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It was an incredible time for hip-hop, the newest sensation rocking the nation. I was the first rapper on a major label, which had offices in cities around the world- like Rome, Berlin and Paris. I was a kid coming out of the ghetto, 19-20 years old, traveling the world on a promotional tour doing interview after interview. JET: How did you feel when your track вЂњThe BreaksвЂќ became the first certified gold record rap song? Moore and Ford wrote my first song вЂњChristmas RappinвЂ™.вЂќ Russell Simmons convinced them to put me in the article and to use me in a record.

Two writers from Billboard magazine- JB Moore and Robert Ford- were there doing a story on hip-hop. We were at a hip-hop party at the Hotel Diplomat on West 43rd Street in New York during the summer of 1979.

You couldnвЂ™t DJ and rap at the same time. KB: Back when I was a DJ, I realized that the rapper was important. Looking back, being a speech major, another option was to become a preacher. I had to major in something relative to hip-hop. I was going to break into the music industry by going into radio. I was a communications major, focusing on speech and broadcasting. KB: I enrolled in CCNY (The City College of New York) in 1976. It also means to blossom, as in a flower before it spits out the pollen. There was blow your horn, blowing in the wind, a force of power and a knockout blow. But soon after that, I decided to look up the word blow in the dictionary and found about 28 different definitions. I had wanted to stick with the name Kool DJ Kurt. I didnвЂ™t like the name, but it spread like wildfire. Famous DJs like Hollywood, Afrika Bambaataa, Lovebug Starski and Eddie Cheeba had protГ©gГ©s, whom they would refer to as their вЂњsons.вЂќ My crew, including Russell Simmons who I met back in college, loved the name вЂњKurtis Blow,вЂќ as a variation of Cheeba. KB: The name came about in college in the late вЂ™70s when I was a DJ popular in the Manhattan and Bronx club scenes. JET: How did you get the name Kurtis Blow? I tried to imitate their way of speaking, entertaining the crowds in between the records. I would mimic the voices of radio DJs- Gary Byrd, Frankie Crocker, and Hank Spann of WWRL, that was my hero. I started at about 14 or 15 as a breakdancer. (Tony became a tour manager for Whodini, LL Cool J and Public Enemy.) I put two component sets together for continuous music. My first paid job as a DJ was when I was 13 for Tony RomeвЂ™s mom on 96th Street. IвЂ™d write down the requests on my pad and stack up the 45s on the component. Years later, I became the family DJ at 7 years old.

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Kurtis Blow: As a kid, I learned how to read looking at the music charts at the corner record store. JET: When did you first get interested in music? Today the 54-year-old ordained minister explains how he is still rooted in music and discusses his new projects.

Throughout the вЂ™80s, the Harlem native, born Kurtis Walker, had many hits, including вЂњThe Breaks,вЂќ the first rap song to be certified gold. Hip-hop trailblazer Kurtis Blow morphed into a superstar when he became the first rapper to sign with a major label, Mercury Records, in 1979.