Blaze gained notoriety this summer before it even hit newsstands: A tipsy Wyclef Jean reportedly threatened one of the magazine's editors with a gun after he gave the debut album of Jean protégé Canibus a negative review. Jean denies that he ever threatened a Blaze editor, but in the first newsstand edition of the magazine, editor-in-chief Jesse Washington repeats the story as an example of Blaze's commitment to challenging the conventions of rap journalism. Though Blaze still adheres to the review- and interview-centered format of most music magazines, it also attempts to differentiate itself from its competitors. Among the more promising attempts to deviate from the music-press norm is a feature that allows artists to respond to reviews of their records. Some of the artists' responses are bewildering: Fat Joe, for example, refuses to respond to a largely positive review of his album, while Professor Griff fails to blame the magazine's negative review of his album on an International Zionist Conspiracy. But the feature is still an admirable attempt to create a more open dialogue between artists and the press. Other highlights of the premiere issue include a sidebar featuring Wynton Marsalis' entertainingly clueless critiques of a cross-section of current rap songs and a debate between the irrepressibly pretentious KRS-One and Columbia professor Michael Dyson. The interviews in Blaze aren't particularly revelatory, but the magazine distinguishes itself by occasionally taking a borderline-antagonistic stance toward its subjects, particularly in a piece on Snoop Dogg that is critical of the rapper's much-vaunted alliance with No Limit Records. Less political than XXL and less street than The Source, Blaze is surprisingly consistent and content-heavy for a magazine created by Quincy Jones' advertising-intensive, content-light Vibe. It remains to be seen how it'll develop, but it's off to a promising start.