#2: Kurtis Blow — Kurtis Blow (1980)
New York, NY — Mercury Records
Alright, time for our first proper full album review. I might have heard this guy’s name before somewhere but I’ve never really checked his stuff out, so I’m going in blind here, even though it’s not really that hard to guess what this will be like, based solely on time and location of this release. His Wikipedia page tells me that he “is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record/film producer, b-boy, DJ, public speaker and minister” who was also the “first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major record label” and to have the “first certified gold record rap song”. Not bad, huh? Let’s see.
In the first track, Rappin’ Blow pt. 2, it is immediately evident how much early hip-hop was not really fundamentally different from disco and funk at all. The instrumentation (obviously all played live with a band with no sampling whatsoever) is luscious; it’s exactly what you would expect from a mid-70’s dance music record, with the added rapping being the only real difference. First track has an unapologetically fun party atmosphere brought not only by the disco beat, the thick bass and the groovy guitar, but also by some constant crowd chattering and whooping on the background that occasionally evolves into those classic full call-and-response hooks (“And everybody say ho, ho! Ho, ho!/ And all the brothers, fly guys, get high, say macho! Macho!”). All in all a fun, slightly goofy opener with just the right amount of catchy bridges, dorky 70’s flows and instrumental breakdowns.
The Breaks, the second song, I gotta say, represents somewhat of a step-up from track #1. I was expecting pretty much a repeat; while it was pretty much that in the instrumental sense, the lyrics actually have more of a gist to them than just “I’m a great rapper so let’s dance and have fun!”. While there is indeed plenty of that, it follows a central theme of describing miserable situations (“If your woman steps out with another man and she runs off with him to Japan/ And the IRS say they want to chat and you can’t explain why you claimed your cat”) then adding a cheeky little “that’s the breaks! that’s the breaks!” afterwards; not narratively impressive by any means, of course, but it’s still interesting and legit made me chuckle a couple of times. Genius tells me this is both the first rap song to have a chorus and the first rap single to be certified gold; I cannot help but wonder if there is a connection between the two.
Way Out West, the third track, has a whimsical little plot where Kurtis portrays himself as this mysterious lone rider figure who can rock any joint, and one day comes into town looking for some dude called Ganemede who simply refuses to get down, no matter how funky the funk. Kurtis, then, sets to himself the challenge of beating his foe’s grumpiness with his soulful grooving. Needless to say he eventually manages to do so and Ganamede proceeds to let loose for the whole night, everyone cheers, everyone is having fun, Kurtis is the guy, etcetera. And man, I gotta say that I don’t blame Ganamede at all for succumbing to the groove — I cannot overstate how insanely funky this one is, and that’s not just on Kurtis: it’s like the entire band has also stepped up their game specially for this track. Truly a highlight, and perhaps my favorite from this album.
Track four, Throughout Your Years, unfortunately sounds like somewhat of a downgrade from this one. Not that it’s bad by any means, it’s just… not that good? Sort of like, just there? The rapping is ok, even if Kurtis sounds a little tired here and there, the band is doing their job alright and the music isn’t offensive to the ears, even if it can get a little annoying and corny here and there. But there’s not really that much to write home about, to be quite honest. I can see it being better if they ditched the rapping entirely and went with disco/soul vocals instead. The next song, Hard Times, surprisingly has quite the pronounced conscious undertone — as far as I knew, Melle Mel’s The Message, from 1982, which is also the record I’ll be reviewing next, was the first ever example of a politically-minded rap song. Which is not to say, of course, that they are comparable in any significant manner; this one’s way sillier and more simplistic, but still. Band has picked it back up again, which is good; this one is slower, more syncopated, somewhat darker, almost sludgy in a way. Nice.
Unfortunately, they kinda shit their pants with the sixth one, “All I Want In This World (Is To Find That Girl)”. It’s this soft, sugary love ballad with no rapping at all, which wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if Kurtis knew how to sing, which is regrettably, painfully not the case. I get the need for a mellow tune in between some harder tracks, but this one is simply not good. Sorry. Next track, Takin’ Care of Business, keeps up with its predecessor’s trend of not being a rap song at all, and my guy unfortunately also keeps up with his trend of not being able to sing. This one has a slightly more interesting hard-rock-ish instrumental and some pretty cool solos and breakdowns, though, so it’s not bad at all provided you manage to phase out Kurt’s attempts at a Ronnie Van Zant impersonation.
Moving on to the last song, Christmas Rappin’, it is sincerely a lot of fun. Nothing too incredible in any way, but just simply and honestly quite amusing and lively. Just as hyped-up as the first two or three ones, but also somewhat more chill and laid back; surely a fitting ender for this album. Genius also tells me this was also Kurtis’ first recording with Mercury, and arguably the first christmas-themed hip-hop track ever. Seems like this guy is big on pioneering, huh?
All in all this is a fairly OK record, even accounting for the couple stinkers in the back half there. Not something I think I’ll ever bump front to back ever again, but there are definitely two or three gems in there that I’ll probably revisit every once in a while. And it’s obviously also a very interesting document of early days hip-hop, which eventually fell out of fashion but does still have its charm if you ask me.
