Music historian, hip hop archivist, writer, publicist, and perhaps the world’s best Christmas mixtape maker, Bill Adler, has put together a historical chat book about The Making of Kurtis Blow’s Christmas Rappin’. Full of insightful info from the man himself as well as a grip of archival flyers, record scans, photos and more (Courtesy of Adler as well as Pete Nice), the book weaves a tale of how the infamous record came to be and its rich history.

“That’s a totally different meter from the way we rapped then. But it was so witty, and I welcomed the opportunity to do it.” Blow notes that he himself wrote the lyrics for the second half of the record—“about Santa Claus being in the party and there’s a whole big crowd and everyone’s having a great time.”

Kurtis Blow

Adler is a storyteller with much experience and has lived through all of this. By this, we mean hip hop. A staple part of the movement from day one, Adler gives us all killer no filler on the 40th Anniversary of this historical music event. Perfect for those who love the holidays or are just plain music lovers. His journey has been really magical, and if you’ve read anything he’s written you know that the man is a walking encyclopedia. On-point and on time, Ill Badler strikes again. If you’ve never heard of any of this but recognize the Beastie Boys sample from the original track below, get ready to fall down a rabbit hole of hip-hop history in this short subway ride of a book. This book is really something special. Shout outs to Noah Uman for helping put this together. Listen to the track below and order the book after the stream.

Get a copy of the book here.

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