Average Homeboy

Average Homeboy (also known as Denny Blaze and Denny Blazin Hazen) is the creation and alter ego of Cleveland-based AV artist Denny Hazen.^[1]

Hazen (as Blazin Hazen, a self-proclaimed "Suburban White Rapper") was the subject of a 1989 demo tape that mysteriously appeared on YouTube in 2005,^[2] and achieved viral video status in a relatively short time, largely for its notoriety as a poster child of 1980s kitsch.

Average Homeboy polarized viewers and critics, who were divided between praising the inherent entertainment value of a sincere, clean-cut teenager in 1980s attire attempting to rap, and denouncing the excesses of the era, absurdity of the rap, and ineptitude of its star, yet it garnered the attention of several prominent news & infotainment entities, including TIME^[3] and VH1,^[4] as well as men's culture magazine Complex, who, in a 2011 article, included it in its list of the 100 Best Viral Videos of the 2000s.^[5]

Background

In 1989, Hazen, with the aid of self-purchased synthesizers and AV equipment, recorded, filmed, and edited Average Homeboy (where, as 'Blazin Hazen', he rapped about life as a clean-cut suburbanite who didn't fit urban stereotypes), then sent a VHS copy to MTV, who reportedly shelved it in the same storage area as the thousands of other self-submitted recordings they had received, over the years.^[6] In 2005, the video was uploaded to YouTube by 'K-Maxx' (who claimed to be an MTV employee),^[7] and as its popularity skyrocketed, it came to the attention of Hazen (who, by then, was in his mid-thirties, and successfully employed in behind-the-scenes radio and television production in the Cleveland/Akron area).^[8]

Hazen reclaimed his property, and ultimately embraced his new-found fame, reuploading Average Homeboy to YouTube in 2006, ^[9] along with other earlier efforts (including Blazin Hazen,^[10] a video he submitted to MTV months prior to Average Homeboy, and Like a Seagull^[11]), and brand new ones (including White as Rice, ^[12] Black Men Can't Swim, ^[13] and a remixed version of Average Homeboy^[14]), and continues to produce and record as 'Denny Blaze' to this day.

Hazen's popularity, as Blaze,^[15] grew to where he received (and continues to receive) numerous invitations to attend music and internet culture-related venues and gatherings across the country, including the NY Music Festival at Madison Square Garden in 2006, ^[16] ROFLCon 2008 (an internet meme convention in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he appeared with other live musical acts of similar origin, including Group X, Leslie Hall, Lemon Demon, and Trocadero), ^[17][18][19] He has been a fixture on various internet culture programs, both on television and online, including CollegeHumor,^[20] G4 TV's Attack Of The Show,^[21] and Tosh.0 (as the subject of one of Daniel Tosh's 'Web Redemptions').^[22]

Present day

Apart from his appearances, and the continued production of original music, on March 8, 2014, Hazen posted a self-financed documentary short on his alter ego's origins and journey to internet fame.^[8][23]

See also

• List of YouTube celebrities

References

External links

• Official website
• YouTube channel