Kurtis Blow is the only hip hop album I've heard from 1980, unless you count Sugarhill Gang, but Kurtis Blow is still a better album. Actuallly, it's a great album. If it didn't have two completely out of place tracks, it would have been even better. "All I Want in This World (Is to Find That Girl)" is an incredibly boring slow jam, with Kurtis Blow making a very weak attempt at singing. "Takin' Care of Business" is a cover of the Bachman-Turner Overdrive drive song. I hate the original version, but somehow Kurtis Blow butchers it and makes it much worse. Luckily all of the hip hop tracks are great and make up for those two weak tracks. "The Breaks" is a classic, "Way Out West" is my favorite track on the album, and the rest of the tracks are consistently good. The rhymes are simplistic, but it was 1980 and everybody's lyrics were simplistic. Kurtis Blow's voice and flow are catchy and the album is full of funky grooves. That's really all you could ask for in 1980.
