Higher,” but it’s still immensely satisfying that he’s done it in such a next-level way. Way back in 2011, the veteran hip-hop producer called TNGHT half Hudson Mohawke his “favorite producer” of “right now,” in tweets that are no longer Googleable but were quoted in a print issue of WaxPoetics. Now, joined by tourmate and “Harlem Shake” party-starter Baauer, he has pushed that Kanye West affiliate‘s trap-rave sound to a place where only Just Blaze could take it, with bigger builds, bolder synths, and even Jay-Z (from The Blueprint‘s Just Blaze-helmed “U Don’t Know”).

If Just Blaze’s recent “Behold! (Exhibit J)” was, as SPIN rap blogger Brandon Soderberg playfully put it, “house, of the non-guido fist pump variety,” then this is electronic dance music — do we have to say EDM? — for everyone. You’ll be jerking your entire body so hard you won’t even notice the douchebags. TNGHT’s “Higher Ground”? Pretty high up there. “Higher”? Maybe higher.