The first hard-times anthem in hip-hop, "The Breaks" united all the ingredients of the burgeoning party raps -- a repetitive funk riff on guitar, popping bass, party-people vocals -- with a social conscience that's half-comedic, half-cautionary. Though Kurtis Blow's rapping never wore very well, he's good for a laugh or two ("Ma Bell sends you a whopping bill/With 18 phone calls to Brazil) and a few warnings ("You borrowed money from your Mom/And yesterday you lost your job") while the impromptu backing chorus screams, "That's the breaks/That's the breaks!" One of early rap's biggest crossover stars, Blow took "The Breaks" to the R&B Top Five in 1980, and it even hit the pop charts.