Christmas Rappin'

Released December 7, 1979, this was the first rap song issued on a major label. Kurtis Blow recorded it with the help of producers Robert Ford and J.B. Moore. They took it to Mercury Records, who signed Kurtis to a two-single deal, under the condition that if both singles were successful, he would get an album deal. "Christmas Rappin'" was the first single, and it did very well, selling about 400,000 copies and proving there was a viable market for the upstart genre. The second single was "The Breaks," which became the first rap song certified Gold for selling over 500,000 copies. Kurtis got the album deal and became the first rapper signed to a major label.

Like many early rap songs, this one doesn't have a chorus, which means it also doesn't have an obvious title. In many of these songs, the word "rap" was incorporated into the title (see: "Rapper's Delight"), and in this case, "Christmas Rappin'" made for a clever play on the phrase "Christmas Wrapping." Two years later The Waitresses released a song with that title as a play on Kurtis' song.

This was the first successful Christmas rap song. It tells the story of Santa dropping in at a house party and joining in the fun. In a Songfacts interview with Kurtis Blow, he explained: "J.B. Moore wrote the first half of the song, the Christmas part. I did all of the party part, the second half of the song. I wrote all of that on a train ride down to the studio around Christmas time."