''Ego Trip'' is an album by the rapper

Kurtis Blow Kurtis Walker (born August 9, 1959), professionally known by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record/film producer, b-boy, DJ, public speaker and minister. He is the first commercially successful rapper a ...

, released in 1984 on

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

. The only charting singles were "8 Million Stories", which peaked at 45 on the

Hot Black Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

chart, and "

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

", which peaked at 71 on the

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

Critical reception

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

'' dubbed ''Ego Trip'' one of Blow's "state-of-the-art in an almost mainstream vein" early albums, noting that the inclusion of

Run-D.M.C. Run-DMC (also spelled Run-D.M.C.) was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens, New York City, founded in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of ...

was a "concerted effort to get hipper." ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' wrote that Blow "knows how to mix plain talk with his rhymes, so that his records carry an extra bit of street feel, but his most impressive moments come when he exploits the studio, as he does on the intoxicatingly sinuous 'AJ Scratch'." ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'' wrote that "the hit single 'Eight Million Stories' suggests that other people are worthier subjects of his songwriting than Kurtis Blow." In a tribute to "

" and its legacy, ''

Slam Slam, SLAM or SLAMS may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional elements * S.L.A.M. (Strategic Long-Range Artillery Machine), a fictional weapon in the ''G.I. Joe'' universe * SLAMS (Space-Land-Air Missile Shield), a fictional anti-ball ...

'' wrote that "none of the NBA/hip-hop empire building happens—or at the very least none of it happens the way we remember it happening—without the skills of Kurtis Blow."

Track listing

# "8 Million Stories" – 8:00 (featuring

) # "AJ Scratch" – 5:48 # "

" – 6:30 # "Under Fire" – 7:23 # "I Can't Take it No More" – 4:14 # "Ego Trip" – 5:34 # "Fallin Back in Love Again" – 5:23

Critical reception

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References