The Breaks

"The Breaks" is a hip-hop landmark, released in 1980 when rap records were just starting to appear. Kurtis Blow had been performing live a block parties as an MC and breakdancer for years, and he fused that energy into the song. In a Songfacts interview with Kurtis Blow, he said: "The concept was created as a tribute to all the breakers in and around the South Bronx and Harlem back in the early days of hip-hop. I wanted to do a tribute song with many breaks so that the breakers could get down and do their thing. When we danced during the breaks of a song, that was our time to go off - to do our best moves."

"Breaks" are breakbeats, the substrate of hip-hop. DJs like Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash would find the sections of songs with just drums and maybe some vocal stabs and put a copy of each record on their two turntables. When the breakbeat came to its conclusion on the first turntable, they'd switch the fader to the second turntable, where they had the same breakbeat cued up. This way they could play the break over and over, creating a beat an MC could rap over. Lyrically, this song explores the multiple meanings of the word to create a fun, clever flow with a bona fide party vide. It came about when Kurtis took the idea to his producers, J.B. Moore and Robert Ford. J.B. came up with the concept of other implied meanings for "breaks," like brakes on a bus or a car, good breaks or bad breaks in life. Kurtis told Songfacts: "He referred back to this old song, a philosophy song, I think it came out in 1920 or something, where a guy was talking, saying - 'Oh, your girlfriend left you, and you lost your job and your car got towed away, well don't worry, tomorrow the sun will shine and everything will be alright' - good breaks and bad breaks can happen in life, but don't worry because there's always another tomorrow. We wanted to repeat that concept and have the many meanings within one song."

"The Breaks" was the first rap song to sell over 500,000 copies, earning a certified Gold record. "Rapper's Delight," released a year earlier, certainly sold a lot more (as Kurtis attests), but that song was released on the independent label Sugar Hill Records, which apparently never sent it to the RIAA for certification. Kurtis Blow was signed to Mercury Records, a major label that followed the standards and used their Gold records for promotion. When Kurtis signed with Mercury in early 1980, he became the first rapper signed to a major label. His self-titled debut album (with "The Breaks") was the first rap record released on a major label.