Kurtis Blow

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This article is about the rapper. For his self-titled debut album, see Kurtis Blow (album).

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Kurtis Blow
Birth name	Curtis Walker
Born	August 9, 1959 (1959-08-09) (age 48)
Origin	Harlem, New York City, US
Genre(s)	Hip hop
Occupation(s)	Rapper, producer, DJ
Instrument(s)	Keyboards, Vocals
Years active	1979–1988
Label(s)	Mercury

Curtis Walker (born 9 August 1959), better known by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is one of the first commercially successful rappers and the first to sign with a major label. "The Breaks", a single from his 1980 debut album, is an early hip hop classic.

1 History
2 References in popular culture
3 Discography
- 3.1 Albums
- 3.2 Singles and EPs
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Born in Harlem, New York, Curtis Walker got his public start in 1976 as a break-dancer and a block party DJ known by the name of Kool DJ Kurt. That same year he enrolled at the City College of New York and became a program director for the college radio station [1]. Also in 1976, he joined a group called “The Force.” Russell Simmons was a lead member of that group. The Force sponsored parties around Harlem until 1977, when Simmons moved the group to Queens, New York [2]. After becoming an MC on his own, Kool DJ Kurt changed his name, with the persuasion of his manager Russell Simmons, to Kurtis Blow (as in body blow) [3]. Kurtis began trying to sell himself as “the number one rapper in Queens,” with Russell’s help [4]. For a short time Blow’s regular DJ was Simmons’ younger brother Joseph, who at the time was known as “DJ Run, the Son of Kurtis Blow.” He later changed his name and went on to become the first third of Run-D.M.C. [5].

In the late 70s, a Billboard Magazine reporter named Robert Ford made contact with Blow and Simmons and gave them magazine press. Russell convinced Ford that Blow was ready to hit the studio, and a music industry insider named J.B. Moore put the cash up for the recording [6] . Blow put out his first song co-written by Ford and Moore called “Christmas Rappin” or “Rappin’ Blow.” Even though the song was a success, no major label wanted anything to do with “Christmas Rappin” because they assumed that rap was going to be a one hit wonder. Eventually an A&R (Artist and Repertoire) man from Mercury heard the song and signed Blow. It was the first major label hip hop release [7] . His second single, "The Breaks," broke into the top five of Billboard's R&B chart, and soon after went gold. "The Breaks" was voted the best single of 1980 in the Village Voice's influential Pazz & Jop music critics' poll [8]. In 1980 he opened for reggae legend Bob Marley at the Madison Square Garden where he performed for an audience of 20,000. In the early 1980s, Kurtis found it hard to follow up after his hit song even though he released an album almost every year during the decade of the 80s, but his persistence paid off [9] . As further evidence of Blow's ability to crossover to non-hip hop audiences, he opened for English punk rock band the Clash at their outdoor concerts on Pier 84 in New York City in 1982. On his 1986 album, Kingdom Blow, Bob Dylan and Dylan's backing singer, Debra Byrd contributed vocals to the cut "Street Rock" Around this time Blow became a record producer, helping new groups such as the Fat Boys sign on for record deals [10] . Blow released a few more songs in the mid to late 1980s and made an appearance in the hip-hop film Krush Groove, where he performed “If I Ruled the World,” which was Blow’s biggest hit since his 1980 smash “The Breaks [11] .”

“If I Ruled the World” was the last of Blow’s hit songs. His mainstream reputation decreased as newer hip hop made his rap style seem old-school and outdated [12] . He went on to record a song with Dexter King, son of Martin Luther King Jr., titled “King Holiday” in observance of the civil rights leader’s holiday [13] . Blow finally gave up his fast fading recording career, but in the early 90s, he contributed rap material to the soap opera One Life to Live. He also spent several years hosting as a DJ for the Los Angeles based hip hop FM radio station, Power 106, every Sunday night on the "Kurtis Blow Old School Show." He now DJs on Sirius Satellite Radio's old school hip hop station, Backspin.^[1]. Although no longer recording music, Blow starred in the 1997 rap documentary, Rhyme and Reason. A theology major at Nyack College (Class of 2009) [14], Blow's recent focus has been on spirituality, evidenced by Kurtis Blow Presents: Hip Hop Ministry (2007, EMI Gospel), a compilation of Christian rap. In 2004, Kurtis collaborated with Bomfunk MC's on the track Hey Everybody from their album "Reverse Psychology".

[edit] References in popular culture

The They Might Be Giants song "Where Your Eyes Don't Go" on their second album, Lincoln, features the lines "You're free to come and go / And talk like Kurtis Blow."

The Tom Tom Club song "Genius of Love" features the lines "Steppin' to the rhythm of a Kurtis Blow/ Who needs to think when your feet just go."

The Kurtis Blow hit, ‘Basketball’ is arguably, the most famous song about the sport in existence and it still timeless and popular today. He still works a crowd 20+ years later with that same hit according to various postings on youtube.com. 'Basketball' is heard at dozens of NBA games during half time each season and it was the theme music for ‘Like Mike’ a major studio film starring Lil Bow Wow released in 2002.

"The Breaks" was featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto Vice City on the Wildstyle Pirate Radio station.

"The Breaks' was used in the video game True Crime: New York City

"The Breaks" was sampled in the song Macarron Chacarron which has become an internet phenomenon.

"The Breaks' was used in the video game Scarface: The World Is Yours

The song "Music Matters" by Faithless references Kurtis Blow, "From Bamma Lamma to Tamla Mo, Curtis Mayfield to Kurtis Blow."

The Jurassic 5 song "Quality Control" features the line "We can rule the world without Kurtis and still Blow."

The Breaks (song) mentioned on 'Everybody hates Chris' during Chris' running for class president.