Before hip-hop became a global business, before the world understood what this music could be, Curtis Blow was out there helping make history.
We built the music and the culture from the ground up. We didn't even call it hip-hop. It was called rocking, breaking, burning, partying.
How does it feel, Curtis, to see little Joey become Run-DMC?
I remember him at 13. I used to protect him from Russell. Could nobody touch him. Like the movie Crush Groove. This guy right here, he was my heart. Still is.
This man said, 'If I rule the world,' you did rule the world. So I had to do your song over with Miss Lauryn Hill. How did you like that song, my brother?
Oh my gosh, man. I'm on a stage with all my heroes.
You know the way y'all look like, y'all look like radios back then. I was a kid. That was the face, speakers was what I was looking at. I would stare at the radio just like, what's their life like?
Well, I think I should tie my shoes.
Those are some nice shoes too, Mr. Blow. Mr. Blow clean.
So, tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we're celebrating one of the architects of this culture. Before hip-hop became a global business, before the world understood what this music could be, Curtis Blow was out there helping make history. And for me personally, his music became part of my own journey. So, this conversation is more about legacy than records. It's about the man, the movement he started, and the legacy he carries. So, let's get right into it. Mr. The Curtis Blow, The King.
What was it like? Take me back to Harlem, New York, before the record deals, before the hit records. What was young Curtis Walker dreaming about? Did you ever imagine hip-hop would take you around the world?
Wow. Well, you know, going back to those days when hip-hop was really, really brand new. I mean, we didn't even call it hip-hop. It was called rocking, breaking, burning, partying. You know, we just loved music and we wanted to have a good time.
You know, the context of the whole situation was we were coming out of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. I remember Martin Luther King was assassinated, Malcolm X, you know, JFK, RFK. You know, community organizers were having debates and protests with activists and government officials and they were arguing. It was traumatic during that time. But there was a community organizer who wrote a book and he had this one statement. He said, 'You know, the buildings are burning down on one side of the street, but the kids on the other are trying to put something together.'
And you know, I don't know if you know about the Bronx in the 70s. There was a documentary called The Bronx is Burning. And all of that, and landlord owners would just fire up, you know, put their building on fire just to collect the insurance money. And so every block had a building been burnt down to the ground. So we also hung out in these abandoned buildings and you can go in there. The first time we would see something like graffiti, you know, a guy with a sign on the wall with a magic marker: 'My name is John. Here I am. Now I'm not here.' So now you know.
And so, you know, that was graffiti, but it was like degradation. And I remember the president came to New York and he refused to give us money because New York was broke at the time. And so I remember the newspaper: the president says no to federal aid to New York City to clean it up because of all the degradation that was going on with the buildings and everything. But you know, we came out of that era, that moment in time where we didn't have anything. We had nothing. We built the music and the culture from the ground up with nothing.
With nothing. Just the love of the music, you know, it was very, very important, you know. It was more like escapism for us. I remember just going to the club and putting my head in the speaker and listening to the bass rumble all the way down to my toes, and I would close my eyes and just go off. And that was hip-hop to me, you know.
Was it disco music you was listening to?
Uh, that's a good question because it was definitely disco. I am an avid supporter of that era. Disco music was so very important. Like I say, you know, we're coming out of the civil rights movement and then we have the right to vote and then we have the hippies and the flower children and, you know, love your neighbor movement, and dancing became our greatest pastime. Everyone would work all week. You work hard all week. You go to the disco or the club downtown with the strobe lights and the disco ball and the lights are flashing and everybody's looking good with suits and ties and silk dresses, and we danced the night away and that was it. So hip-hop came out of that era.
Yeah. I called it a mutation of disco.
Wow. Even more so, it's ghetto disco.
I'm from the hood. I'm up in Harlem. I didn't have the money to pay to get in those clubs. So, in 1975, I was 16. I got a phony ID down on 42nd Street, right? And so it made me 21. So I could get in all the clubs, man. I went to the Leviticus, the Nemo, Neguins, Superstar, Cafeteria, Hotel Diplomat, Ipanema's, the Garage. Man, I was there. You name it. I went to every disco in New York City because I was studying to become a DJ. So, I wanted to see all the different styles and do my research and find out. All right. Yeah. So, I ran up to DJ Hollywood up in the Bronx, 371.
I thought he's from Harlem. DJ...
He's from Harlem, but he was number one up at Club 371, the House of Joy and Fun. And that was it. I saw him. He had a line around the block trying to get in. And man, I saw this man just do some incredible stuff on the microphone that I never heard before. Now I'm an MC already, right? I've been rapping, or let's say MCing, since 1974 in Harlem at the Wham.
In '74 is when I started MCing. I was trying to impersonate my hero on the radio. His name was Hank Span. WWRL Super 16 on the radio.
So I did that voice impersonating him at a club called the Wham. It was an old police station on 152nd Street and Amsterdam, the hill, and across the street from the Battlegrounds. I know you heard of the Battlegrounds. 151st and 152nd. It's a park right there. We did battles right there. But anyway, that was my first job.
Real history, y'all. Real history, the real New York history and hip-hop history.
So, for somebody that was there. So, how did you get discovered? Sorry to cut you off. How did Curtis Blow get discovered as a rapper and signed to be the first rapper on a major label?
Um, well, as the years went by, you know, I convinced Russell. Russell and I met in college, '77. Well, I went to college a year earlier. I was 17 when I met Russell and convinced him to come over to my block in Harlem and listen to me DJ.
So, I had it all set up. I had my crew, you know, my team, my whole block was there. It was crowded. We had, I don't know, about 150 people in a house party. And I'm sitting there, I'm doing my whole Hollywood. I'm 'throw your hands in the air and wave them like you just don't care.' And if you got on clean underwear, somebody say, 'Oh yeah.' Right. And somebody screamed, 'Oh yeah,' all that stuff, the crowd response. And he heard that, and our crowd, it was set up, you know, when he came in. I said, 'All right, let's go.' Right. And we threw on Good Times. Oh my gosh. Nile Rodgers, you know. And so I rocked Good Times for Russell and we became friends.
Went back to school and I learned in communications, that was my major. I learned in communications is you want to make it in the big city. You know, New York, we had a lot of competition, like at least 50 MCs during that time, you know, in '78, '79. And so I said, I learned that if you want to compete, go out to the outskirts of the city into what we call the boondocks and get yourself a track record, you know, pull out a number one in this market, a number one in this market, and then come back to the big city and say, 'Hey, man, give me a shot. I'm number one here. I'm number one over there. You know, I'm doing my thing. I got a track record, blah blah blah blah blah,' right? And that's how you get successfully, you know, a job on anything.
But then so I said, Russell, let's open up a club out in your hood. We opened up the Night Fever disco, and that's where I met Run, Joey. And so I used to go out there on the weekends and stay at his house.
I used to cook breakfast for y'all.
Yeah, and so we had a great family. I got together at Run's house, you know.
I used to give flyers, put the flyers up on Jamaica Avenue. That was my first job, to put flyers up.
Rush Productions. And Kurt was down with Rush Productions as a promoter with Russell. They promoted Kurt. They both went to CCNY, right? And I was just a little kid wanting to be down. So whatever I could do to get down, I would do. Whether I was cook breakfast or get them socks or whatever. I remember my father taking him to the store. I just used to cater to them and I was just trying to sneak my way in and Kurt took me under the wing.
Yep. Yeah. And you know that story that you told about you breaking your arm.
I thought it was your arm.
No, it was my wrist. I broke my wrist.
And I was heartbroken because not only my wrist was broke, my heart was broke because I couldn't go on tour because I was his DJ.
Yeah. But how old were you, Run?
You see. And so I used to stay at his house a lot, right? Because I'm coming out on the weekend with a whole two crates of records and taking the train and a bus and all that. And then I started driving cab.
You was a DJ before you was a rapper.
He was like a mixture of a DJ and a rapper.
Of course. Yes. Yes. Yes.
I remember that. Both of you were.
Yes. I started out as a DJ. But the one thing, like Joey used to, he had an attic upstairs, right?
Yeah. I took it over from my brother.
Him and the whole crew used to be up there. His dad bought him some turntables.
Turntables. Yep. But no, you bought the turntables by paying me. Used to give me $35 a show, which was a billion dollars back then. And I bought some Quanta's. I wasn't able to get the Technics. Remember the Quanta's? And I used to DJ. And I got real fast. I used to go so fast you just catch air.
He was awesome. Incredible as a...
Nothing. The lady's about to say something. We had a show. He would come out by himself, DJ for a little while, and then I come out, not even introduce myself, and start DJing. And he would take the mic and start rapping.
Yep. That's where I met my wife at, at a Long Island ring.
And then after he did a couple of numbers, he would come back to the turntables and cut up our intro. Yes. And I would start the show.
And that's how I came up with calling him out, and then they'd chant 'Curtis Blow, Curtis Blow.' I came up with that.
