Kurtis Blow's The Breaks is rap's first gold single

Kurtis Blow : The Breaks

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In June of 1980 Kurtis Blow released "The Breaks", the first certified gold rap song  and the #1 single of the year according to the Village Voice Pazz and Jop Critics poll. 

Blow, whose real name is Kurtis Walker, had grown up in Harlem and been a competitive breakdancer since the age of 13. 

Breakdancers literally get their name from dance moves inspired by funky breaks in soul songs. When DJs like Grandmaster Flash figured out how to extend those breaks with two turntables playing the same song, club announcers started rapping over them and a new musical genre was born.

After the success of  1979's "Christmas Rappin'", Blow's producers asked him what he would like to do next.

I said, “Well, I want to do a song with a lot of breaks in it for the B-Boys to get down; A song that we can dance to with a lot of funky breaks that we can just do our B-Bboy moves!" ... So we took those good things and bad things in one’s life as a break, a good break or bad break in one’s life. So that became one of the connotations of the song. And not only did we have funky breaks, but we had a message like the good or bad things that could happen in one’s life… it’s like a break. Or breaks on a bus, breaks on a car, breaks that’ll make you a superstar [laughs]. So the song was birthed.

Blow's single  hit #87 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, #4 on the U.S. Billboard R+B chart, and #9 on the U.S. Billboard dance chart.