Kurtis Blow | |
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%2c_2012-03-30.JPG) Kurtis Blow performing in Hannover, Germany on March 30, 2012 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Kurtis Walker (1959-08-09)August 9, 1959 (age 66) New York City, U.S.[1] |
| Genres | Hip hop |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1979–present |
| Labels | |
Kurtis Walker (born August 9, 1959),[2] known professionally by his stage nameKurtis Blow, is an Americanrapper, songwriter, andrecord producer.[3] Walker is the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major record label.[4] "The Breaks", a single from his 1980self-titled debut album, is the first certifiedgold record rap song. Over his career he released 17 albums. He is an ordained minister.[2]
Walker was raised inHarlem,Manhattan, New York City. He attendedCCNY[5] andNyack College, studying communications/film and ministry.[4]
In 1979, at the age of twenty, Blow became the first rapper to be signed by a major label,Mercury, which released "Christmas Rappin'".[6] It sold over 400,000 copies, becoming one of the first commercially successful hip hop singles.[7] Its follow-up, "The Breaks", sold over 840,000 copies.[3] He released ten albums over the next eleven years. His first album wasKurtis Blow, then his second was thetop 40 R&B albumDeuce.Party Time featured a fusion of rap andgo-go.Ego Trip included the hits: "8 Million Stories", "AJ Scratch", and "Basketball". His 1985 album,America, garnered praise for its title track's music video. From this album, the song "If I Ruled the World" became a top 5hit onBillboard'sHot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs R&Bchart. By 1983, he moved into production.[6]
He lived inCo-op City inthe Bronx in the mid-1980s.[8]
Besides his own work, Blow has been responsible for hits byThe Fat Boys andRun DMC.[3] Run began his career billed as "The Son of Kurtis Blow".Lovebug Starski,Full Force,Russell Simmons andWyclef Jean all have been produced by, or collaborated with, Walker. Former label matesRené & Angela had their R&B chart topping debut "Save Your Love (For #1)" was gift rapped by Blow. Walker produced, with Phillip Jones as co-producer andDexter Scott King as executive producer, the song "King Holiday", celebrating the firstMartin Luther King Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday inaugurated in January 1986.[9]
He performed as an actor and in music coordination in several feature films including Leon Kennedy'sKnights of the City and the hip hop filmKrush Groove. He was host and co-producer forDas Leben Amerikanischer Gangs (1995), an international film production focusing on the West Coast gang scene. As host and associate producer for Miramax'sRhyme and Reason, he gave an informative account of the status of hip hop, while he participated in the three volume record releaseThe History of Rap for Rhino Records in 1998. Blow also co-produced "Slippin, Ten Years with the Bloods" and won praises from Showtime for being the most viewed documentary in 2003. Blow was recently a producer for the Netflix showThe Get Down.
Blow has spoken out emphatically against racism. He was an active participant in theArtists United Against Apartheid record "Sun City". He worked with Rev.Jesse Jackson'sOperation Push andNational Rainbow Coalition in Chicago and with Rev.Al Sharpton's Action Network in New York City. In 1995, he started working on-air in radio, Power 106, the No. 1CHR radio station inSouthern California. He hostedThe Old School Show on Sunday nights, featuring hits from the past. He also worked forSirius Satellite Radio on the Classic Old School Hip Hop station Backspin (Channel 46) from 2000 to 2004.
Beginning in 1996, Kurtis Blow was featured in a hip hop display at theRock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the same year, rapperNas debuted at No. 53 on theBillboard Hot 100 with his version of Blow's "If I Ruled the World".[2] The song went on to double platinum. In 1998, the groupNext released "Too Close", in which the music of "Christmas Rappin'" wassampled.ASCAP honored Blow and Next at a gala affair on May 26, 1999 for having the number one song for 8 months. In 2002, he traveled to the Middle East to tour the Armed Forces bases performing seventeen shows for the troops.
In December 2014, Blow was the Guest MC for the world premiere ofThe Hip Hop Nutcracker atNew Jersey Performing Arts Center, a well received update of Tchaikovsky's holiday classic. A national tour of the show was scheduled to launch in November 2015 with Kurtis Blow reprising his role as Guest MC opening the show. The show has presently been up and running with 50–60 sold-out performances during the holidays.
In 2016 Blow was unanimously elected as Chairman of theHip Hop Museum. The museum is slated to open in October 2026 in the Bronx point section of NYC.[10] In 2017, Blow formed "The Bboy Committee", a group of 1st generation Bboys/Girls, who created the style of dance called Bboying, Rocking, and Break Dancing. The members of the Bboy Committee are as follows: Trixie (Lauree Myers), RIP Wallace D, Dancing Doug (Douglas Colon), A1 Bboy Sasa, DJ Clark Kent (Tyrone Smith), the Legendary Smith Twins, the Zulu Kings and Cholly Rock (Anthony G. Horne), OG BGirl – Darlene Rivers, "Puppet" (William "Billy Bill" Waring), Darryl Solomon (The Mad Hatter), Kurtis Blow, Lil Cesar Rivas, and Shabba-Doo. The committee is dedicated to the facilitation of the Bboy section of the Universal Hip Hop Museum.[11]
Blow became an ordained minister on August 16, 2009. As the founder of theHip Hop Church in Harlem,[4] Blow serves as rapper, DJ, worship leader and licensed minister.[12]
In 2016, Kurtis Blow appeared in a documentary on the evolution of hip hop,Hip-Hop Evolution.[13] Hosted by Canadian rapper and broadcasterShad, the series profiled the history ofhip-hop music through interviews with many of the genre's leading cultural figures. The series was produced byRussell Peters,Scot McFadyen,Sam Dunn andNelson George. It won the 2016Peabody Award,[14] and the 2017International Emmy Award for Best Arts Programming.[15] The series has been broadcast on Netflix.
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