Blowfly, one of the first musical artists to “rap” and introduce his own dirty style to the genre, has revealed he has terminal liver cancer.
Blowfly’s drummer took to social media, letting fans know that Blow had been admitted to hospice care. Despite his illness, Blowfly would still be releasing what will more than likely be his final album 77 Trombones in February.
Blowfly’s legacy is an interesting one, covered in filthy and sexually explicit lyrics. Incorporating lines that made sex skits seem tame, Blowfly was an unlikely revolutionary to the Hip Hop genre. It’s beginning are often painted in a conscious and serious tone. While that’s mostly correct, there were sparks of nonconformity emerging as early as the 70s. Some artists, like Blowfly, were less concerned about building a new genre, rather focusing on carefree experimentation. He would take hit songs and record sexually explicit parodies, then release them under the ego of a shoddy supervillian. Initially planned as nothing more than joke records, they caught on with the public partly thanks to their hilarity, but more so because they featured rapping, which was new for the time. Despite never surpassing more than a cult following, Blowfly has influenced numerous modern day emcees. Without his unconstitutional innovation rap wouldn’t be the same.
Now that his illness has been announced prior to his death, there is a chance Blowfly will live to see today’s Hip Hop fans come to learn about and appreciate his contribution to music.
blowfly
art by your homie, Arthur Banach
check out more on my Insta @wildhxir