When hip-hop began in mid- 1970s New York City, Kurtis Blow was there. He began as a breakdancer and music fan, moved on to DJing parties and nightclubs, and eventually became the first rapper to cut a full- length album on a major label. As a hip-hop pioneer, statesman and historian, his contribution to both the music and the culture is substantial. As a musical talent, though, he's just not so hot.

His debut was released in 1980, and the waning sounds of an exhausted disco age are all over the record. He has a full backing band as opposed to just a DJ, and they generally repeat the same warmed- over Chic grooves appropriated by the Sugarhill Gang for "Rappers Delight."

Blow's rapping is downright mediocre. He doesn't keep the beat very well, it's got the same high- accent- first/ low- accent- second rhythmic pattern on every couplet, and the lyrics (much of which he didn't even write) are silly and not terribly clever. The one thing we can attribute to him is the popularity of the generic rap call-out, "Everybody in the house say 'Ho!'"

Of course, the most embarrassing tracks on his debut were his attempts at soul balladry "All I Want In This World (Is To Find That Girl)" and the slaughtered covers of Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Taking Care of Business." Yes, he covers BTO, and he's not playing around. I wish I were making that up.

So, Blow's debut is either an historical artifact or a mildly amusing party disc for the tragically retro; other heads won't want to bother. But listen, he's a nice guy and he's now a disc jockey in Los Angeles, keeping the old school alive on the airwaves. So instead of this album, why not pick up Rhino Records' three volume series Kurtis Blow Presents: The History of Rap, which includes one of his few great tracks, "The Breaks."

-Mark Richard-San