Short Takes : Rapper Works on Clean Image

Rap star Kurtis Blow says he’s playing it cool working as a consultant on a rap music story line for ABC’s “All My Children.”

“There has been a lot of pressure from the network brass to keep our songs clean and commercial,” Blow said in the Nov. 3 issue of TV Guide. “Rap’s been getting a bad rap lately, so we are being very careful not to offend.”

“When I started out, rap was positive and fun,” said Blow, whose “Christmas Rappin’ ” went gold in 1979. “Somehow, the press zoomed in on the hard-core, negative stuff and it all got out of balance.”