Blow (Kurtis)   (Germany)

EuroDance member
Added : 28/07/2005
6117

78

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

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1991

1992

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1995

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2010

Kurtis Blow albums

	Kurtis Blow	1980	BUY X
	Deuce	1981	BUY X
	Kurtis Blow, The Best Rapper On The Scene	1982	BUY X
	Tough	1982	BUY X
	Break To Rap	1983	BUY X
	Party Time?	1984	BUY X
	Ego Trip	1984	BUY X
	Rapper In Town	1984	BUY X
	America	1985	BUY X
	Kingdom Blow	1986	BUY X
	Back By Popular Demand	1988	BUY X
	The Best Of Kurtis Blow	1989	BUY X
	Best Of... Rappin'	1990	BUY X
	The Best Of Kurtis Blow	1994	BUY X
	Live In NYC	1995	BUY X
	The Best Of Kurtis Blow (re-release)	2003	BUY X

Kurtis Blow singles

	Christmas Rappin'	1979	BUY X
	Rappin'	1979	BUY X
	Hard Times	1980	BUY X
	The Breaks	1980	BUY X
	Throughout Your Years	1980	BUY X
	It's Gettin' Hot	1981	BUY X
	Starlife / Way Out West	1981	BUY X
	Tough	1982	BUY X
	Nervous	1983	BUY X
	Party Time	1983	BUY X
	8 Million Stories	1984	BUY X
	AJ Is Cool	1984	BUY X
	Basketball	1984	BUY X
	Under Fire / AJ Scratch	1984	BUY X
	America	1985	BUY X
	If I Ruled The World	1985	BUY X
	I'm Chillin'	1986	BUY X
	Back By Popular Demand	1988	BUY X
	Only The Strong Survive / Still On The Scene	1988	BUY X
	The Breaks '94	1994	BUY X
	Chillin' At The Spot/We The People	1994	BUY X
	Christmas Rappin '95	1995	BUY X
	Freak Rock Till the Break of Dawn	1995	BUY X
	The Breaks ('98 Remixes)	1998	BUY X
	The Breaks 2004	2004	BUY X

Featurings and collaborations

	Techno Cop - Axel F	1992	BUY X
	Power Nation - Calling You	13th May 1994	BUY X
	4 NF - I Wanna Be Your Love	1995	BUY X
	Silent Running - Follow Me	1995	BUY X
	Sonic Boom - I Want Some Holiday	13th Jun 1995	BUY X
	Mephisto - In The Name Of Love	4th Oct 2010	BUY X
	Hitfinders - Wake Up	27th Nov 2010	BUY X

Songwriting

Mephisto - In The Name Of Love

4th Oct 2010

BUY X

Kurtis Blow biography

Real Name: Kurtis Walker.

As the first commercially successful rap artist, Kurtis Blow is a towering figure in hip-hop history. He was the first rapper to sign with (and release an album for) a major label; the first to have a single certified gold (The Breaks in 1980); the first to embark on a national (and international) concert tour; and the first to cement rap's mainstream marketability by signing an endorsement deal. For that matter, he was really the first significant solo rapper on record. For all his immense importance and influence, many of Blow's records haven't dated all that well.

Kurtis Blow was born Kurtis Walker in Harlem in 1959. He began to immerse himself in the newborn hip-hop culture in the early '70s : breakdance, block-party and club DJ performing (as Kool DJ Kurt)... After enrolling at City College of New York in 1976, he also served as program director for the college radio station. He became an MC around 1977, and changed his name to Kurtis Blow (as in a body blow) at the suggestion of his manager, future Def Jam founder and rap mogul Russell Simmons. Blow performed with legendary DJs like Grandmaster Flash, and for a time his regular DJ was Simmons' teenage brother Joseph or Joey (who, after changing his stage name from "Son of Kurtis Blow," would later become the first half of Run-D.M.C). Over 1977-1978, Blow's club gigs around Harlem and the Bronx made him an underground sensation, and Billboard magazine writer Robert Ford approached Simmons about making a record. Blow recorded a single co-written by Rocky Ford and J.B. Moore called Christmas Rappin'. It was a hit and it helped him get a contract with Mercury.

Blow's second single, The Breaks, was an out-of-the-box smash, entering the Top Five of the R&B charts in 1980 and eventually going gold. The debut album Kurtis Blow was also released in 1980, and made the R&B Top Ten. The poverty-themed Hard Times marked perhaps the first instance of hip-hop's social consciousness, and was later covered by Run-D.M.C. Blow initially found it hard to follow up The Breaks, despite releasing nearly an album a year for most of the '80s. 1981's Deuce and 1982's Tough weren't huge sellers, and 1983's Party Time EP brought D.C. go-go funksters E.U. on board for a stylistic update. However, things picked up in 1984 with the release of the Ego Trip album, which featured the single Basketball. Around this time, Blow was also making his mark as a producer, working with a variety of hip-hop and R&B artists. Ego Trip sold respectably well on the strength of cuts like the DJ tribute AJ Scratch and the Run-D.M.C. duet 8 Million Stories. Blow followed it with an appearance in the cult hip-hop film Krush Groove, in which he performed If I Ruled the World, his biggest hit since The Breaks.

If I Ruled the World proved to be the last gasp of Blow's popularity, as hip-hop's rapid growth made his style seem increasingly outdated. 1985's America was largely ignored, and 1986's Kingdom Blow was afforded an icy reception despite producing a final chart hit, I'm Chillin'. Critics savaged his final comeback attempt, 1988's Back by Popular Demand. In its wake, Blow gave up the ghost of his recording career, but found other ways to keep the spirit of the old school alive. He appeared in commercials for Sprite in 1986. In the early '90s, he contributed rap material to the TV soap opera One Life to Live, and later spent several years hosting an old-school hip-hop show on Los Angeles radio station Power 106.

During the 90s, he was sampled or rapper for many eurodance projects : he appeared in Power Nation - Calling You, Sonic Boom - I Want Some Holiday and Open Your Mind Techno Cop - Axel F (1994 remix), 4 N.F. - I Wanna Be Your Love, Silent Running - Follow Me.

In 1997, Rhino Records hired him to produce, compile, and write liner notes for the three-volume series Kurtis Blow Presents the History of Rap. The same year, he appeared in the rap documentary Rhyme and Reason. His music has also been revived by younger artists seeking to pay tribute; Nas covered If I Rule the World on 1996's It Was Written, and R&B group Next sampled Christmas Rappin' for their 1998 smash Too Close.

2006 : Kurtis Blow is an active member of the Hip Hop Church concept, already nominated for two 2006 Tiffany Gospel Awards. Their mission is to present the Christian gospel in a setting that appeals to both those individuals who are confessed Christians as well as those who are considered unchurched...

Thanks to Necronomic
Steve Huey, All Music Guide
Kurtis Blow at Discogs

Kurtis Blow biography was last updated Tue, October 12th 2021

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