Boombox Memories-Kurtis Blow 12:10:25 3.15 PM

Story by: Gail Nobles

Remember those big silver boomboxes? Some were so heavy you could barely lift them. I once asked a classmate in 5th grade if I could have his boombox. He said yes, but only because he knew I wouldn’t be able to carry it since it was so heavy. I wondered how he managed to move it at all. He wasn’t really going to give up his prized boombox.

Before 5th grade, I knew another guy who loved to carry his boombox on the school bus and would blast Kurtis Blow’s popular rap song “The Breaks” back in 1980. The bass was really deep, and I was amazed. It was my first time hearing Kurtis Blow after I had heard the Sugar Hill Gang in 1979. I remember him saying that “Kurtis Blow was better than the Sugar Hill Gang.” He would rap along with Kurtis Blow, his voice booming with the bass. I dreamed of having a big boombox playing that song.

I'm Gail Nobles, and you're listening to Q MEMORS

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