Is rapper Kurtis Blow in critical condition after emergency heart surgery and does he need your prayers right now? No, that's not true: a viral YouTube video making that claim was published in October 2019 but it is just a rehash of a (real) story about Blow's heart surgery in May of 2019 from which he has already recovered. The channel on which the video was published seems to specialize in videos with "sad" or "tragic" news about various entertainers wich generally consist of a monotone voice reading old news articles over a slideshow of various photos of the performers.
The video appeared as a YouTube Video published by the channel World of Stars on October 9, 2019 titled "Prayers Up! Rapper Kurtis Blow Is In Critical Condition After Emergency Heart Surgery." (archived here) which had following description:
Kurtis Walker 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 and the first to sign with a major record label. "The Breaks", a single from his 1980 self-titled debut album, is the first certified gold record rap song for Hip Hop. Throughout his career he has released 15 albums and is currently an ordained minister. ★ Click to SUBSCRIBE for more awesome! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqOmJO0ptmmHrsOnR3oPtTA ★ Thank you for stopping by the channel! If you enjoyed, I try to do videos every day! Check us out at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqOmJO0ptmmHrsOnR3oPtTA
Here is the video in question:
Most of the video description seems to have been copied from here:
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 and the first to sign with a major record label.
And the voice over in the video basically reads out this article from May 10, 2019:
Days after Heart Surgery Rap Legend Kurtis Blow Undergoes Emergency Operation
Fans and friends of hip hop pioneer Kurtis Blow were shocked to hear that the singer has undergone heart surgery once again. Blow was still in the hospital recovering from an aortic artery repair which had taken place on May 2 when he was subjected to an emergency open heart surgery on May 7, 2019.
Since then Blow has made a recovery, as he already announced on Instagram himself on May 5, 2019:
Don't fall for dodgy YouTube channels plagiarizing real news, always Google before liking or sharing such videos.
