Listen to the Kurtis Blow interview

For the longest time, people thought (hoped?) rap music might be a fad. Now rap has been entrenched in the public conscious for nearly 20 years and in existence for 25 years.

And “they don’t say that anymore,” says Kurtis Blow, one of hip-hop’s founding fathers. But before rap gets too far down the road, and too far from its roots in “the crime-ridden neighborhoods of the South Bronx,” Blow wants its pioneers to get their proper due. That’s his thinking behind Kurtis Blow Presents the History of Rap, three discs out now on Rhino Records.

Blow (born Kurt Walker) says rap has 10 originators. The Sugarhill Gang (1979’s Rapper’s Delight), Grandmaster Flash (The Message), RUN-D.M.C. (Rock Box, Walk This Way), Afrika Bambaataa (Jazzy Sensation) and Blow (Christmas Rappin’, The Breaks) usually get credit. Pete DJ Jones, “Love Bug” Starski, Cool DJ Herc, DJ Hollywood, and Eddie Cheeba don’t.

“If you talk to any of those guys alone,” Blow, 38, says by phone from his California home, “they’ll say, `I’m the man. I did it. I’m the one that was the most important.’ Sugarhill says, `If it wasn’t for us, the rest of you bums wouldn’t have a job.’ Talk to Cool Herc – he won’t give up props to the Sugarhill Gang or Pete DJ Jones.

“You talk to Run-D.M.C. and say that before 1983, hip-hop didn’t matter. Everybody thinks they’re the man and they’re the ones who put the most into it. And that’s not even true. It was a combination of all of us together, all pieces of the puzzle.”

In the liner notes for the three discs, Blow explains each pioneer’s contribution. The collection took three years to compile and “should serve as the guidelines for many people who need the information,” Blow says.

Studying the music Blow may be the perfect person to put together this set. In addition to having witnessed and participated in rap’s development, he’s also a student of the music. At City College of New York in the late 1970s, he majored in communications – and spent a lot of time analyzing hip-hop speech patterns.

He realized that articulation, delivery, vocal tonality and style were just as important to great speakers as they are to the best rappers.

“I knew rap was an art form, a form of communication and self-expression,” he says. “Rap, to me, is like a speech – you have your intro, body and conclusion.

“You have different forms of speeches, like extemporaneous speeches that people do without any rehearsal. That’s like freestyle (rap).

“You have demonstrative speeches that talk about any different subject, like basketball or Christmas. That’s a demonstrative rap. You’ve got your ego-trip raps – people just talking about themselves – gangsta rap, all these different speeches. And rappers are orators.”

Rap’s metamorphosis In the beginning, and until The Message in 1982, rap was playful and lighthearted. The early raps had bouncy beats and

rudimentary, sing-song lyrics like: Clap your hands, everybody

If you’ve got what it takes ’cause I’m Kurtis Blow And I want you to know That these are the breaks.

Blow experienced the breaks – both good and bad. His hit single The Breaks, along with Rapper’s Delight and the Fatback Band’s King Tim III, was one of the first rap records on the market. He had several successful tours and also became (he thinks) the first rapper to do a commercial – for Sprite in 1983 or ’84.

But rapping is sort of music’s answer to gunslinging, and some faster gun always comes along. Blow won’t be specific about what happened, but his summation is blunt: “I had it all once and right now, I have nothing. I had it all and then I lost it all. I didn’t lose it; I quit. I let it all go. It was my time to say goodbye.”

He became a born-again Christian and realized, he says, that God had humbled him. “I used to think it was all me. I had such a big ego, until God made me realize that He was the one behind everything I did.”

Blow didn’t mind God giving him his comeuppance. Getting the business from Don Cornelius, the host of Soul Train, was another matter.

You think picking on rap is a relatively new phenomenon? Blow knows better. “I was the first rapper on Soul Train,” around 1980, Blow says.

“When I got there, The Breaks was the number one R&B record in the country. Don Cornelius introduced me, I did my song, everybody went crazy. “He came up to me and we did a little interview while I was standing there. He says, `I don’t know why everyone’s making so much fuss about this thing called rap. But it’s my job and I’ve gotta do my job.’ I was 19. He broke my heart.”

Understanding rap

To understand the history of rap, Kurtis Blow says, you need to know two things:

1. Rap is talking in rhyme to the rhythm of a beat.

2. Hip-hop is a culture, a way of life for a society of people who identify, love and cherish rap, breakdancing, DJing and graffiti.