In the spring of 1979, Billboard writer Rocky Ford had an idea to pen a Christmas rap song in hopes that it would receive airplay yearly like Bing Crosby and other writers of holiday classics. It was a lofty idea since the only rap record that had been released commercially was "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" by The Fatback Band, which was essentially a funk song that contained rapping. Rap as a genre of music had not yet become a reality and outside of New York, no one knew what it was.

Rocky's colleague at Billboard, J.B. Moore, wrote some festive bars, and the result was Kurtis Blow's debut as a recording artist and Hip-Hop's first holiday song. "Christmas Rappin'" was also one of more than a dozen rap singles released in 1979, but the only other single to be taken seriously by radio and the recording industry was Sugar Hill Gang's "Rappers Delight," which was released only a couple of months before.

Prior to "Christmas Rappin'," Kurtis was no stranger to MCing. His A-list of DJs included the late DJ AJ, Davy DMX and DJ Run (later of Run DMC), who was dubbed "The Son of Kurtis Blow." Kurtis also promoted parties with a young Russell Simmons under the name "Force College Disco," and his first performance was opening for the legendary DJ Hollywood at Hotel Diplomat.

"One night, I was performing at Hotel Diplomat and I was on fire that night," Kurtis told The Foundation. "J.B. Moore and Robert Ford from Billboard were in the crowd, and that's how I got my record deal. I invited Grandmaster Flash to be my DJ, but he stuck with the Furious 5, which I understood."

Kurtis says the road to "Christmas Rappin" was a rocky one. He told ROCK THE BELLS that his demo was turned down many times.

“We got turned down twenty-one times! Twenty-one 'no’s'—and the twenty-first was from the owner of an independent label called Panorama Records run by the man that would sign Run-D.M.C. three years later – Cory Robbins," he explained.

It took John Stainze, who was from Britain and worked with Phonogram Records (a division of Mercury), to convince his colleagues in the L.A. office to sign Kurtis after he received the demo from J.B. Moore. According to Blow, the terms of his deal stated that his first single needed to sell at least 30,000 copies in order for him to release a second single. The second single needed to sell 50,000 in order for him to record an album. “Christmas Rappin'” sold 370,000 in its first year, and his follow-up, “The Breaks,” sold 870,000 in its first year. A full-length album was next.

Musically, “Christmas Rappin’” abandoned sleigh bells and the typical instruments found in holiday music and instead followed the tradition of the funk and disco music that was still very much alive in 1979. Producer and bass player Larry Smith told Robbie Ettelson of Cuepoint, “'Good Times' by Chic was the biggest record in 1979 and we just changed up the cadence of that bassline.”

To prevent Kurtis from having to rhyme over his own vocals, an instrumental “Do it yourself” version was released as the flip side of “Christmas Rappin’." This became a standard for rap singles since they previously contained a long version A-side and a short version B-side.

“Christmas Rappin’” is the gift that keeps giving. It’s been sampled over two hundred times and still gets the party jumping today. Rocky Ford’s vision of a song that could receive airplay every year was more than fulfilled, as “Christmas Rappin’” has been a holiday staple for more than four decades. Kurtis Blow continues to reign as Hip Hop’s holiday king with his Hip Hop Nutcracker which is in its eighth year. A new Disney film adaptation of the production, narrated by Run, is streaming on Netflix.