American rapper, singer and songwriter Kurtis Blow, circa 1980.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Pictures
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Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Pictures
American rapper, singer and songwriter Kurtis Blow, circa 1980.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Pictures
What had been a very powerful albums in hip-hop historical past? Rap was completely different earlier than that album — and afterwards, it was eternally modified?
That is the query that Morning Version posed to cultural critic Kiana Fitzgerald for its new sequence Hip-Hop’s Sport Changers. Fitzgerald is the writer of the guide, Ode to Hip-Hop: 50 Albums That Outline 50 Years of Trailblazing Music.
Hip-hop began at block events within the Bronx 50 years in the past, however it took practically a decade earlier than the highest DJs and MCs immortalized their sound in recording studios.
Kurtis Blow’s 1980 debut LP is one in all rap’s first nationwide hits. It is also Fitzgerald’s first choice.
Kiana Fitzgerald, critic and writer
Writer Kiana Fitzgerald
XOA Productions/Working Press
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XOA Productions/Working Press
Writer Kiana Fitzgerald
XOA Productions/Working Press
Kurtis Blow was the primary rapper to signal a serious label deal. Previous to this album, hip-hop was a really in-the-moment kind-of expertise — the park jams, the events that actually had been the breeding floor for hip-hop, the place it took type. This album actually took all of these components and distilled that into one particular expertise that made different hip-hoppers understand, ‘Oh, I can do that too. I can put one thing on wax and earn money from it or tour from it or assist my household with it.’
In 1979, Blow had success with a single referred to as “Christmas Rappin’, however Mercury Information wanted to realize it wasn’t a fluke earlier than committing to a full album. That second single was ‘The Breaks,’ which is the one of the celebrated hip-hop songs within the historical past of the style.
Blow bought that album deal. And his 1980 debut stands as one in all rap’s foundational achievements. Kurtis Blow the album and Kurtis Blow himself had been actually the blueprint for the format of hip-hop that we all know and love at this time.
