Kurtis Blow
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Jerritt Clark / Getty / Kurtis Blow
Actors still striking got an ally in Hip-Hop legend Kurtis Blow.
Spotted on Deadline, Hip Hop Alliance co-founder Kurtis Blow joined the actors on the picket line as SAG-AFTRA continues ongoing negotiations with studios to secure a fair deal for the striking thespians.
Speaking with the website “The Breaks” crafter detailed how his SAG-AFTRA membership played a significant role in his decision to join the actors on the picket line.
Because he is a member of the guild, the health insurance was able to get a life-saving heart transplant in December 2022.
Per Deadline:
I am here supporting all the strikers, supporting SAG-AFTRA in this strike,” he told Deadline. “I think it’s very important that we show unity and solidarity. SAG-AFTRA is our partners, man. They are our partners in Hip Hop Alliance. We love them so much. As a matter of fact, the resources that we have available for all of our members is because SAG-AFTRA cares about people, especially the SAG-AFTRA health plan, which actually saved my life. I had a heart transplant, and the SAG-AFTRA health plan paid for all of it, over $8M, and I am here because of SAG-AFTRA. So, I thank you, I love you all. Please, let’s unite, let’s show solidarity, let’s stand strong, SAG-AFTRA strong baby.
Kurtis Blow Understands Why The Actors Are Striking
The Hip Hop Alliance, which he founded last year with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Dougie Fresh, fights for fair wages, fair royalties, and strong retirement and health benefits for artists in the Hip-Hop and R&B world. It also secured a deal with a SAG-AFTRA earlier this year, so Blow feels the two entities are fighting the same fight.
“It’s so very important to the future on this planet, the music that we make, so we are fighting for fair wages, royalties, and the streaming, which is so very important nowadays, everyone is into A.I and streaming, and we need a fair deal,” Blow added.
Salute to Kurtis Blow, and we still have our fingers crossed this strike ends, and the actors finally get what they deserve from these studios.
—
Photo: Jerritt Clark / Getty
Since the business of Christmas music is growing so fast – it occupies five of the top 10 places on the Billboard Hot 100 this week – we are re-presenting some of our stories from Christmas past. This piece, about how two former Billboard staffers produced the holiday hit “Christmas Rappin’” for then-up-and-coming rapper Kurtis Blow, originally ran in 2019. Since then, in 2020, Robert Ford passed away.
One groundbreaking Christmas hit didn’t just make the Billboard charts — it was produced by two former employees. In 1979, J.B. Moore and Robert Ford left the magazine to produce “Christmas Rappin’ ” for an up-and-coming rapper named Kurtis Blow. Released on Mercury Records, the single went gold, and Blow became the first rapper to sign a major-label deal.
At Billboard, Moore was an ad salesman who sometimes wrote music reviews, and Ford was a production manager who also wrote a column about R&B. They both knew that hip-hop represented the future of music — Public Enemy’s Chuck D has cited a 1978 article by Ford as one of the first mentions of the genre in a national publication. Even so, they didn’t get any interest from A&R executives in New York, so they took “Chrismas Rappin’ ” to Chicago-based Mercury Records, where John Stainze, a recent transfer from the label’s U.K. office to its West Coast operations, convinced Mercury that the song would recoup its costs (about $6,000, remembers Moore) in the United Kingdom alone.
“Christmas Rappin’ ” — a song “ ’bout a red-suited dude with a friendly attitude” — wasn’t originally intended to be a Christmas tune. Moore, who wrote the lyrics, decided to give it a holiday theme because labels like songs they can sell every December. “Christmas Rappin’ ” turned out to be one: It peaked at No. 53 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart in 1995 and at No. 35 on Hot Rap Songs in 1999.
“It took Mercury forever to realize how big it was,” says Moore, who with Ford went on to produce Blow’s landmark “The Breaks” and work with the R&B group Full Force. “I’m sitting here staring at my gold record that should be platinum.”
This article originally appeared in the Dec. 21 issue of Billboard.
-
Pages