This is Kurtis Blow's year. He becomes the first rapper signed to a major record label, Mercury Records, where his song "The Breaks" becomes a certified gold record. He is the first to release a Hip Hop album, to embark on a Hip Hop tour, to be featured on television ("Soul Train" in October), and the first to give rap mainstream marketability (he also opened up for The Commodores and Bob Marley on tour). Rap is still seen as a fad although several disco-Hip Hop hybrids prove successful such as "Funk You Up", "Zulu Nation Throwdown Part I", "The New Rap Language", and "Monster Jam". Casper has the first rap record in Chicago, and The Sequence become the first all-female rap crew on record. Treacherous Three's "Body Rock" is the first Hip Hop song to use rock guitars, and Blondie member Deborah Harry's "Rapture" is the first massive Hip Hop record done by a white artist.
1. The Breaks - Kurtis Blow
2. The New Rap Language - Spoonie Gee and The Treacherous Three
3. Zulu Nation Throwdown Part I - Afrika Bambaataa & Cosmic Force
4. Funk You Up - The Sequence
5. Monster Jam - Spoonie Gee and The Sequence
6. Rapture - Blondie
7. 8th Wonder - The Sugarhill Gang
8. Freedom - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
9. Love Rap - Spoonie Gee and The Treacherous Three
10. Adventures of Super Rhyme (Rap) - Jimmy Spicer
11. Death Mix - Afrika Bambaataa
12. Spoonin' Rap - Spoonie Gee
13. Body Rock - The Treacherous Three
14. Vicious Rap - Tanya Winley
15. How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise? - Brother D with Collective Effort
Honorable Mention: Papa Dean - Sister Nancy