I just love the sound of the chimes in this song (lots of them throughout the song) and everything else about it....beat, music, rhythm....and the way Deborah sings it. Also think Clem looks great with the dark beard!
Wow I haven't seen that for awhile...thanks AsSquatch666. This reminds me of how revolutionary MTV seemed when it came out. I was probably a freshman in highschool and MTV added a new dimension to my life. It was a new form of communication between artists and the masses. That was around the time Commodore 64's began landing in the hands of my old buddies and look at us now...peace.
Guy in white tux is Jean Michael Basquiat 80's Haitian Born, New York Graffitti artist, Painting &Neo Expressionist AKA SAMO. One of his work sold in 2002 for $3,302,500 @ Christie's
this was the very first rap single that ever reached to number one on the charts!! i love this song, especially the guitar solo from my personal favorite, Frank Infante!!
I have this video from many years ago. I liked Blondie from way back. She was such a hottie and so very talented. I also like her singing Union City Blues and Atomic
The Album is from 1980. If you don't have it you really need to get it. Cover to cover all the songs are great. The band could have successfully released at least 8 of the tracks: #2 Live It Up #4 Tide Is High(was released) #5 Angels On The Balcony #6 Go Through It #7 Do The Dark #8 Rapture(was released) #10 T-Bird #11 Walk Like Me. Autoamerican is my favorite album of all time. It's a big achievement, I have diverse musical tastes & love many songs & albums. Cheers to Blondie fans!
That was rap ! I remembered at the time, Blondie explaining that she went to the Bronx several days to get the sound and was introduced to some producers down there who were producing this new sound called rap !
You are right - rap finds its recent roots in stuff like Last Poets and also political strains like Gil Scott Heron's work ("The revolution will not be televised"). My best recollection of mainstream (a-political, non-political) rap is early Kurtis Blow stuff("The Brakes") as having put it on America's top-40's, but by then the "movement" aspect was long gone and the goal was purely commercial.
ya'll need to check out King Tim III- fatback Band. This was the first mainstream rap song. You can date it back before Deb Harry and Sugarhill Gang. Check it.
You can find many King Tim III vids on youtube. Also, the singer in KRS-One's "Step into a world" was not Debbie Harry, but was inspired by this song and KRS-One is as real as you can get in rap.
@PSUDONYMOUS "rap" comes from before this, when people were doin it in abandoned ware houses, and irap stands for "Rhythm And Poetry".. this is the first widely known rap song... but yeah she prolly got told about what was goin on, and did it first..
Debbie and Chris got this from a song by a rap band called The Sequence. An all female rap band back in 1979. Debbie and Chris got inspired because the lead female vocalist called herself Blondie. It was called " Funk You Up" If you don't believe me ask Debbie and Chris. " Gonna Funk you right on up . Gonna funk you right on up"
Duh'hhh Without this Blondie track, Rap would never have made it to mainstream music. All rappers owe Blondie a great deal of respect for that brave step made by them to release it as a single..
Even though I'm a fan of Blondie, you have to notice that Debbie refers to Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash, both hip-hop artists who were already doing their thing. She didn't mention them because she was the first one to teach them how to rap, but rather, because they were already somewhat established on the rap scene.
There's a lot of debate as to what the first rap song is. NYC people in the scene say it's Fatback Band - King Tim III Rapture and songs like Walk this Way were key in introducing the mainstream to rap. They give props to Grand Master Flash in the line "Flash is Fast, Flash is cool..." At this time, The Furious Five were with Grandmaster Flash. Later on Flash mixed this song in "Adventures of Grandmaster Flash..."It was an important song to hip hop, no doubt about it.
FYI...Fab Five Freddy she sings about is characterized by the guy in white, but the real Freddy is in the background painting the word "RAP". Just some trivia for ya's.
"Rapture" was a combination of New Wave pop, funk, and rap music, with the rap section forming an extended coda. While it was not the first single involving rap to be successful, it was the first to top the charts.
This song is from the Autoamerican album. I covered 3 more songs from this album singing & playing acoustic guitar: Angels On The Balcony, Do The Dark and Go Through It. Click on my name & check em out. they are the only covers of these songs on youtube.
definite classic. but the argument about being the first "rap" song negative. We all know the first rap song was Sugar Hill Gang "Rappers Delight". Although the crossover was disco to hip-hop. Classic video. Debra Harry is considered an influence.
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, "Supperrappin," 1979. The Sugar Hill Gang, "Rapper's Delight," 1979, and then "Freedom," 1980. Blondie, "Rapture," 1981. If you want to talk about rap history before rap songs were recorded, Blondie did not form as a group until 1975, but rap was already happening in clubs and house parties in NY and other cities during the early '70s. .
They absolutely were NOT the 1st to do rap. But as artists in NYC during this time, how could you NOT be influenced by rap. THIS WAS NEW YORK CITY! Everything was blending, melting together. THAT'S what made this time SPECIAL. Blondie THEMSELVES were creating a new genre (Punk/NuWave). They weren't appropriating ANYTHING - they were A PART OF IT. This doesn't diminish my respect for old school rap or Blondie. I'd give an eye-tooth to have been there when these two worlds collided in harmony.
This was my first favorite song. The memory that goes with it involves me, age four, sneaking into my older sister's bedroom, firing up this song on her record player and jumping up and down on her perpetually naked mattress. Oh yeah. YEAH.
Ha, I USE to know all the lyrics to all of her songs, but old age has sunk in and I can't remember any of them anymore. Getting old really sucks!!!!!!!!!
No, I dont think this was the possibly first rap song!!! Breakbeats were already out there on the street, but what I believe could've been the first rap song is The Who's "Who Are You" yeah call me stupid, but listen to the way he sings the verses and the agressive voice he does it with!!!!
this is not the first rap song. possibly one of if not the first song with rapping to hit so big and expose alot of people to it. Im glad it was Debra!
of course i'm not joking. neither is OptionallySavage. in fact we were there. we were really on a roll that year. if i'm not mistaken we also invented photosynthesis and sharks.
A very early rap song, but the first rap will never be nailed down. It originally came out of neighborhood parties in New York in the early '70's, and several artists in the '70's copied this style. Blondie may have been the first white rapper, but not the first rapper. In fact some would credit Muhammad Ali with being the first actual rapper. I don't claim to have been there, I got this info from the documentary Rhyme and Reason.
I believe is the first rap song to be number 1 on the charts and it's probably the first intentional rap performed by a white artist who happened to be female. I said "intentional" because there were songs that came before this one with "rap-like singing". Blondie was definitely a band of the vanguard, there will never be another group like them or a lead singer like Debbie Harry! The guitar solo in the end is priceless!
Hey, what about Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention's "Trouble Comin' Everyday" in 1967? What a great song! Who's the first rapper is a dull argument, though. Stay interested; stay interesting, people!
I wanted to see the man from mars eat some cars. This video is a great example of weird for the sake of weird and to make people discuss the "symbolism". An "Indian Chief" and a woman walking a goat are always good conversation starters.
First rap song, what about "Subterranean Homesick Blues" by Bob Dylan from the sixties, now - that`s a rap song, they even filmed the video for it in a urban ghetto.
Other than Rapper's Delight, which was a minor hit in the US, I was not aware that rap was that "hot" at the time. Not the first rap song (the lyrics even mention Grandmaster Flash) but an early and certainly very successful example. Rapture is in the end a very good song, but you see the kind of sensitivities that make people want to detract from it. And the ever expanding definition of rap/hip hop gets boring. Any song with rythming is not rap.
everyone knows that "rapture" was the first rap song, but did you also know that it was the first song to use guitars? and that this was the last music video ever made? or that top-hats were invented just so they could appear in this video? now you know!
You are absolutley right!! He is a poor excuse for a humane being. But dont waste ur breath. His disrespectful comments stood out on their own. It disgusted me. Sad.
obviously its not the first rap song, she raps about fab 5 freddy in her first lyric in the rap....she was in with all of the hippest people in new york at the time, black or white or whatever color (something we could learn from that generation)..and that is jean-michel basquiat at the turntables!!!!
That's cool, I will check your link out. Angels on the Balcony is my all time favorite song from Blondie and one of their best and most underrated!
man, absolutely LOVE that Saxophone in the background too! very smooth stuff.....
I just love the sound of the chimes in this song (lots of them throughout the song) and everything else about it....beat, music, rhythm....and the way Deborah sings it. Also think Clem looks great with the dark beard!
Wow I haven't seen that for awhile...thanks AsSquatch666. This reminds me of how revolutionary MTV seemed when it came out. I was probably a freshman in highschool and MTV added a new dimension to my life. It was a new form of communication between artists and the masses. That was around the time Commodore 64's began landing in the hands of my old buddies and look at us now...peace.
One of my all time favorites, it's has a haunting feel to it!
Guy in white tux is Jean Michael Basquiat 80's Haitian Born, New York Graffitti artist, Painting &Neo Expressionist AKA SAMO. One of his work sold in 2002 for $3,302,500 @ Christie's
this was the very first rap single that ever reached to number one on the charts!!
i love this song, especially the guitar solo from my personal favorite, Frank Infante!!
I have this video from many years ago. I liked Blondie from way back. She was such a hottie and so very talented. I also like her singing Union City Blues and Atomic
love this love this love this
The Album is from 1980. If you don't have it you really need to get it. Cover to cover all the songs are great. The band could have successfully released at least 8 of the tracks: #2 Live It Up #4 Tide Is High(was released) #5 Angels On The Balcony #6 Go Through It #7 Do The Dark #8 Rapture(was released) #10 T-Bird #11 Walk Like Me.
Autoamerican is my favorite album of all time. It's a big achievement, I have diverse musical tastes & love many songs & albums.
Cheers to Blondie fans!
That was rap !
I remembered at the time, Blondie explaining that she went to the Bronx several days to get the sound and was introduced to some producers down there who were producing this new sound called rap !
You are right - rap finds its recent roots in stuff like Last Poets and also political strains like Gil Scott Heron's work ("The revolution will not be televised"). My best recollection of mainstream (a-political, non-political) rap is early Kurtis Blow stuff("The Brakes") as having put it on America's top-40's, but by then the "movement" aspect was long gone and the goal was purely commercial.
So cutting edge for 1981. This song really is legendary for giving rise to rap and Hip Hop in later years.
ya'll need to check out King Tim III- fatback Band. This was the first mainstream rap song. You can date it back before Deb Harry and Sugarhill Gang. Check it.
one of the first video on Mtv..great song eather
You can find many King Tim III vids on youtube. Also, the singer in KRS-One's "Step into a world" was not Debbie Harry, but was inspired by this song and KRS-One is as real as you can get in rap.
I hadn't noticed earlier, but she mentions a couple contemporary rap or scratching artists at the beginning of her rap.
@PSUDONYMOUS "rap" comes from before this, when people were doin it in abandoned ware houses, and irap stands for "Rhythm And Poetry".. this is the first widely known rap song... but yeah she prolly got told about what was goin on, and did it first..
I don't know what the 1st rap song was, but this was released in 1980. Sugar Hill Gang released "Rapper's Delight" in 1979.
Debbie and Chris got this from a song by a rap band called The Sequence. An all female rap band back in 1979.
Debbie and Chris got inspired because the lead female vocalist called herself Blondie. It was called " Funk You Up"
If you don't believe me ask Debbie and Chris. " Gonna Funk you right on up . Gonna funk you right on up"
the first rap song commercial and the best.
The guy in the white tux is Jean Michael Basquiat, ( 80's' artist)
Duh'hhh
Without this Blondie track, Rap would never have made it to mainstream music.
All rappers owe Blondie a great deal of respect for that brave step made by them to release it as a single..
Go in blondie!!! 16 bars of fire
I used to get stoned to this song. its awesome dude.
man, oh man! love the rhythm and beat here! you eat cadillacs and lincolns too! ha ha. GO BLONDIE!!
Even though I'm a fan of Blondie, you have to notice that Debbie refers to Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash, both hip-hop artists who were already doing their thing. She didn't mention them because she was the first one to teach them how to rap, but rather, because they were already somewhat established on the rap scene.
This video is the first rap song I remember, followed by the rap song that had the sentence "The Sugar Ray fight" in it.
There's a lot of debate as to what the first rap song is. NYC people in the scene say it's Fatback Band - King Tim III
Rapture and songs like Walk this Way were key in introducing the mainstream to rap. They give props to Grand Master Flash in the line "Flash is Fast, Flash is cool..." At this time, The Furious Five were with Grandmaster Flash. Later on Flash mixed this song in "Adventures of Grandmaster Flash..."It was an important song to hip hop, no doubt about it.
FYI...Fab Five Freddy she sings about is characterized by the guy in white, but the real Freddy is in the background painting the word "RAP". Just some trivia for ya's.
Is that Flava Flav at the beginning? LMAO!! Go Blondie!!
Definitely a piece of music history!
best blondie track ever.
"Rapture" was a combination of New Wave pop, funk, and rap music, with the rap section forming an extended coda. While it was not the first single involving rap to be successful, it was the first to top the charts.
class tune ....
don't know whats going off below but nice track anyhow.
This song is from the Autoamerican album. I covered 3 more songs from this album singing & playing acoustic guitar: Angels On The Balcony, Do The Dark and Go Through It. Click on my name & check em out. they are the only covers of these songs on youtube.
Rapture was released in 1980. The Album (Autoamerican) also in 1980
A classic.
definite classic. but the argument about being the first "rap" song negative. We all know the first rap song was Sugar Hill Gang "Rappers Delight". Although the crossover was disco to hip-hop. Classic video. Debra Harry is considered an influence.
You tell 'em!
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, "Supperrappin," 1979.
The Sugar Hill Gang, "Rapper's Delight," 1979, and then "Freedom," 1980.
Blondie, "Rapture," 1981.
If you want to talk about rap history before rap songs were recorded, Blondie did not form as a group until 1975, but rap was already happening in clubs and house parties in NY and other cities during the early '70s.
.
"Hip-hop and you don't stop."
thank god rap has progressed this song gave my ears hiv
I remember seeing --Blondie in concert and Deborah came on stage wearing trash can liners tied with electricians tape ...i miss the old days....
They absolutely were NOT the 1st to do rap. But as artists in NYC during this time, how could you NOT be influenced by rap. THIS WAS NEW YORK CITY! Everything was blending, melting together. THAT'S what made this time SPECIAL. Blondie THEMSELVES were creating a new genre (Punk/NuWave). They weren't appropriating ANYTHING - they were A PART OF IT. This doesn't diminish my respect for old school rap or Blondie. I'd give an eye-tooth to have been there when these two worlds collided in harmony.
This was my first favorite song. The memory that goes with it involves me, age four, sneaking into my older sister's bedroom, firing up this song on her record player and jumping up and down on her perpetually naked mattress. Oh yeah. YEAH.
yessir
Ha, I USE to know all the lyrics to all of her songs, but old age has sunk in and I can't remember any of them anymore. Getting old really sucks!!!!!!!!!
Well it was the first rap hit to hit number 1 on the Billboard in March, 1981
nice.
pd : el rap empezo a finales de los 60's, blondie partio en el 75
This is the 2nd ever rap song as any fule kno. The first woz by fab five freddy who she rpas about in the rap part of this rap.
No, I dont think this was the possibly first rap song!!! Breakbeats were already out there on the street, but what I believe could've been the first rap song is The Who's "Who Are You" yeah call me stupid, but listen to the way he sings the verses and the agressive voice he does it with!!!!
this is not the first rap song. possibly one of if not the first song with rapping to hit so big and expose alot of people to it. Im glad it was Debra!
This is her best song!!
she's so beautyful
Although this isnt the first "rap" (its punk, kids) song ever, it was one of the first music vids ever to be aired on MTV, and Debbie Harry Rocks!
is nice to see jean michel doing the dj eheheh
DEBBIEEEEEEE!!
the first rap song to get number one in the charts you mean
of course i'm not joking. neither is OptionallySavage. in fact we were there. we were really on a roll that year. if i'm not mistaken we also invented photosynthesis and sharks.
ya can see where the happy mondays got some of their cool ideas fram..heh heh!!
Basquiat's NOT the guy in the tux. He's the spindly guy in the tan vest at the turntables when Debbie starts to rap, "Fab Five Freddy... ."
I love blondie and Debbie Harry, but all I can say about this song is LMAO!
Funkdatrap!! Which one is Jean Michel Basquiet????
A very early rap song, but the first rap will never be nailed down. It originally came out of neighborhood parties in New York in the early '70's, and several artists in the '70's copied this style. Blondie may have been the first white rapper, but not the first rapper. In fact some would credit Muhammad Ali with being the first actual rapper. I don't claim to have been there, I got this info from the documentary Rhyme and Reason.
i love blondie
debbie I love you and your music
I believe is the first rap song to be number 1 on the charts and it's probably the first intentional rap performed by a white artist who happened to be female. I said "intentional" because there were songs that came before this one with "rap-like singing". Blondie was definitely a band of the vanguard, there will never be another group like them or a lead singer like Debbie Harry! The guitar solo in the end is priceless!
Rapper's Delight was released before this. Rappers Delight inspired this song.
This isn't "rap." It's rock n roll, baby!!
Is flavor flav!!!!
Hey, what about Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention's "Trouble Comin' Everyday" in 1967? What a great song!
Who's the first rapper is a dull argument, though.
Stay interested; stay interesting, people!
I wanted to see the man from mars eat some cars.
This video is a great example of weird for the sake of weird and to make people discuss the "symbolism". An "Indian Chief" and a woman walking a goat are always good conversation starters.
Thats rather profound. On what evidence do you base your observation??
First rap song, what about "Subterranean Homesick Blues" by Bob Dylan from the sixties, now - that`s a rap song, they even filmed the video for it in a urban ghetto.
Other than Rapper's Delight, which was a minor hit in the US, I was not aware that rap was that "hot" at the time. Not the first rap song (the lyrics even mention Grandmaster Flash) but an early and certainly very successful example. Rapture is in the end a very good song, but you see the kind of sensitivities that make people want to detract from it. And the ever expanding definition of rap/hip hop gets boring. Any song with rythming is not rap.
Common misconception.
As I understand it, it was "The Breaks" by Kurtis Blow.
first rap? Dolemite!
What is up with the urban goat phenomena @ 3:30??
everyone knows that "rapture" was the first rap song, but did you also know that it was the first song to use guitars? and that this was the last music video ever made? or that top-hats were invented just so they could appear in this video? now you know!
rap started in jamaica early 60's look for sir lord comic.
To clairfy for everyone, this was the first song featuring rap to hit #1. Rapper's Delight barely broke into the top 40
Disco
srry forgot to add that
Actually, that was released a year after Rapper's Delight.
i wrote this song in 73 and i taught blondie how to dance so....your welcome!
Spike Jones, (and others) were rappin' b4 WWII...
i wanna eat cars with the man from Mars!
Correction: Curtis Blow brought it to mainstream music (rap) wayyyyyyyy before Blondie did!
You are absolutley right!! He is a poor excuse for a humane being. But dont waste ur breath. His disrespectful comments stood out on their own. It disgusted me. Sad.
Gotta love Debra Harry!
You know that even VH1 lists this as the FIRST rap song.
pretty damn close to the first rap song. I dunno NWA may have been before this. I'm not sure though.
Not as you know it today... OBVIOUSLY. Blondie being the root of "rap"
obviously its not the first rap song, she raps about fab 5 freddy in her first lyric in the rap....she was in with all of the hippest people in new york at the time, black or white or whatever color (something we could learn from that generation)..and that is jean-michel basquiat at the turntables!!!!
It's hard to believe I'm 52 now.
Keep on Truckin, brothers and sisters..!!
No. Rap existed before "Rapture", but it was very underground. Debbie and company helped to expose rap and made it popular.
she was very very beautiful
definitely not the first rap song but it was the first one to be aired on mtv
Not the first rap song, but I heard it was the first to make it big on radio in the USA
Rap music was probably invented before singing. Rythymic poetry spoken to a beat has got to be thousands of years old