Kurtis Blow – “The Breaks” single cover
Contributed by Herb Lubalin Study Center
on Mar 23rd, 2021. Artwork published in
.
Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.
The cover of Kurtis Blow’s seminal 12″ single record—the first hip-hop single to go gold—uses the classic trio of typefaces popular with the 70s and 80s album cover designers: Prisma, ITC Tiffany, and Times New Roman.
[More info on Discogs]
This wasn’t the first time Prisma appeared on a Kurtis Blow record. In 1979 a special promo edition of the Christmas Rappin’ album cover used Prisma along with Times New Roman, see below.
Source: www.discogs.com License: All Rights Reserved.
4 Comments on “Kurtis Blow – “The Breaks” single cover”
Regarding the design of this record cover: as far as I remember, unless I’m mistaken, it was Neville Brody’s.
Thanks, Martier!
Neville Brody is credited for the design of the UK 12″ sleeve of “Party Time” from 1985, see below.
I doubt that he also did the shown one for “The Breaks”: it isn’t really his style, and also it’s a US release. In 1980, Brody was 23 and fresh out of college. He just started out as art director for Fetish Records in London. I don’t think he got commissions from overseas at that time.
Agreeing with Florian on this.
It is true that given the very assertive style that Neville Brody developed from his first creations, my proposal is completely surprising. It is perhaps linked, but then wrongly, to the references reproduced in the pages of the work “The Graphic Language of N.B.” above and which I have, over time, associated by mistake.
But then, who created this record cover which, it must still be emphasized, had very strong visibility by representing one of the very first visuals of US Rap in all the clubs and on the desks of European DJs?
I’m throwing a bottle to the sea: Neville Brody, in an issue of The Face which dealt with the new American musical trend in 1984, illustrated his front page with a remarkable “ELECTRO”, perhaps he will give us the end of the story.