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Early hip hop writer and producer Robert Ford Jr dies
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 8 June 2020
Robert Ford Jr, who as a journalist and later producer was involved in hip hop’s early development, has died aged 70.
Ford was writing for Billboard in the late 1970s when a colleague mentioned an unusual trend in vinyl sales in New York to him. After investigating further, he ended up interviewing DJ Kool Herc about the then newly burgeoning hip hop scene. The resulting article – ‘B-Beats Bombarding Bronx: Mobile DJ Starts Something With Oldie R&B Disks’ – was published in Billboard in 1978, and was the first coverage of the scene in a mainstream publication.
Following that scene’s progress closely, he wrote many more articles and became closely associated with many of its early key players. In particular Russell Simmons, who he encouraged to become an artist manager.
Eventually he quit his job at Billboard in order to become a songwriter and producer. His first work in this new role was co-writing ‘Christmas Rappin’ with another former Billboard colleague, JB Moore. While Moore put up $10,000 towards recording the track, Ford selected Kurtis Blow – one of Simmons’ clients – to record it. Although they initially struggled to garner much record label interest, it was ultimately put out by Mercury in December 1979, finding immediate success.
Concerned that Blow – and possibly they – would be dismissed as a novelty act, Ford and Moore began work on a follow-up single for the rapper that would establish his credibility. The song they came up with was future classic ‘The Breaks’ – the first rap single to be certified gold by the US record industry.
Although he largely worked with Kurtis Blow, Ford also collaborated with and had his work sampled by many other artists. He actually died on 19 May, his wife Linda Medley confirmed last week, and had been diagnosed with a number of chronic illnesses in recent years.
