J.B. Moore, an advertising man from suburban Long Island who wrote the lyrics to one of rap’s first hits — Kurtis Blow’s 1979 novelty song, “Christmas Rappin'” — and with a partner, Robert Ford, produced that rapper’s albums as he became a breakout star in the early 1980s, died on March 13 in Manhattan. He was 81.
His friend Seth Glassman said the cause of his death, in a nursing home, was pancreatic cancer.
Mr. Moore and Mr. Ford, known as Rocky, were unlikely music impresarios. They met at Billboard magazine in the 1970s, where Mr. Moore was an advertising salesman who wrote occasional jazz reviews, and where Mr. Ford was a reporter and critic and one of the first journalists at a mainstream publication to expose the musical fusion created by DJs and MCs that was then emerging from New York City block parties and Black discos.
More than 20 labels rejected “Christmas Rappin'” before Mercury finally released it in December. It reached the Top 30 in Britain and, although it failed to chart in the United States, became a go-to party jam long after the holidays. It went on to sell more than 350,000 copies.
With the help of two producers, Mr. Blow became the first rap artist to sign with a major label and find commercial success. His debut album, released by Mercury in 1980 and simply called “Kurtis Blow,” contained the single “The Breaks,” an absurdist litany of life’s misfortunes, which soared to No. 4 on the Billboard R&B chart, showing a skeptical record industry that rap records could be more than novelties.
Source link
