all right so brakes on a train brakes on
a plane brakes to make you go insane
brakes in love and brakes in war we got
the brakes to get you all on the floor
so just clap your hands everybody if
you’ve got what it takes
I’m Kurtis Blow and I want you to know
that these are the birds hello everyone
I’m Kurtis Blow and I’m here to spit
some game to you about how that song
became the soundtrack of my 1980 and how
this thing we call hip hop became an
international sensation so let’s go back
in time for a little context and it was
the 1960s and 70s it was a challenging
time a really rough and tough time for
America we had the civil rights movement
community organizers and government
officials were arguing and fighting
there was a lot of change the winds of
change in the air there were
assassinations JFK Martin Luther King
Malcolm X was a rough and tough time but
music music was our xscape ISM you could
go to the clubs or the disco and dance
your night away as a matter of fact
dancing became America’s pastime just
forget about your troubles forget about
your cares escapism
and the dancers became the life of the
party you know even the DJ became a
superstar he controlled the music he
controlled the tempo of the music the
lights the ambience of the club the DJ
was the man you know but he had to play
certain songs dance music of course but
even within the dance music he had to
play certain parts of a song to cater to
the
now during this time my favorite artist
was James Brown I was a James Brown
clone fanatic he was incredible awesome
with the dance moves and man his music
was sensational he created a revolution
a music revolution
he had a drummer named Clyde
Stubblefield that played some of the
most funkiest drums that you ever would
want to hear and it was syncopated he
had this anticipation on the snare and
the hi-hat and it was so funky we called
it boom back and it went like and when
we heard that as dancers we lost our
mind you know we were listening to the
Motown sound The Supremes and the
temptations and the Four Tops and the
Beatles and Elvis Presley four here
comes James Brown and the most important
thing the most incredible thing was that
he had 15 seconds of glory and each one
of his song 15 seconds of freedom 15
seconds of anarchy where the dancer
could just go out and do their thing and
just go off and that is what we call the
drum solo James Brown was famous for
giving his musicians solos so when Clyde
Stubblefield got his opportunity to do
the solo we lost our mind and that was
it that was the boom bat the break the
break became the canvas that allowed us
to paint so you couldn’t imagine the
1970s during this time everybody wanted
to be James Brown and dance like James
Brown with the funky moves and go down
to the floor just take it to the next
level you know with acrobatics and
footwork and all of these great moves
man it was all about being like James
Brown
and he actually inspired the DJ is doing
that time yeah he was demand that
inspired the DJ’s that came like who
Herc and Afrika Bambaataa Grandmaster
Flash
but that break that break was our canvas
to paint so you couldn’t believe it was
just like Saturday Night Fever the movie
remember John Travolta well just picture
this 12 o’clock at night you’re at the
club everybody’s dancing having a good
time and here comes one dancer he’s
doing incredible dance moves like James
Brown so all the people stopped dancing
they moved back and create a circle
around him and so he’s in the circle
doing this thing pretty soon somebody
else comes in a circle to compete and
they have a battle so the winner of this
competition is the most popular dancer
he’s the hero he gets the girl right so
this sort of thing happened up in the
Bronx in the South Bronx and of course
you know Harlem places like that and
people inside the circle this circle is
still around today it’s called a cypher
you see emcees inside the cypher deejays
battling doing their thing the people
inside the circle were called b-boys and
b-girls because they dance to the breaks
and they were Bronx boys or beat boys or
break boys and it was an incredible time
I remember there was a DJ by the name of
Kool Herc and he understood about the
b-boys and the breaks and the 15 seconds
of glory so he represented and played
the songs that we wanted to hear that we
could break dance to and his sound his
parties became legendary
and he’s widely known as the father of
hip-hop because he played these songs we
call him those joints you know like 10
James Brown songs in a row and this was
in a world of disco and everybody was
listening YMCA and we’re like no man we
want to hear this funk this soul music
you’re a funk so he became the father of
hip hop and then there was another DJ
who came right after Kool Herc
his name was grandmaster flash and flash
also understood about the 15 seconds of
glory and you know the b-boys were
researchers we were like scientists of
sound and we would go to your mom’s
house or your uncle’s house in your your
your dad’s house and just sit up all day
listening to the record collection
trying to find that one song that had a
incredible break so we can do our moves
too and then we would take it back to
the DJ no DJ is so when Grandmaster
Flash heard this man he was like okay I
have to find a way that they take this
15 seconds of glory and extend it
because he knew that everybody would
lose their mind when the break came we
would do our best dance moves when the
break came and so he wanted to extend
the break so this is turntablism
evolution and he got two of the same
records the songs that hurt was playing
and he would just play the break start
off playing the break he got about eight
copy eight different songs and two of
the same coffee so he played the break
and when the break got to the end he
would start it over again plant it with
the next the same record so he would
continuously play the song it would loop
over and over and over again and it was
continuous and he took that 15 seconds
and extended it making it three to four
minutes long and that’s his contribution
we owe him so much for our master flash
and it gave the emcee the opportunity to
shine you know that was what it was and
when I say
see I mean master ceremonies or rapper
you know when I say rap today it’s the
focal point of hip-hop it’s the pillar
of hip-hop they’re the guys making all
the money
you see jay-z out there doing his thing
right but back in the days the emcees
we’re a dime a dozen
we were just sidekicks to the DJ as a
matter of fact what we did was we
carried the equipment from the house
take it to the club set it up at the
club and at the end of the night break
it down and then carry it back to the
house and the DJ’s will let us send free
so we could talk to the girls
and pretty soon if you were good enough
he’d let you make announcements like yo
Joey your mom’s outside is 12 o’clock
but you’ll Sam your car is getting too
you know
so flash gave us the opportunity to do
more than just make announcements we
became front men and we started telling
stories in rhyme to the rhythm of the
beat and using crowd response
interacting with the crowd like say ho
you know that was our thing we started
becoming the stars instead of the
sidekick standing on the side of the
turntables on the side of the DJ we went
out front center stage and that was sort
of like because of Grandmaster Flash
extending the break turning that 15
seconds into three minutes he enabled us
to shine and we are deeply indebted to
Grandmaster Flash and now hip-hop has
developed beautifully beautifully in an
organic way hip-hop exploded in 1979 we
built a candless we built this
vocabulary on top of the boom back and
on top of the funk on top of the soul
music the rappers the scratches the
emcee
he’s the b-boys the breakers the
graffiti artists all of this was because
of the exploration of the break the love
of the drone hip-hop was the innate love
of the drone and so by 1979 hip-hop
exploded on to the sea rapper’s delight’
by the Sugar Hill Gang well actually
first before rapper’s delight’ in 1979
it was the artist by the name of King
Tim the third he made a song called
personality job along with the fatback
band that came out in January February
of 1979 but in the summer of 1979
here comes rapper’s delight’ every car
every bus every train every cab every
boombox every barbershop every radio
station everyone was playing this song
24/7 365 and it was a huge hit we still
don’t know how many records is sold some
say 17 18 million but we all are deeply
indebted to the Sugar Hill Gang
so a long cane though along comes a
young college student by the name of
Kurt Walker yes I was studying in
yes I was studying communications and
speech broadcasting with a minor in film
and it was my idea to gain an advantage
over everyone else who was in hip-hop
because there was so much competition
during that time so what I did was I
made the analogy that communications is
the most relative feel to hip-hop and
rap is more like a speech you know so I
came up with this rap theory in and put
them all in boxes with philosophy and
everything but at the same time besides
studying
we also partied on the weekends and my
crew we used to party we used to give a
lot of great parties the force in
college disco we were called and man wow
just going around remember in those days
with some good old days but by 1979 my
crew and I we built up a big buzz in
Harlem in the Bronx and also Queens and
we got the opportunity to make a song
and make a record but it’s only because
of that debt you know that will and that
won’t afford it to to to actually study
practical study and take the culture
into the classroom in the classroom into
the culture and so we got the
opportunity to make my first song in
1979 Christmas Bratz and it was an
annual Christmas classic my shout out to
all the radio out there for making it an
annual hit like Nat King Cole planted on
the radio every year but I still have my
love for James Brown we had James Brown
guitars and Christmas
and and my style of music my sound was a
cross between James Brown and the number
one group during that time was a group
called chic so I developed this sound
that was sort of like what I say what I
call a progressive disco funk and my
love for James Brown always was there
you know I always wanted to take it back
to my roots to the to those days that a
drum solos in in the break so in 1980 we
recorded a song called the breaks and
that was my ode to the b-boys I wanted
to make a song with a lot of breaks in
it sort of b-boys could do their thing
and it became a huge success I mean it
was the very first certified gold rap
song for the history of hip-hop so the
other unique thing about that song was
that you know it was music theory it was
like we created a lane for everyone else
to follow and I’ll give you example see
the Sugar Hill Gang record rapper’s
delight’ was non-stop rap all the way
through their song continuous rap from
beginning to end 21 minutes long great
song but the breaks we had the first
chorus the first hook these all the
breaks break it up break it up break it
up you know that was the first hook and
so that was designed because we wanted
to take it to the next level and use not
only that but it had a lot of breaks in
it as well to break it up and so we also
were very much into fusion of different
genres of music like for instance I was
the first to do a rock and roll rock and
roll rap the first to do a Country and
Western rap on my first album the song
called Way Out West and and we were the
first to use a drum machine first to use
a sample first to use a sample loop we
revolutionized the music industry three
or four times I mean I took Bob Dylan
how to rap
I told Sheila E
listen do we have any more time here but
hip-hop to me is incredible awesome the
love of the culture you know society of
young people who love and cherish the
elements of the culture but let’s fast
forward to today hip hop is incredible
you travel outside of the country
everybody’s into hip hop we live in a
hip hop generation hip hop is the number
one music in the whole world and it’s
all because of the break all because of
love of that break you know I’m gonna
shout out Kendrick Lamar and he’s doing
this thing today also chance the rapper
it’s got some great messages and his
music
my man future I love his stuff man you
know cats are doing their nas over here
in New York doing their thing cats are
doing this thing man hey you guys want
to hear my top five rappers of all time
my top five rappers here goes me myself
ah Kurtis Blow
self-esteem okay
no no but really folks hip-hop is
incredible now I mean it’s a number one
genre of music in the world I mean just
last year 2017 25% of all music streamed
was hip-hop that’s an incredible feat
yes we have come of age and hip-hop is
now taken over so we live in a hip-hop
generation I want to say to all my young
people out there
college students educators the creative
people songwriters b-boys b-girls emcees
I mean being fluent sirs the designers
all of you this is a hip-hop generation
so find your breaks in your field and
then add your signature to it keep the
culture alive keep the spirit of the
culture alive with practical study and
research and I promise you if you dare
to be different I promise you hip-hop well thank you I love you all think
a plane brakes to make you go insane
brakes in love and brakes in war we got
the brakes to get you all on the floor
so just clap your hands everybody if
you’ve got what it takes
I’m Kurtis Blow and I want you to know
that these are the birds hello everyone
I’m Kurtis Blow and I’m here to spit
some game to you about how that song
became the soundtrack of my 1980 and how
this thing we call hip hop became an
international sensation so let’s go back
in time for a little context and it was
the 1960s and 70s it was a challenging
time a really rough and tough time for
America we had the civil rights movement
community organizers and government
officials were arguing and fighting
there was a lot of change the winds of
change in the air there were
assassinations JFK Martin Luther King
Malcolm X was a rough and tough time but
music music was our xscape ISM you could
go to the clubs or the disco and dance
your night away as a matter of fact
dancing became America’s pastime just
forget about your troubles forget about
your cares escapism
and the dancers became the life of the
party you know even the DJ became a
superstar he controlled the music he
controlled the tempo of the music the
lights the ambience of the club the DJ
was the man you know but he had to play
certain songs dance music of course but
even within the dance music he had to
play certain parts of a song to cater to
the
now during this time my favorite artist
was James Brown I was a James Brown
clone fanatic he was incredible awesome
with the dance moves and man his music
was sensational he created a revolution
a music revolution
he had a drummer named Clyde
Stubblefield that played some of the
most funkiest drums that you ever would
want to hear and it was syncopated he
had this anticipation on the snare and
the hi-hat and it was so funky we called
it boom back and it went like and when
we heard that as dancers we lost our
mind you know we were listening to the
Motown sound The Supremes and the
temptations and the Four Tops and the
Beatles and Elvis Presley four here
comes James Brown and the most important
thing the most incredible thing was that
he had 15 seconds of glory and each one
of his song 15 seconds of freedom 15
seconds of anarchy where the dancer
could just go out and do their thing and
just go off and that is what we call the
drum solo James Brown was famous for
giving his musicians solos so when Clyde
Stubblefield got his opportunity to do
the solo we lost our mind and that was
it that was the boom bat the break the
break became the canvas that allowed us
to paint so you couldn’t imagine the
1970s during this time everybody wanted
to be James Brown and dance like James
Brown with the funky moves and go down
to the floor just take it to the next
level you know with acrobatics and
footwork and all of these great moves
man it was all about being like James
Brown
and he actually inspired the DJ is doing
that time yeah he was demand that
inspired the DJ’s that came like who
Herc and Afrika Bambaataa Grandmaster
Flash
but that break that break was our canvas
to paint so you couldn’t believe it was
just like Saturday Night Fever the movie
remember John Travolta well just picture
this 12 o’clock at night you’re at the
club everybody’s dancing having a good
time and here comes one dancer he’s
doing incredible dance moves like James
Brown so all the people stopped dancing
they moved back and create a circle
around him and so he’s in the circle
doing this thing pretty soon somebody
else comes in a circle to compete and
they have a battle so the winner of this
competition is the most popular dancer
he’s the hero he gets the girl right so
this sort of thing happened up in the
Bronx in the South Bronx and of course
you know Harlem places like that and
people inside the circle this circle is
still around today it’s called a cypher
you see emcees inside the cypher deejays
battling doing their thing the people
inside the circle were called b-boys and
b-girls because they dance to the breaks
and they were Bronx boys or beat boys or
break boys and it was an incredible time
I remember there was a DJ by the name of
Kool Herc and he understood about the
b-boys and the breaks and the 15 seconds
of glory so he represented and played
the songs that we wanted to hear that we
could break dance to and his sound his
parties became legendary
and he’s widely known as the father of
hip-hop because he played these songs we
call him those joints you know like 10
James Brown songs in a row and this was
in a world of disco and everybody was
listening YMCA and we’re like no man we
want to hear this funk this soul music
you’re a funk so he became the father of
hip hop and then there was another DJ
who came right after Kool Herc
his name was grandmaster flash and flash
also understood about the 15 seconds of
glory and you know the b-boys were
researchers we were like scientists of
sound and we would go to your mom’s
house or your uncle’s house in your your
your dad’s house and just sit up all day
listening to the record collection
trying to find that one song that had a
incredible break so we can do our moves
too and then we would take it back to
the DJ no DJ is so when Grandmaster
Flash heard this man he was like okay I
have to find a way that they take this
15 seconds of glory and extend it
because he knew that everybody would
lose their mind when the break came we
would do our best dance moves when the
break came and so he wanted to extend
the break so this is turntablism
evolution and he got two of the same
records the songs that hurt was playing
and he would just play the break start
off playing the break he got about eight
copy eight different songs and two of
the same coffee so he played the break
and when the break got to the end he
would start it over again plant it with
the next the same record so he would
continuously play the song it would loop
over and over and over again and it was
continuous and he took that 15 seconds
and extended it making it three to four
minutes long and that’s his contribution
we owe him so much for our master flash
and it gave the emcee the opportunity to
shine you know that was what it was and
when I say
see I mean master ceremonies or rapper
you know when I say rap today it’s the
focal point of hip-hop it’s the pillar
of hip-hop they’re the guys making all
the money
you see jay-z out there doing his thing
right but back in the days the emcees
we’re a dime a dozen
we were just sidekicks to the DJ as a
matter of fact what we did was we
carried the equipment from the house
take it to the club set it up at the
club and at the end of the night break
it down and then carry it back to the
house and the DJ’s will let us send free
so we could talk to the girls
and pretty soon if you were good enough
he’d let you make announcements like yo
Joey your mom’s outside is 12 o’clock
but you’ll Sam your car is getting too
you know
so flash gave us the opportunity to do
more than just make announcements we
became front men and we started telling
stories in rhyme to the rhythm of the
beat and using crowd response
interacting with the crowd like say ho
you know that was our thing we started
becoming the stars instead of the
sidekick standing on the side of the
turntables on the side of the DJ we went
out front center stage and that was sort
of like because of Grandmaster Flash
extending the break turning that 15
seconds into three minutes he enabled us
to shine and we are deeply indebted to
Grandmaster Flash and now hip-hop has
developed beautifully beautifully in an
organic way hip-hop exploded in 1979 we
built a candless we built this
vocabulary on top of the boom back and
on top of the funk on top of the soul
music the rappers the scratches the
emcee
he’s the b-boys the breakers the
graffiti artists all of this was because
of the exploration of the break the love
of the drone hip-hop was the innate love
of the drone and so by 1979 hip-hop
exploded on to the sea rapper’s delight’
by the Sugar Hill Gang well actually
first before rapper’s delight’ in 1979
it was the artist by the name of King
Tim the third he made a song called
personality job along with the fatback
band that came out in January February
of 1979 but in the summer of 1979
here comes rapper’s delight’ every car
every bus every train every cab every
boombox every barbershop every radio
station everyone was playing this song
24/7 365 and it was a huge hit we still
don’t know how many records is sold some
say 17 18 million but we all are deeply
indebted to the Sugar Hill Gang
so a long cane though along comes a
young college student by the name of
Kurt Walker yes I was studying in
yes I was studying communications and
speech broadcasting with a minor in film
and it was my idea to gain an advantage
over everyone else who was in hip-hop
because there was so much competition
during that time so what I did was I
made the analogy that communications is
the most relative feel to hip-hop and
rap is more like a speech you know so I
came up with this rap theory in and put
them all in boxes with philosophy and
everything but at the same time besides
studying
we also partied on the weekends and my
crew we used to party we used to give a
lot of great parties the force in
college disco we were called and man wow
just going around remember in those days
with some good old days but by 1979 my
crew and I we built up a big buzz in
Harlem in the Bronx and also Queens and
we got the opportunity to make a song
and make a record but it’s only because
of that debt you know that will and that
won’t afford it to to to actually study
practical study and take the culture
into the classroom in the classroom into
the culture and so we got the
opportunity to make my first song in
1979 Christmas Bratz and it was an
annual Christmas classic my shout out to
all the radio out there for making it an
annual hit like Nat King Cole planted on
the radio every year but I still have my
love for James Brown we had James Brown
guitars and Christmas
and and my style of music my sound was a
cross between James Brown and the number
one group during that time was a group
called chic so I developed this sound
that was sort of like what I say what I
call a progressive disco funk and my
love for James Brown always was there
you know I always wanted to take it back
to my roots to the to those days that a
drum solos in in the break so in 1980 we
recorded a song called the breaks and
that was my ode to the b-boys I wanted
to make a song with a lot of breaks in
it sort of b-boys could do their thing
and it became a huge success I mean it
was the very first certified gold rap
song for the history of hip-hop so the
other unique thing about that song was
that you know it was music theory it was
like we created a lane for everyone else
to follow and I’ll give you example see
the Sugar Hill Gang record rapper’s
delight’ was non-stop rap all the way
through their song continuous rap from
beginning to end 21 minutes long great
song but the breaks we had the first
chorus the first hook these all the
breaks break it up break it up break it
up you know that was the first hook and
so that was designed because we wanted
to take it to the next level and use not
only that but it had a lot of breaks in
it as well to break it up and so we also
were very much into fusion of different
genres of music like for instance I was
the first to do a rock and roll rock and
roll rap the first to do a Country and
Western rap on my first album the song
called Way Out West and and we were the
first to use a drum machine first to use
a sample first to use a sample loop we
revolutionized the music industry three
or four times I mean I took Bob Dylan
how to rap
I told Sheila E
listen do we have any more time here but
hip-hop to me is incredible awesome the
love of the culture you know society of
young people who love and cherish the
elements of the culture but let’s fast
forward to today hip hop is incredible
you travel outside of the country
everybody’s into hip hop we live in a
hip hop generation hip hop is the number
one music in the whole world and it’s
all because of the break all because of
love of that break you know I’m gonna
shout out Kendrick Lamar and he’s doing
this thing today also chance the rapper
it’s got some great messages and his
music
my man future I love his stuff man you
know cats are doing their nas over here
in New York doing their thing cats are
doing this thing man hey you guys want
to hear my top five rappers of all time
my top five rappers here goes me myself
ah Kurtis Blow
self-esteem okay
no no but really folks hip-hop is
incredible now I mean it’s a number one
genre of music in the world I mean just
last year 2017 25% of all music streamed
was hip-hop that’s an incredible feat
yes we have come of age and hip-hop is
now taken over so we live in a hip-hop
generation I want to say to all my young
people out there
college students educators the creative
people songwriters b-boys b-girls emcees
I mean being fluent sirs the designers
all of you this is a hip-hop generation
so find your breaks in your field and
then add your signature to it keep the
culture alive keep the spirit of the
culture alive with practical study and
research and I promise you if you dare
to be different I promise you hip-hop well thank you I love you all think
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