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From the beginning

A founder of hip-hop break dances into Prague

By Darrell Jonsson
For The Prague Post
February 14th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Still stylin' on the streets of New York, "KB" says hip-hop is about love, not fighting.
Kurtis Blow is well-recognized as an elder statesman of hip-hop. Posing cool on the cover of his 1980 eponymous debut LP, his muscular torso bared and neck draped with a choice selection of gold, he set the tone for much of what was to follow. KB, as he is popularly known, was the first solo rapper to bring the form to major-label visibility. In the decades since, he’s continued to forward hip-hop’s innovations and credibility.
As a producer, he pioneered the looping of samples and the early use of analog drum machines. As an audio historian, he has produced numerous compilations, including Rhino’s 1997 three-CD series Kurtis Blow Presents: The History Of Rap, which chronicles rap’s evolution from the Isley Brothers and James Brown to Run DMC and Whodini.
In 2006, KB co-produced (along with film director Tommy Sowards) a documentary on the Los Angeles gangsta life titled Slippin — Ten Years with the Bloods. It’s slated for DVD release this year, and, as KB recently told All Hip Hop News, “For those that haven’t seen it, you are going to be blown away. It’s gonna change some lives. It really gives you that education that ‘the life’ only leads to jail or death.”
Kurtis Blow

When: Thursday, Feb. 15, at 9
Where: Lucerna Music Bar
Tickets: 385 Kč through Ticketpro, Ticketstream and at the venue

From death metal to gangsta rap, popular music is too often bent on extreme misogyny and violence. Yet, from the beginning of his career, KB has been a life-affirming artist. Along with Afrika Bambaataa and many other old-school hip-hop artists, he has constantly sought to remind that hip-hop’s origin and ultimate destiny is as a celebration of community and love.
Weekdays coast to coast in North America, KB can be heard on prime-time Sirus satellite radio these days, hosting mostly an old-school mix. Besides DJing, studio work and club dates, he is studying for his PhD in theology while regularly rapping at Harlem’s anything-but-tame hip-hop church.
Reached at his office in New York City, KB recalls those Bronx and Harlem nights in the late 1970s when it all began for him. “It really was like a dream world to me, because everything was all fresh and new and it was this new vibe,” he says. “There was this spirit going around the city about this new thing called hip-hop, where DJs and MCs were both doing their thing at the same time, working as a team. We had our own society, our own clan so to speak, and it branched out and it grew and grew and pretty soon the whole city knew about it. Whether it was at a club or a community center or a park jam or gym or a block party, we all knew we had something special. We all knew it was new and fresh. And it wasn’t about the money. It was about having a good time, love, representing hip-hop — which was love, and wasn’t about fighting.”
While touring, KB takes inspiration from what he calls “the power of hip-hop. How you can go outside of America, and people are rapping in their native tongues. It is incredible to see how the different cultures around the world have embraced hip-hop and made it their own.”
KB is looking good these days — his ongoing break-dance workouts keep him in shape. His time-wizened face radiates the same dignity that graced his youthful debut LP cover. His recent shows in Europe have been old school–flavored events, with crucial updates added by the DJ work of Lil Lep and freestyle backup of KB's son, KB Jr.
The upcoming Prague show will include the dazzling break-dance moves of the award-winning B-boy Iron Monkey. Dancers take note: KB usually opens space on the dance floor, or even on stage, for local break dancers. Echoing an era when dance and hip-hop were absolutely inseparable, KB says, “I represent the B-boys. Always have, and always will.”

Darrell Jonsson can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (14/02/2007):

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