Kurtis Blow

Kurtis Blow at the Musiktheater Bad in Hanover (2012)

Kurtis Blow (actually Kurtis Walker ) (born August 9, 1959 in Harlem ) is a pioneer of rap . His first and best known hit was The Breaks (1980) and is considered a hip-hop classic . One of his most successful songs was basketball , a co-production with Full Force from Brooklyn . His music was influenced by DJ Hollywood . Bob Dylan can also be heard on Blow's 1986 album Kingdom Blow .

Life

Kurtis Blow began his career as a breakdancer in New York City in the mid-1970s , before moving to rap via DJing . He was the first rapper to record a full album with a major record company (1980). This happened after the recording of his first single Christmas Rappin - around the same time that the Sugarhill Gang landed the first hip-hop hit with Rapper's Delight . At the time, this style of music was ridiculed as a passing phenomenon and there was great resistance to signing Blow.

In 1983 he became the producer of Run DMC and the Fat Boys . In 1986 he landed his last chart hit with I'm Chillin .

Kurtis Blow can be seen in the films Krush Groove and The Show .

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1980	Kurtis Blow	-	-	-	-	US71 (10 weeks) US	First published: September 1980
1981	Deuce	-	-	-	-	US137 (5 weeks) US	First published: June 1981
1982	Tough	-	-	-	-	US167 (5 weeks) US	First published: October 1982
1984	Ego trip	-	-	-	-	US83 (37 weeks) US	First published: December 1984
1985	America	-	-	-	-	US153 (15 weeks) US	First published: October 1985
1986	Kingdom Blow	-	-	-	-	US196 (2 weeks) US	First published: November 1986

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

more publishments

• 1983: Party Time? (EP)
• 1983: The best rapper on the scene
• 1984: Rapper in Town
• 1988: Back by Popular Demand
• 1990: Best of ... Rappin '
• 1994: The best of Kurtis Blow
• 1997: The history of Rap

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1979	Christmas Rappin ' Kurtis Blow	-	-	-	UK30 (6 weeks) UK	-	First published: November 1979
1980	The Breaks Kurtis Blow	DE56 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	UK47 (5 weeks) UK	US87 gold (6 weeks)US	First published: August 1980
1983	Party Time Party Time EP	-	-	-	UK67 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: July 1983
1985	Basketball ego trip	-	-	-	-	US71 (6 weeks) US	First published: March 1985
1986	If I Ruled The World America	-	-	-	UK24 (10 weeks) UK	-	First published: January 1986
	I'm Chillin ' Kingdom Blow	-	-	-	UK64 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: October 1986

More singles

• 1979: Rappin '
• 1984: Under Fire
• 1994: The Breaks Remixes

Web links

• Kurtis Blow at laut.de
• Interview with Kurtis Blow GermanRhymes.de
• Kurtis Blow at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE UK US
2. ↑ Awards: US