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40 Years of 'The Breaks': Kurtis Blow Remembers the ‘Dream World’ Surrounding Rap’s First Gold Hit

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A quick flashback to the simpler times of 1980 takes you to a place where 50 cents gets you a dozen eggs, $2.25 could purchase a movie ticket, and hip-hop was still in its commercial infancy.

And then Kurtis Blow arrived. A wide-eyed 21-year-old hailing from Harlem, Blow helped thrust rap into the mainstream for the masses with his second single "The Breaks," which celebrates its 40th anniversary on Sunday (June 14).

The seven-minute "progressive disco-funk" anthem -- which is the sub-genre Kurtis Blow coined when crafting his signature sound -- would go on to notch the Mercury Records artist a series of music firsts, as Blow entered the "dream world" that allowed him to live out his fantasy as rap's first solo superstar. "The Breaks" made

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