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Kurtis Blow and unidentified male
Visual image
Kurtis Blow
Datec. 1986
Mediumchromogenic color prints
DimensionsOverall (HWD): 3 1/2 × 4 7/8 in. (8.89 × 12.383 cm)
Credit LineMoPOP permanent collection
Object number1999.733.259
Text EntriesKurtis Blow (Kurtis Walker, b. 1959) became the first rapper to be signed by a major record label, Mercury Records in 1979. His first single “Christmas Rappin’” sold more than 400,000 copies and became a holiday staple. With his second release, “The Breaks”, in 1980, Blow earned the first gold record ever for a Rap artist and launched the careers of The Fat Boys and Run-DMC. He went on to accomplish many other firsts including being the first Rap artist to star in a national television commercial (Sprite, 1986), making the first Rap video (“Basketball,” 1984), and acting in a soap opera (One Life to Live, 1991). He is also the founder of the International Hip-Hop Museum.
Colored photo of two men smiling.
CopyrightThis work is issued under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License. For more information, go to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
On View
Not on view
Kurtis Blow
Date: c. 1985
Medium: leather
Object number: 1999.221.1,.2
Kurtis Blow
Date: c. 1980
Medium: ink; paper (fiber product)
Object number: 1999.221.4
Kurtis Blow
Date: 1988
Medium: ink; paper (fiber product)
Object number: 1998.802.27
Fat Boys
Date: May 1986
Medium: chromogenic color prints
Object number: 1999.733.249
Heartbeat Brothers
Date: May 1986
Medium: chromogenic color prints
Object number: 1999.733.256
Kurtis Blow
Date: 1979
Medium: polyvinyl chloride; paper (fiber product); ink
Object number: 2001.279.15.A,.B
Kurtis Blow
Date: 1979
Medium: polyvinyl chloride; paper (fiber product); ink
Object number: 2001.482.7.A,.B
Symbolic Three
Date: c. 1984
Medium: chromogenic color prints
Object number: 1999.733.130
Disco Fever
Date: c. 1981
Medium: chromogenic color prints
Object number: 2001.400.4
DJ Breakout
Date: c. 1980
Medium: chromogenic color prints
Object number: 2001.400.5
Funky 4+1
Date: c.1981
Medium: chromogenic color prints
Object number: 2001.400.6