Kurtis Blow is the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major record label.
14 Facts About Kurtis Blow
2.
In 1979, at the age of twenty, Kurtis Blow became the first rapper to be signed by a major label, Mercury, which released "Christmas Rappin'".
3.
Kurtis Blow released ten albums over the next eleven years.
4.
Kurtis Blow lived in Co-op City in the Bronx in the mid-1980s.
5.
Besides his own work, Kurtis has been responsible for hits by The Fat Boys and Run DMC.
6.
Kurtis Blow performed as an actor and in music coordination in several feature films including Leon Kennedy's Knights of the City and the hip hop film Krush Groove.
7.
Kurtis Blow was host and co-producer for Das Leben Amerikanischer Gangs, an international film production focusing on the West Coast gang scene.
8.
Kurtis Blow co produced "Slippin, Ten Years with the Bloods" and won praises from Showtime for being the most viewed documentary in 2003.
9.
Kurtis Blow was recently a producer for the Netflix show, "The Get Down".
10.
Kurtis Blow was an active participant in the Artists United Against Apartheid record "Sun City".
11.
Kurtis Blow worked with Rev Jesse Jackson's Operation Push and National Rainbow Coalition in Chicago and with Rev Al Sharpton's Action Network in New York City.
12.
Kurtis Blow hosted The Old School Show on Sunday nights, featuring hits from the past.
13.
In 2016 Kurtis Blow was unanimously elected as Chairman of the Universal Hip Hop Museum.
14.
In 2016, Kurtis Blow appeared in a documentary on the evolution of hip hop, Hip-Hop Evolution.