The first-ever rapper to appear on National television
With so many hip-hop media outlets today, from MTV to BET and more, and with people even being able to record music videos on their phones, the idea of releasing rap songs without appearing on television or social media seems completely preposterous. However, in the late 1970s, when hip-hop was finding its feet, that’s exactly what artists did.
At one point in time, hip-hop and its rich culture was a suppressed underground art form that was not present in the mainstream. Unlike disco, funk or pop-rock, the establishment didn’t broadcast rap music to the masses on a wide scale and most definitely didn’t consider its performers as real musicians.
As such, mainstream television did not need to platform MCs or DJs affiliated with the genre. However, that didn’t last long, and by the end of the decade, lyricists were selling so many records that they were hitting screens across America.
Before the launch of channels such as MTV and BET, there were no shows where underground African-American musicians could perform their music. However, in 1980, the legendary programme Soul Train gave a slot to Bronx lyricist Kurtis Blow, who, on September 27th, performed his track ‘The Breaks’ for a live audience.
Blow’s song ‘The Breaks’ is widely considered one of the first rap songs, and it truly broke down barriers. Upon release, it became one of the first hip-hop singles to sell over 500,000 copies and go gold. However, ‘The Breaks’ was also the first-ever major-label rap song. That said, it’s no surprise that Soul Train snatched up the opportunity to have him perform.
In an interview with SPIN, Blow spoke about the inspiration behind the song, saying, “My producers at the time were J.B. Moore and Robert Ford, Jr, so Russell was supposed to ask me, and he did. And I said, ‘Well, I want to make a song dedicated to all the B-Boys, a song with a lot of breaks in it so the B-Boys can do their thing.'”
Admitting he knew he would be a hit song, the Bronx native told the publication, “The connotations, the multiple meanings of that song all wrapped into one, and so we went into the studio, and once we finished the song, you just immediately knew this song was going to be a monster hit. I was so, so pleased.”
L.T.D. and Seventh Wonder also appeared on the 1980 episode of Soul Train. You can watch Kurtis Blow performing ‘The Breaks’ in the video below.