Comments: 34

• Steve E from Boston MaSomebody mentioned Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" as an antecedent to rap. That it is, but Dylan was leaning heavily on Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business", which was released in 1956.
• K-delabass from SouthsideWhat about "Ooh I Love It" by The Salsoul Orchestra, for an early example of female rap
• Traci from Indiana"George from Vancouver, Canada> Fab Five Freddy told me everybody's fly (Fab Five Freddie = female "Mrs. Palm & her 5 daughters"?)
  > Dj spinnin' I said, "My My" (a circular motion is the modst oft used technique in female lf pleasuring; my my = winding up the feelings towards rapture?)"
  
  No. Rapture is not about female masturbation. Fab Five Freddy refers to....Fab Five Freddy.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fab_Five_Freddy
  
  JFC
• 13mrjeffrey from ArkansasRolling back the calendar a few decades take a stroll down Magsaysay Drive in Olongapo City aka Gapo City Republic of the Philippines.
  I was 20 years old when When Blondie's song Rapture was busting the charts and yes American Rock n Roll other genres of American music are very popular throughout The Western Pacific.
  It's quite good fun to reminisce about where you were and what you were doing when this song or that landed in your ears.
  Does music follow us around through the years or do follow music around... that said not going to drop a name here another artist I absolutely love has a similar style as Debbie Harry
  Blondie and Debbie Harry her band mates are a group that lightning struck.
  In her own words Debbie Harry during the intro to Rapture at the Sydney concert tells where and how the song Rapture got it's spark lit.
• George from Vancouver, Canada> Fab Five Freddy told me everybody's fly (Fab Five Freddie = female "Mrs. Palm & her 5 daughters"?)
  > Dj spinnin' I said, "My My" (a circular motion is the modst oft used technique in female lf pleasuring; my my = winding up the feelings towards rapture?)
  
  Sure soinds like female masturbation to me! & Rapture also means to be taken up by orgasmic ecstasy(not the drug)
  
  If so, kudos to Debbie for getting away with singing about it AND making it a hit! Now I love the song even more!
• Matapaloma from Just South Of CanadaThose lyrics fry my mind. But now I know why I hate rap.
• Eric K. from OregonWouldn't "We Will Rock You" be the first #1 song with a rap?
• Andrew from UkWho wrote this crap about Blondie's Rapture not being special, yes it was, and still is today, you have to remember, first a song is a track which you SING the lyrics and to rap/talk some of the lyrics as in Rapture was the first time it had been done like this. Secondly, music should always be played on REAL musical instruments, as in Rapture, though a sythesiser had been used a bit, still giving you a real musical experience that long since you dont seeing music has been created on these artificial instruments called synthesisers, so anyone saying its not special dont understand REAL music
• Juliette from Toronto, Ontario, CanadaOne thing I'm very grateful for is being 20 in 1980 and being raised in the, in my opinion, "greatest decade ever for great music"! 3 of the biggest artists of all time "broke into mainstream" in early 80's...Prince, MJ, and Madonna. They all were approx 1and1/2- 2and1/2 years older than me. We All grew up together and that is why their passings are, at times, like loosing a family member. Also most of the best bands/artistes were either "breaking into mainstream or in their prime" (Duran Duran, New Order, Human League, Culture Club...on and on).
  
  I believe 1984 would be the best year for music- great songs released in that year. I remember rapture as being a great song...a different "flavour" that, I believe, could be called early rap.
  
  Then the movie Scarface, starring Al Pacino, was released and Debby Harry's "Rush" appeared on the soundtrack. Debby Harry certainly had a very succesful music career!
• Paul from Livermore, CoThe beginning of the song sounds to me like it's based on Summertime from Porgy and Bess. Does anyone else hear that?
• Chris from Germany Despite small amount of RAP in this song, it was the first number one hit with RAP inside !
  That makes DEBBIE HARRY the grandmother of Rap. With their song NO EXIT nearly 20 years later they made another song with RAP.
• George from Vancouver, CanadaBut the song that popularized rap in the USA was https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-sugarhill-gang/rappers-delight (a year earlier)
• Shawn from MarylandI just watched that video again. The only thing I can say is..."drugs." LOL! :)
• Brother Bob from Bobminelli@yahoo.comThis song is about the upper class devouring the middle class.
  Watch They Live, with some John Trudell videos...Think for yourself.
• Cyberpope from Richmond, CanadaOriginal title for this was "F**k Harvard," making light of all the "-ar" sounds & Bostonians inability to pronounce it this way (they'd say "The man from Mahs was eating cahs").
• Esskayess from Dallas, TxTo be a great song, this one needed a rap-ectomy. I always fast-forward through that silly stuff.
• Robert from Houston, TxThis song features the lyric "Back to back...sacroiliac." The sacroiliac connects the sacrum and ilium of the pelvis and features strong ligaments which support the spine while shaking the buttocks on the dance floor during the next lyric which is "Spineless movement...and a wild attack." These are quite possibly the first set of anatomically correct lyrics to appear in Disco - especially when you consider the word "spineless."
• Martin from The Kong, Hong KongI just registered on this site for one reason ; Thank You , Ash of Charleston that's the best zinger of a putdown i've seen in ages, can't stop chuckling :-)
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyBetween February 1980 & January 1981 Blondie released four records and three of them reached #1; CALL ME {#1 for six weeks}, ATOMIC {#39}, THE TIDE IS HIGH {#1 for one week}, and RAPTURE {#1 for two weeks}...
• Theresa from Murfreesboro, TnThe song made a strong impression for me as a child, silly but cool.
• Tony from Chicago, IlThis song sounds really sexual to me and that's what i like about blondie
  
  
• Fred from Laurel, MdMichael/ColumbiaMD [howdy, neighbor! Did I misspell your name, or did you? If it was me, I apologize.] - I heard this very suggestion from Arlo Guthrie many years ago, when rap was young on the national scene. And yes, that tune was from 1965--it was track 1 side 1 of his album, Bringin' It All Back Home, out in late summer of that year. The film, Don't Look Back, a non-narrated documentary of Dylan gigs, opens with SubHomBlues. I might also add, Trouble Every Day, by Frank Zappa and the Mothers, from their 1966 debut album, Freak Out. I guess you could think of these as proto-rap. And yes, Jason/Brighton--Gil Scott Heron seems to me to have got a step or two closer to modern rap. Early 70's, wasn't it? *** Damon/FernParkFL -- I believe John Raitt's famous soliloquy in Carousel was even earlier. I'm not exactly a student of rap history, but it sounds to me like you've got the essentials of it. The examples in my comment are not rap in its full-blown maturity, but they have many of its characteristics. The 'real' thing was from the streets, and had, as you say, a certain "style, attitude, culture" that are not quite there in these prototypes from Dylan, Zappa, and Heron.
  
  
• Joshua from Ellicott City, Md"I think it could be argued that, not only was this the first rap in a song that had its own original music, it was also the last rap in a song that had its own original music."
  
  I supposed that could be argued, by someone who had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. I could list endless counterexamples, but this is about all a comment like that deserves in terms of a response.
• Ashley from Watts, PaIve heard rumors that the lyrics "twenty-four hour shopping" arent the true lyrics and that the real lyrics are something sexual, but ive not been told what.
• Damon from Fern Park, FlWell if you want to define rap as someone talking over music, then Rex Harrison did it first in "my Fair Lady. However there is more to the definition than that. Rap is a style, an attitude, a culture, which was from the streets in the seventies, and Sugar Hill Gang was the first to bring it to the radio. Blondie made it mainstream, and even makes references in the song to those who rapped before her.
• Keely from Brooklyn, NyYou complete dolt! This is one of blondie's best works to date. It completely revolutionized the music scene: without 'Rapture' (which totally kicks arse) mainstream rap as we know it might not even exist.
• Dennis from Anchorage, AkThis song made me hate Blondie. I still like their other stuff, but man, what a turd of a tune.
• Linda from San Diego, CaNo no no, one way or another, without any socio-politico historical rap significance, Blondie did it first, and they did it best!! Nobody else can make an actual overt claim to rap besides Blondie, from the very beginning. And at least, she recognized it for what it would be, when she did. The bleached blonde pioneer/genius/goddess did it again!!
• Jason from Brighton, EnglandHey, what about Gil Scott Heron's The revolution will not be televised. One of the best raps ever.
  
• Ash from Charleston, WvI think it could be argued that, not only was this the first rap in a song that had its own original music, it was also the last rap in a song that had its own original music.
• Jim from Chicago, United StatesWhat about Aerosmith's "Walk this Way" in 75?
• Diana from Kansas City, MoIf you're looking for someone who rapped long before all others, check out Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five "Saturday Night Fish Fry".
• Dave from Holt, MiHazzmatt,You have a good point.Dylan rapped before we knew what rap was.It is the beauty of his lyrics.
• Micheal from Columbia, MdI'd like to suggest, perhaps, Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" from 1965 ish... "Man in a trench coat, badge out, laid off say he's got a bad cough, wants to get paid off..." I mean, it's not "Rap", per se, but it's got the rapid fire staccato rhythm--and attitude to spare...just a thought...

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