Average Homeboy

About

Average Homeboy is a single demo tape created by Denny Hazen (a.k.a. “Denny Blaze”) in the late 1980s. At the beginning of demo tape, he briefly introduces himself as an aspiring rapper hoping to market his “average middle-class, white person’s point of view” in the rap music industry.

Origin

The video was originally sent to several record labels, but rejected by all of them. The tape was allegedly placed in a box at an MTV studio and stayed there for 17 years until an employee uploaded it to Youtube. Then on October 1, 2006, the video was re-uploaded by Hazen himself on his own Youtube account.

Spread

Since going viral in 2006, the original video has gained nearly 1 million views on YouTube. It was re-blogged through many other websites and blogs, as well as a few notable mentions in the mainstream media:

• VH1 ranked Hazen as the 3rd Greatest Internet Superstar. (embed unavailable)

• Comedy Central’s internet related show Tosh.0 gave Hazen an opportunity to become the “Above Average Homeboy”:

YouTube Parodies

With the video’s memorable opening commentary, totally 80’s style, and simple lyrics, Average Homeboy was ripe for parodies. For more parodies, check out Denny Blaze’s official webpage.

Denny Blaze was even played off by Keyboard Cat

Denny Blaze Today

Hazen’s latest YouTube upload shows that he is still rapping in January 2010. Having gained favor as the “Average Homeboy,” Denny now embraces his decades-old nickname and continues to keep his rap awesome and clean by using no expletives. Word.

Update

In July of 2010 Denny Blaze released “Black Men Can’t Swim” an original track satirizing the “White Men Can’t Jump.”