Blondie's (Debbie Harry) #1 hit, "Rapture" is considered the first rap song to chart at number 1 in the United States. Citation: Fred Bronson (2003) 'the Billboard Book of Number One Hits' p. 549
@@daveodell6076Not really. Punk was rebellious, and not so much an american thing. Like The Police, another fake but good(!) punk band, this was called "new wave" at the time.
@@daveodell6076Mostly young people here in Europe with crazy rooster hair and pins/nails in their faces. But also all the bands emulating sex pistols, more or less well, perhaps The Clash too. Ebba Grön were one of the successful punk bands in my country, and Nina Hagen in Germany was pretty punk in a way. The Police had a few punk songs, of course, but they were basically jazz dudes playing rock and reggae.
She shouts out Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash at the start of the rap section. Debbie Harry admits her lyrics were mostly gibberish but she was having fun with it and flowed it well.
I feel like the band doesn’t get a lot of credit for helping to push rap into mainstream music…I know it took a little longer for rap/hip hop to get crazy big, but they have to be considered pioneers in experimenting with rap and also make the song a #1 hit.
Debbie Harry used to hang around in a favorite Hip Hop club because she loved the music but knew that it wasn't breaking through the culture - she took matters into her own hand and put out this song named "RAP-ture" to draw interest to the genre....
She was a social butterfly and knew EVERONE involved in underground music and avant-garde artists like Basquiat & Warhol, and they all loved Debbie…everyone wanted to be in the presence of Debbie in the 70’s NYC underground art scene.
@@roger1296 I always interpreted the "fever dream" of this video as trying to capture the vibe of the streets in NYC when you were moving through the underground art scene.
You're looking at the first commercial success of rap music in the mainstream Artist as far as anyone knows ever. The cool thing is being your parents age we were here to witness it, the music we saw in our time is Indescribable and unrepeatable. Blondie the lead singers Deborah Harry was one of the first and most influential experimental and alternative bands in America
Awesome, what a genuine period in our Artists - Musical break through & combinations with new layering of styles new and invented instruments that had endless possibilities.... Sounds & a mixture of classic techniques blending with augmented changes birthed a different fullness, richness & strength. Always maintaining the raw originality that belongs too the Group. The talents of musicians, producers and engineers before who created and elaborated a new forum of music! Allowing generations to discover, develop, design & elaborate the value of One of few things, that the Human Course needs to become one love.
I was 24 in 1980 and didn't remember her as an actress, a Playboy model yes but Actress no so I checked WIKI she, she did two low budget movies, does that qualify as " well known actress"
@WILLKMC Wildstyle, Videodrome & the original Hairspray in 1988 were all classics. She did a bunch of other independent films & television shows in the 80s & 90's. I first saw her in the original Hairspray as Velma Von Tussle. That's how I found out about her as a teen in the 80's
Blondie Should get more props as the first female bringing rap into a pop song, MTV. This was the first rap i ever heard. After that you saw fat boys, run DMC, curtis blow, big daddy kane and when NWA dropped, it was over!
When the 80’s came they arrived with a bang. Suddenly music took whole new directions. I loved it. I was only 20 yrs old in 1980. MTV was amazjng to us back then!
Class of 79! I keep on telling people if you want to know what my generation was about then all you have to do is watch that 70 show because those kids graduated the same year I did and did the same things in their basement that they did in theirs. We were coming into our twenties fresh off of Saturday Night Fever and disco's were opening up everywhere by the time we were 18.😊
Fun fact, Jean-Michel Basquiat is the one on the turntables at the beginning of the video. Fab 5 Freddy (correction it's William Barnes, per @kyleanspach3457) is the one in the white top hat and coattails too.
The "man from mars" in the white tux and top hat is William Barnes. Fab 5 Freddie is doing the graffiti in the background. It's a very common and understandable misconception.
BLONDIE WERE AHEAD OF THEIR GAME!!! I believe this was the first time rap aired on MTV in 1980ish. Debbie Harry was an ICONIC frontwoman - she had such an impact on female vocalists - her voice, style and looks - she was an one off! She basically heard rap artists on the streets - hiphop was in it's infancy- so she brought it to the studio & Rapture was the result! They headlined Glastonbury Festival last summer in the 'Legends' slot - still got it! PLEASE REACT to 'Atomic', 'Call Me', 'Heart Of Glass', 'Sunday Girl', 'One Way and Another', 'Hangin On The Telephone' - great band - punk/alterative/new-wave....brilliant! Saw them about 5 years ago at a big music festival - crowd went WILD! More BLONDIE please!👱♀🤘
In the late 70's she used to hang out in the rap scene and told Fab 5 she would put him in a song. They did so he was in the video. MTV was slow to add wrap to their video line up but Blondie helped spread the word to those who watched MTV to check out the NYC rap scene .❤
The short version was made in 1979 the extended version was made the same year but the video was put out in 81 she is the first female singer to actually come out with rap before Kurtis Blow. I have the 33 album 1979 now she's becoming more famous than she ever was nice for her😊
Hey Cliff! you might want to check out" Heart of Glass " released in 1978. I remember telling my coworkers when we first heard it on the radio," This song is going to be a huge Hit" the rest is history.
Blondie was new wave but played lots of different types of music. They played at CBGBs along with the Talking Heads, the Ramones. Blondie is a rabbit hole that is great to dive into. Please check out the tide is high and heart of glass.
When Blondie did this (it was before MTV started in 1980, and featured on the show Friday Night Videos, a precurser to MTV on netword tv on Friday nights after midnight. ) It was the FIRST RAP most of the world had ever heard. Playing a lot in New York's CBGB's with punk acts and budding rap acts like THE BEASTIE BOYS, she was exposed to the Furious Five, and Curtis Blow. Rap had a slow start. In 1982, Herbie Hancock released "ROCK IT" for the breakdance movement that was starting. 1985 we heard Run Dmc and the Beastie boys and a few other acts in the movie KRUSH GROOVE, then the Beasties released Licensed to Ill in 1986 and it was the FIRST RAP ALBUM to sell PLATINUM. So 6 years after this, rap finally got accepted by MTV and just a little bit of mainstream.
Rap was not an official genre at this time. Blondie has a lot of huge hits CALL ME, I'm GONNA GETCHA. HEART OF GLASS, and many more. MTV came around a year after this video.
There was no Xanax at this time. He was eating bars where the people meet.....She is not paying homage, she is promoting, trying to get hip hop noticed by people outside of the Bronx and Brooklyn, Queens.
every Blondie album evolved so they never sounded the same. Personally I love each one. X Offender (from their debut LP) and 11.59 and Will Anything Happen (from their third) are definite favourites of mine. Deborah and the guys just cant be equalled!
KRS-One famously used this in his track, "Step Into A World (Rapture's Delight)" Nobody from the early hip hop scene knew what the hell she was rapping about, but this was the first mainstream exposure that rap ever got. She shouts out Fab Five Freddy, Grand Master Flash, and maybe others. She was definitely shining a light on the new underground music scene call hip-hop. I remember hearing this when I was maybe 8 or 9... and it was mesmerizing to my ears.
Seriously, I'd recommend listening to the whole of Blondie's Autoamerican album. Whilst not quite their best album, it is their most eclectic, and spans a whole range of genres from rap, to jazz, to ska, to musicals, and more (plus one of my all-time Blondie favourite songs "Angels on the Balcony").
I was just waiting to see what your reaction would be when Debbie started rapping! lol She did a lot of things along the way besides singing...she was a Playboy Bunny & actress as well. But most of her success was with her band Blondie. Blondie was one of the first to incorporate rap into her songs. She loved all kinds of music and tried to incorporate the different styles...like rap. lol I haven't heard this in a minute!
Crazy to think Blondie started off playing shows wit the Ramones and Talking Heads… imagine witnessing those bands starting off and seeing their progression.. insane bruh
This is actually the first #1 song on Billboard’s Hot 100 to feature a rap break…this band “Blondie” and lead singer “Debbie Harry” were heavy into to underground music scene in NYC during the 70’s and into 80’s and they were also well connected with all of the avant guard artists during same time…this band was in everything artistic in NYC during 70’s and 80’s…back to underground music connections: the band were great friends with all of the major up and coming grandfathers of rap from NYC…this was an homage to those guys.
Blondie was a band way ahead of their time. Doing Punk, New Wave, Rock, Pop, Rap, and Reggae to name a few. And lead singer Debbie Harry a true icon. Try One Way or Another,Dreaming, Call Me, Atomic, Tide is High, Heart of Glass. Damn just so many others to choose from.
*BLONDIE DEBBIE HARRY DID IT ALL AND STILL DOES IT ALL! BLONDIE HAVE THE FIRST-EVER NUMBER ONE RAP SINGLE AROUND THE WORLD! FIRST RAP EVER WITH THEIR OWN MUSIC, NOT SAMPLING. FIRST BAND IN HISTORY TO HAVE NUMER ONE SINGLES IN THE SEVENTIES, EIGHTIES AND NINETIES! FIRST FEMALE FRONTED BAND IN THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME! BLONDIE ARE ORIGINALS. OFTEN IMITATED, NEVER DUPLICATED! THANKS FOR SHARING BLONDIE!*
I was about 12 when this was a hit and I'd NEVER heard "rap" before. Of course we all knew Blondie's many hits but when I hear this I was like "what is she doing talking in the song?!?"
This was released in 1980. It was the first Rap song released on MTV. Suger Hill Gangs Rappers Delight came out the year before, which I believe influenced this song. Lol gotta love 70s and 80s music. I was 18 when this came out. Great Reaction ❤!! Call me is another great song.
Blondie started as a punk rock/new wave band but covered just about every genre from punk to reggae, disco to rap and everything in between (and outside). Still recording and touring!
She was very big in the Punk Rock and Disco scenes. She was often performing at CBGBs and was often at Studio 54. She has a big song, 'Call Me' from the movie 'American Giglio'. She has a ton of hits both as the lead singer of Blondie and solo career.
Blondie is the OG to Rap in Mainstream music. I've seen a couple of reactors say they sure were glad they wern't high when they watched this for the first time! 😂
Blondie started as a punk rock band but got into other genres like Heart of Glass, which made them famous because it was playing it in dance clubs. Got to see them in the 80s at Belmont Park, NY.
We all wanted those flickering red sunglasses while growing up, to be like the Man from Mars. This was iconic for those of us entering the 80s as music "vampires" - checking out all genres. Debbie Harry started it all for females, IMO. She/they made listening/accepting to up & coming rap artists so much easier. Her voice was butter!
I think Blondie had an accidental double with the line "eating bars." Bars, or clubs, and Bars as in Valium. The ORIGINAL, "No Cuts, No Edits in this Bitch!" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! And the line was "now that he's done eating cars and eating bars, now he's eating GUITARS!" or something alone those lines Cindy Lauper "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "Time After Time" are MUST reactions Cliff!!! I'm SO happy I was born in 1971!!! It still gets to me how much technology has changed in my 53 years around the sun!!! I had one of the first mobile phones, when they were in a briefcase to the A,T &T "brick" to a smartphone, which I think have made humans dumber as a species!
Dude in white tux is Fab Five Freddy...and guy shes singing to at the 3:40 mark Grand Master Flash...its very hard to trace "rap's" origin beyond those two Possible but, very hard.
7:58 - Yes. RAPTURE for a reason. She's also multilingual and in the video there were shoutouts to all sorts of different cultures and scenes including Haitian AND Louisiana Voodoo.
I mean, Basquiat Did you see a few years ago they “discovered” that there was also fluorescent paint and with UV, everything is more complex. It’s our eyes that are limited, not light and color.
I graduated HS in '80. The 70's - 80's were certainly a great time for music! From everyone being in a garage band, to blasting music driving down the Boulevard, then going to clubs all night when you were old enough. Great time to be alive! One thing we didn't do was stare at phones all day. What fun would that have been?
I'm sure since this has been out a month now that you've been told that Debbie Harry doesn't pay homage to Hip Hop, they pay homage to her. And if you want to know what Debbie Harry is about go search down an extended play club version of any of her songs. Before there were Raves and Ecstasy, there were Discotheques and Cocaine. I remember watching lights flashing on all the people around me on the dance floor, all glow in the dark black light freeze-framed in the strobe, dancing in unison to a club version of this that had to have lasted 20 minutes. Debbie's clear voice and that bass line was the definition of hedonistic. It would just roll into another, and another without pause. Remember this the next time you see a 60 something year old lady having trouble with her grocery bags and realize that she was there when Debbie Harry was the tiny little white girl that propelled your music into mainstream and I believe this was the first rap video to ever play on MTV. Debbie Harry broke all of the glass ceilings 😊
Blondie is VERY diverse: "Heart of glass" (disco), "Atomic" (punk rock), "The Tide is high" (reggae influence), "Call me" (Rock. Make sure you play the full video. There's one out there that's cut in half), Very talented band. ❤
Cliff... we're going to have to edjumakatechu on music from the 1950s into the 2000s. Mostly so that you can see how music evolved over those decades. The 1950s saw the birth of "Rock" music, and it was based on Blues music, which was very popular in the black community. Rock in ALL of its forms, R&B, Hip Hop, Rap, even heavy metal ALL originated from the Blues. I know what you do for a living... "ghost writer" for Hip Hop acts, and that's cool. But you really should get informed about where it all came from. Of course, this will take time, as those decades didn't just throw out "carbon copy" music. It was a slow evolution, and every artist back then sounded unique in their own way. But that's also five DECADES worth of music. But I grew up on all that stuff. 50s and 60s music was popular in my home during the 1970s. My aunt (who lived with us until she got married in 1975, when I was 8 years old) was born in 1952, so she was raised on 50s music, and played it a lot while I was little. She also snuck some 60s music in for me, since my grandmother absolutely HATED that whole "hippy" movement. But that was during the Vietnam era, and that's something you kinda had to be there for (I could write a book about growing up during that time). We also had 70s music playing on the radio, but mostly the "lighter" stuff. "Soft Rock", "Yacht Rock", "Disco"... but I would sneak the harder stuff like Alice Cooper, KISS, Black Sabbath, etc. when she wasn't around to turn it off. ;) Yes, I was a rebellious little shit in the 70s. But anyway.... there is SO much great music to discover from those eras, and I look forward to following you along that path. I think you will benefit greatly from it.
Post video thoughts: Cliff, my friend.... I'm not sure if you spotted the "flashing light sunglasses" or not.... so, please let us know if you did. "The man from Mars" (the black dude in the white tux with tails and the top hat) had them at the beginning, but they were really noticeable during the "walking out of the club" scene at the end. I'm not sure if you caught Blondie mentioning "Fab Five Freddie" when she started the rapping part of the song. That should tell you how long he was around before this song hit. But yeah, check out her other hits. The band is pretty damned good, and they started in "Punk", but ended up moving into the mainstream with the song "Heart of Glass", then came "The Tide is High", then we got hit with "Rapture". All of which were in heavy rotation during the early years of MTV. Also, Aerosmith had a fantastic hit with Run DMC, a remake of their classic song "Walk This Way". THAT was a game changer, and there's a really interesting story behind that remake, which I suggest you check out after watching the video for the song. I think you'll understand the message in the video without having to have it explained to you.
This was the first time most people ever heard rap. This was back before the era of frantic cuts in music videos. The expression on your face as Debbie Harry's rap continues on is priceless!
Over on Black Pegasus's channel, he said a hip hop artist( I cant remember who) sampled this beginning music. Rapture was the first "rap" song played on MTV😁🎶🎸🎵
I was 10 when this came out, I didn't really understand it but I loved it! The man from Mars eating cars... I used to walk around my house repeating all the lines. Then MTV came along and wow! I recently just saw Debby Harry singing with Billie Eilish on a video for "Is That All There Is? 2022" (Originally sung by Peggy Lee in 1969). I LOVE seeing the two of them together! Music is AMAZING!!!!
7:28 Not only those four. Notice the Scottish/Irish jig dancer, the ballet dancer, the guy in the top hat doing an older style American, the women in white in the bar doing a folk dance, etc. She's paying tribute to all kinds of styles of music and dance in this video. Blondie was an amazing band and turned a bunch of us (then-young) white people into rappers in the early 80s. Millions of us can **still** rap this whole thing by heart and this song opened me up to the world of rap. Still one of my favorite genres.
Blondie started as a pop band with punk and new wave influences. Most of their music is radio friendly, but their sound evolves with each album. Debbie Harry went full techno pop with het solo album Kookoo in the late 80s.
I read that she wrote the rap lyrics just for fun in about 15 minutes. The video came later. The instrumental outro continues in the long version, audio only. 😊
The story behind the first part of the Rap is based on graffiti artist Fab Five Freddy taking Debbie to a Rap show in 1979, where she sees Grandmaster Flash on the turntables. She thought he was so impressive with his skills, she wrote line, "DJ spinning I said, 'my my... Flash is fast... Flash is cool'..." This was before Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five even got a record deal. But, Blondie were huge fans of Hip-Hop. In 1999, they recorded a Rap song with Coolio, U-God, Havoc and Inspectah Deck. It's the title track to their album, 'No Exit'. Definitely check out the "No Exit" video! Blondie were very much into the New York scene, both Punk and Hip-Hop. And Debbie Harry was also a regular at Studio 54. Also, Blondie and Fab Five Freddy recorded a Christmas Rap titled, "Yuletide Throwdown" in 1980. Freddy is in this video, too. He is the one painting 'Rap' on the wall. And the DJ at the part of the video where she starts rapping is none other than artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
This was the first time rap was played on MTV. Blondie is dope. I suggest listening to Heart of Glass.
And “One way or another” is another fun Blondie song!
Yes!!!
First song to ever feature rap to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Blondie's (Debbie Harry) #1 hit, "Rapture" is considered the first rap song to chart at number 1 in the United States. Citation: Fred Bronson (2003) 'the Billboard Book of Number One Hits' p. 549
Blondie, a punk rock band whose biggest hits were a rap song, a disco song and a reggae song =)
That was what being punk rock was all about.
@@daveodell6076Not really. Punk was rebellious, and not so much an american thing.
Like The Police, another fake but good(!) punk band, this was called "new wave" at the time.
@@herrbonk3635 I think our ideas of punk are different. Who from that time period are you considering punk?
@@daveodell6076Mostly young people here in Europe with crazy rooster hair and pins/nails in their faces. But also all the bands emulating sex pistols, more or less well, perhaps The Clash too. Ebba Grön were one of the successful punk bands in my country, and Nina Hagen in Germany was pretty punk in a way. The Police had a few punk songs, of course, but they were basically jazz dudes playing rock and reggae.
@@herrbonk3635nah.
1st rap song on billboard. 1st rap song on MTV. Blondie is the band, Debbie Harry is her name.
she is the one who introduced us to rap!
She helped bring rap to the mainstream. ❤ Blondie
She shouts out Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash at the start of the rap section. Debbie Harry admits her lyrics were mostly gibberish but she was having fun with it and flowed it well.
YES, this is my childhood
I was on GMF stream tonight, he spins “grown people music”Tuesdays noon ET/Thursdays 8 pm ET and if you are new you get a shout out 😭 see yall there
I feel like the band doesn’t get a lot of credit for helping to push rap into mainstream music…I know it took a little longer for rap/hip hop to get crazy big, but they have to be considered pioneers in experimenting with rap and also make the song a #1 hit.
Can Man from Mars be Bowie?
Debbie Harry used to hang around in a favorite Hip Hop club because she loved the music but knew that it wasn't breaking through the culture - she took matters into her own hand and put out this song named "RAP-ture" to draw interest to the genre....
bingo
Five Fab Freddie..!
She was a social butterfly and knew EVERONE involved in underground music and avant-garde artists like Basquiat & Warhol, and they all loved Debbie…everyone wanted to be in the presence of Debbie in the 70’s NYC underground art scene.
@@roger1296 I always interpreted the "fever dream" of this video as trying to capture the vibe of the streets in NYC when you were moving through the underground art scene.
@@level10tenx81Fab Five Freddy 😉
Heart Of Glass and Call Me were freaking awesome too!! Well worth the listen!!
Tide is high as well
@@mothermaclean yesssss 🙌😍
also (semi ironically) Rainbow connection with Kermit
i like the song maria too.
This is the very first rap song to hit the charts. And that 'PIMP' was Fab 5 Freddie. He was a big rap guy in NYC in the 70s
You're looking at the first commercial success of rap music in the mainstream Artist as far as anyone knows ever. The cool thing is being your parents age we were here to witness it, the music we saw in our time is Indescribable and unrepeatable. Blondie the lead singers Deborah Harry was one of the first and most influential experimental and alternative bands in America
Blondie's “Rapture” (1980) became the first single featuring a rap to reach number 1 in the USA. She is the original OG!
Awesome, what a genuine period in our Artists - Musical break through & combinations with new layering of styles new and invented instruments that had endless possibilities....
Sounds & a mixture of classic techniques blending with augmented changes birthed a different fullness, richness & strength. Always maintaining the raw originality that belongs too the Group.
The talents of musicians, producers and engineers before who created and elaborated a new forum of music! Allowing generations to discover, develop, design & elaborate the value of One of few things, that the Human Course needs to become one love.
Blondie is the band Debbie Harry is the singer. She was also a well known actress in the 1980's. Now At the age of 78 she is still touring
I was 24 in 1980 and didn't remember her as an actress, a Playboy model yes but Actress no so I checked WIKI she, she did two low budget movies, does that qualify as " well known actress"
@WILLKMC Wildstyle, Videodrome & the original Hairspray in 1988 were all classics. She did a bunch of other independent films & television shows in the 80s & 90's. I first saw her in the original Hairspray as Velma Von Tussle. That's how I found out about her as a teen in the 80's
@@WILLKMCShe wasn’t a Playboy model. She was a waitress (bunny) at the Playboy club for a few months in 1968 or 1969.
and still lokes like she is 35
Blondie Should get more props as the first female bringing rap into a pop song, MTV. This was the first rap i ever heard. After that you saw fat boys, run DMC, curtis blow, big daddy kane and when NWA dropped, it was over!
When the 80’s came they arrived with a bang. Suddenly music took whole new directions. I loved it. I was only 20 yrs old in 1980. MTV was amazjng to us back then!
It was a great time to be a kid in this era.. I remember when MTV came out…oh it was on after Video Killed the Radio Star!
Class of 79! I keep on telling people if you want to know what my generation was about then all you have to do is watch that 70 show because those kids graduated the same year I did and did the same things in their basement that they did in theirs. We were coming into our twenties fresh off of Saturday Night Fever and disco's were opening up everywhere by the time we were 18.😊
Glad Blondie is getting a bit of credit 😁 Rapture was the first song containing rap I ever heard. Rappers Delight was the next.
Fun fact, Jean-Michel Basquiat is the one on the turntables at the beginning of the video.
Fab 5 Freddy (correction it's William Barnes, per @kyleanspach3457) is the one in the white top hat and coattails too.
The "man from mars" in the white tux and top hat is William Barnes. Fab 5 Freddie is doing the graffiti in the background. It's a very common and understandable misconception.
@@kyleanspach3457 Hmm, thank you for the correction
@@kyleanspach3457 yeah, Fab 5 Freddy was the one in the Kangol doing the "rap" graffiti!!
@Cheeses_K_Riced I didn't know that. Thanks
This was so much fun at the skating rink. Play Rapper's Delight from Sugar Hill Gang
BLONDIE WERE AHEAD OF THEIR GAME!!! I believe this was the first time rap aired on MTV in 1980ish. Debbie Harry was an ICONIC frontwoman - she had such an impact on female vocalists - her voice, style and looks - she was an one off! She basically heard rap artists on the streets - hiphop was in it's infancy- so she brought it to the studio & Rapture was the result!
They headlined Glastonbury Festival last summer in the 'Legends' slot - still got it!
PLEASE REACT to 'Atomic', 'Call Me', 'Heart Of Glass', 'Sunday Girl', 'One Way and Another', 'Hangin On The Telephone' - great band - punk/alterative/new-wave....brilliant! Saw them about 5 years ago at a big music festival - crowd went WILD! More BLONDIE please!👱♀🤘
She is responsible for bringing Rap to the mainstream.
I was born in 44 and have enjoyed every genre of music from the 20's on. Definitely born at the right time.
The first commercially successful rap song ever...by Blondie? Yup. It's true.
Heart of Glass and Call Me!! She was and still is amazing. aND yES, bEAUTIFUL
In the late 70's she used to hang out in the rap scene and told Fab 5 she would put him in a song. They did so he was in the video. MTV was slow to add wrap to their video line up but Blondie helped spread the word to those who watched MTV to check out the NYC rap scene .❤
The short version was made in 1979 the extended version was made the same year but the video was put out in 81 she is the first female singer to actually come out with rap before Kurtis Blow. I have the 33 album 1979 now she's becoming more famous than she ever was nice for her😊
MTV was just starting and they gave the video to her 1979 song. Hard to believe Debbie Harry will be 79 yrs old this year......
Hey Cliff! you might want to check out" Heart of Glass " released in 1978. I remember telling my coworkers when we first heard it on the radio," This song is going to be a huge Hit" the rest is history.
Debbie Harry is 78 yrs old now and still looks and sounds great and she is still performing with Blondie. Check out Isle of Wright Festival in 2023.
Her name is Debbie Harry! BLONDIE is the band. Really like your reactions...
I was 15 when this came out and had never heard 'rap' but still decided to memories the whole thing and repeat it to my parents lmao.
Hey Cliff - man who loves words/lyrics- clues in the title! Rap-ture!
Only jesting. You know I loves ya! 😘❤🐀
Your reaction did not disappoint, Cliffbeats! 😂😂😂 And, no, she literally just meant bars a.k.a night clubs. This was so much fun to see!!!
Blondie was new wave but played lots of different types of music. They played at CBGBs along with the Talking Heads, the Ramones. Blondie is a rabbit hole that is great to dive into. Please check out the tide is high and heart of glass.
When Blondie did this (it was before MTV started in 1980, and featured on the show Friday Night Videos, a precurser to MTV on netword tv on Friday nights after midnight. ) It was the FIRST RAP most of the world had ever heard. Playing a lot in New York's CBGB's with punk acts and budding rap acts like THE BEASTIE BOYS, she was exposed to the Furious Five, and Curtis Blow. Rap had a slow start. In 1982, Herbie Hancock released "ROCK IT" for the breakdance movement that was starting. 1985 we heard Run Dmc and the Beastie boys and a few other acts in the movie KRUSH GROOVE, then the Beasties released Licensed to Ill in 1986 and it was the FIRST RAP ALBUM to sell PLATINUM. So 6 years after this, rap finally got accepted by MTV and just a little bit of mainstream.
Rap was not an official genre at this time. Blondie has a lot of huge hits CALL ME, I'm GONNA GETCHA. HEART OF GLASS, and many more. MTV came around a year after this video.
There was no Xanax at this time. He was eating bars where the people meet.....She is not paying homage, she is promoting, trying to get hip hop noticed by people outside of the Bronx and Brooklyn, Queens.
Blondie got me through my teenage years.I think the man from mars was a reference to Bowie.
Blondie's songs are very diverse. Rap, Disco, Punk, New Wave, Reggae, etc.
I was going to say the same! lol
she’s the goat
This was the first #1 Rap song. The men following her at the end was; Fab 5 Freddy, who inspired her to write the song.
every Blondie album evolved so they never sounded the same. Personally I love each one. X Offender (from their debut LP) and 11.59 and Will Anything Happen (from their third) are definite favourites of mine. Deborah and the guys just cant be equalled!
KRS-One famously used this in his track, "Step Into A World (Rapture's Delight)"
Nobody from the early hip hop scene knew what the hell she was rapping about, but this was the first mainstream exposure that rap ever got. She shouts out Fab Five Freddy, Grand Master Flash, and maybe others. She was definitely shining a light on the new underground music scene call hip-hop.
I remember hearing this when I was maybe 8 or 9... and it was mesmerizing to my ears.
Next up, check out "Boogie Down Bronx" by Mantronix
ruclips.net/video/6k0MFB_uDOw/видео.htmlsi=Pc48yeyXkej6oVGl
Back then I didn't care about the lyrics because I was on the dance floor grooving to the beat💃💃
Seriously, I'd recommend listening to the whole of Blondie's Autoamerican album. Whilst not quite their best album, it is their most eclectic, and spans a whole range of genres from rap, to jazz, to ska, to musicals, and more (plus one of my all-time Blondie favourite songs "Angels on the Balcony").
I was just waiting to see what your reaction would be when Debbie started rapping! lol She did a lot of things along the way besides singing...she was a Playboy Bunny & actress as well. But most of her success was with her band Blondie. Blondie was one of the first to incorporate rap into her songs. She loved all kinds of music and tried to incorporate the different styles...like rap. lol I haven't heard this in a minute!
I was 9 even this came out and loved skating to it at the skating drink. She was the coolest. I saw her in concert in 2023 and she's still got it.
Crazy to think Blondie started off playing shows wit the Ramones and Talking Heads… imagine witnessing those bands starting off and seeing their progression.. insane bruh
❤ talking heads ❤
This is actually the first #1 song on Billboard’s Hot 100 to feature a rap break…this band “Blondie” and lead singer “Debbie Harry” were heavy into to underground music scene in NYC during the 70’s and into 80’s and they were also well connected with all of the avant guard artists during same time…this band was in everything artistic in NYC during 70’s and 80’s…back to underground music connections: the band were great friends with all of the major up and coming grandfathers of rap from NYC…this was an homage to those guys.
Blondie was a band way ahead of their time. Doing Punk, New Wave, Rock, Pop, Rap, and Reggae to name a few. And lead singer Debbie Harry a true icon. Try One Way or Another,Dreaming, Call Me, Atomic, Tide is High, Heart of Glass. Damn just so many others to choose from.
*BLONDIE DEBBIE HARRY DID IT ALL AND STILL DOES IT ALL! BLONDIE HAVE THE FIRST-EVER NUMBER ONE RAP SINGLE AROUND THE WORLD! FIRST RAP EVER WITH THEIR OWN MUSIC, NOT SAMPLING. FIRST BAND IN HISTORY TO HAVE NUMER ONE SINGLES IN THE SEVENTIES, EIGHTIES AND NINETIES! FIRST FEMALE FRONTED BAND IN THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME! BLONDIE ARE ORIGINALS. OFTEN IMITATED, NEVER DUPLICATED! THANKS FOR SHARING BLONDIE!*
One Way or Another, Heart of Glass, Call Me, The Tide is High
I was about 12 when this was a hit and I'd NEVER heard "rap" before. Of course we all knew Blondie's many hits but when I hear this I was like "what is she doing talking in the song?!?"
This was released in 1980. It was the first Rap song released on MTV. Suger Hill Gangs Rappers Delight came out the year before, which I believe influenced this song. Lol gotta love 70s and 80s music. I was 18 when this came out. Great Reaction ❤!! Call me is another great song.
Given they bit every second of RD, “stealing” from them would be what I consider Making a Point.
How do you not know Blondie!?! I sing her songs almost every weekend!! ❤
Hes younger! lol
Their songs!
Great reaction. 👍
I love it when first they dint know Blondie, then that she revolutionized rap. 💕
Love Debbie Harry (Blondie) Fantastic artist...
"as soon as you brought the goat in i knew it was a party" Cliff Beats-2024
Blondie started as a punk rock/new wave band but covered just about every genre from punk to reggae, disco to rap and everything in between (and outside). Still recording and touring!
She was very big in the Punk Rock and Disco scenes. She was often performing at CBGBs and was often at Studio 54. She has a big song, 'Call Me' from the movie 'American Giglio'. She has a ton of hits both as the lead singer of Blondie and solo career.
Blondie is the OG to Rap in Mainstream music. I've seen a couple of reactors say they sure were glad they wern't high when they watched this for the first time! 😂
"One Way Or Another" you'll be listening to more Blondie!
Blondie started as a punk rock band but got into other genres like Heart of Glass, which made them famous because it was playing it in dance clubs. Got to see them in the 80s at Belmont Park, NY.
Blondie is amazing she made some big Well kmow songs
KRS-ONE sampled it for step into a world "Raptures delight", I hope you know BDP cliff 😂😂
More of a remake than a sample, but definitely one Cliff should check out: Step Into a World (Rapture's Delight) 1997
We all wanted those flickering red sunglasses while growing up, to be like the Man from Mars. This was iconic for those of us entering the 80s as music "vampires" - checking out all genres. Debbie Harry started it all for females, IMO. She/they made listening/accepting to up & coming rap artists so much easier. Her voice was butter!
This was the core of our life soundtrack when I was in my 20s. Debbie Harry is God.
I would love to see you check out more Blondie. She has some incredible music. Heart of Glass next please.
I think Blondie had an accidental double with the line "eating bars." Bars, or clubs, and Bars as in Valium.
The ORIGINAL, "No Cuts, No Edits in this Bitch!" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
And the line was "now that he's done eating cars and eating bars, now he's eating GUITARS!" or something alone those lines
Cindy Lauper "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "Time After Time" are MUST reactions Cliff!!!
I'm SO happy I was born in 1971!!! It still gets to me how much technology has changed in my 53 years around the sun!!! I had one of the first mobile phones, when they were in a briefcase to the A,T &T "brick" to a smartphone, which I think have made humans dumber as a species!
MORE BLONDIE! Please....... Blondie helped me through my early teens if you know what i mean lol
Blondie was my first crush! Check out Atomic, call me or heart of glass
I grew up in the 80s. I definitely love 80s music.
Both Blondie and Debbie Harry as a solo artist is worth a deep dive
Dude in white tux is Fab Five Freddy...and guy shes singing to at the 3:40 mark Grand Master Flash...its very hard to trace "rap's" origin beyond those two Possible but, very hard.
1:25 - Yessir, 1980 on the dot. (Edit: Album release was 1980, music video came out Jan 31, 1981.)
7:58 - Yes. RAPTURE for a reason. She's also multilingual and in the video there were shoutouts to all sorts of different cultures and scenes including Haitian AND Louisiana Voodoo.
I mean, Basquiat
Did you see a few years ago they “discovered” that there was also fluorescent paint and with UV, everything is more complex. It’s our eyes that are limited, not light and color.
Recorded 1980 and released Jan 1981. 1st female rap number one song in the US.
i REALLY enjoyed this video- especially the part where you encourage everyone to follow the band’s official account.
It has bells, definitely 80s.
The tide is high is a banger!!!!
a living legend way before madona
I graduated HS in '80. The 70's - 80's were certainly a great time for music! From everyone being in a garage band, to blasting music driving down the Boulevard, then going to clubs all night when you were old enough. Great time to be alive! One thing we didn't do was stare at phones all day. What fun would that have been?
I'm sure since this has been out a month now that you've been told that Debbie Harry doesn't pay homage to Hip Hop, they pay homage to her. And if you want to know what Debbie Harry is about go search down an extended play club version of any of her songs. Before there were Raves and Ecstasy, there were Discotheques and Cocaine.
I remember watching lights flashing on all the people around me on the dance floor, all glow in the dark black light freeze-framed in the strobe, dancing in unison to a club version of this that had to have lasted 20 minutes. Debbie's clear voice and that bass line was the definition of hedonistic. It would just roll into another, and another without pause.
Remember this the next time you see a 60 something year old lady having trouble with her grocery bags and realize that she was there when Debbie Harry was the tiny little white girl that propelled your music into mainstream and I believe this was the first rap video to ever play on MTV. Debbie Harry broke all of the glass ceilings 😊
This song was the #1 crossover song for years !!
Blondie is VERY diverse:
"Heart of glass" (disco),
"Atomic" (punk rock),
"The Tide is high" (reggae influence),
"Call me" (Rock. Make sure you play the full video. There's one out there that's cut in half),
Very talented band. ❤
Cliff... we're going to have to edjumakatechu on music from the 1950s into the 2000s. Mostly so that you can see how music evolved over those decades. The 1950s saw the birth of "Rock" music, and it was based on Blues music, which was very popular in the black community. Rock in ALL of its forms, R&B, Hip Hop, Rap, even heavy metal ALL originated from the Blues.
I know what you do for a living... "ghost writer" for Hip Hop acts, and that's cool. But you really should get informed about where it all came from. Of course, this will take time, as those decades didn't just throw out "carbon copy" music. It was a slow evolution, and every artist back then sounded unique in their own way. But that's also five DECADES worth of music. But I grew up on all that stuff. 50s and 60s music was popular in my home during the 1970s. My aunt (who lived with us until she got married in 1975, when I was 8 years old) was born in 1952, so she was raised on 50s music, and played it a lot while I was little. She also snuck some 60s music in for me, since my grandmother absolutely HATED that whole "hippy" movement. But that was during the Vietnam era, and that's something you kinda had to be there for (I could write a book about growing up during that time). We also had 70s music playing on the radio, but mostly the "lighter" stuff. "Soft Rock", "Yacht Rock", "Disco"... but I would sneak the harder stuff like Alice Cooper, KISS, Black Sabbath, etc. when she wasn't around to turn it off. ;)
Yes, I was a rebellious little shit in the 70s.
But anyway.... there is SO much great music to discover from those eras, and I look forward to following you along that path. I think you will benefit greatly from it.
Post video thoughts: Cliff, my friend.... I'm not sure if you spotted the "flashing light sunglasses" or not.... so, please let us know if you did. "The man from Mars" (the black dude in the white tux with tails and the top hat) had them at the beginning, but they were really noticeable during the "walking out of the club" scene at the end.
I'm not sure if you caught Blondie mentioning "Fab Five Freddie" when she started the rapping part of the song. That should tell you how long he was around before this song hit.
But yeah, check out her other hits. The band is pretty damned good, and they started in "Punk", but ended up moving into the mainstream with the song "Heart of Glass", then came "The Tide is High", then we got hit with "Rapture". All of which were in heavy rotation during the early years of MTV.
Also, Aerosmith had a fantastic hit with Run DMC, a remake of their classic song "Walk This Way". THAT was a game changer, and there's a really interesting story behind that remake, which I suggest you check out after watching the video for the song. I think you'll understand the message in the video without having to have it explained to you.
This was the first time most people ever heard rap. This was back before the era of frantic cuts in music videos.
The expression on your face as Debbie Harry's rap continues on is priceless!
IIRC Debbie wrote the rap herself in just a few minutes. Marvelous ear for it and a lot else about her is marvelous.
Much love and homage to every generation of music.
Over on Black Pegasus's channel, he said a hip hop artist( I cant remember who) sampled this beginning music. Rapture was the first "rap" song played on MTV😁🎶🎸🎵
I'd imagine he's talking about KRSone
Debbie Harry formed Blondie with Chris Stein, they were both early hiphop fans. Chris Stein also did the music for the movie Wild Style!
This was great out of the gate...You should check out their original stuff from club clips , a totally different animal...
There were rap songs before this but they first number 1 song with rap and the 1st rap music video played on MTV in 1981.
“When I seen the goat, I knew it was a party”
the dj during the first lines of rap was pop artist jean-michel basquiat who also worked as a dj.
You are correct....The eighties were beyond amazing.
I was 10 when this came out, I didn't really understand it but I loved it! The man from Mars eating cars... I used to walk around my house repeating all the lines. Then MTV came along and wow! I recently just saw Debby Harry singing with Billie Eilish on a video for "Is That All There Is? 2022" (Originally sung by Peggy Lee in 1969). I LOVE seeing the two of them together! Music is AMAZING!!!!
she was a big name name back in the day
7:28 Not only those four. Notice the Scottish/Irish jig dancer, the ballet dancer, the guy in the top hat doing an older style American, the women in white in the bar doing a folk dance, etc. She's paying tribute to all kinds of styles of music and dance in this video. Blondie was an amazing band and turned a bunch of us (then-young) white people into rappers in the early 80s. Millions of us can **still** rap this whole thing by heart and this song opened me up to the world of rap. Still one of my favorite genres.
Blondie started as a pop band with punk and new wave influences. Most of their music is radio friendly, but their sound evolves with each album.
Debbie Harry went full techno pop with het solo album Kookoo in the late 80s.
i really liked Blondie back in the days, and i don't care what anyone thinks about it.
The Album "The Curse of Blondie had a few nice Tracks like 'Back Ground" and "Desire '
I read that she wrote the rap lyrics just for fun in about 15 minutes. The video came later. The instrumental outro continues in the long version, audio only. 😊
The story behind the first part of the Rap is based on graffiti artist Fab Five Freddy taking Debbie to a Rap show in 1979, where she sees Grandmaster Flash on the turntables. She thought he was so impressive with his skills, she wrote line, "DJ spinning I said, 'my my... Flash is fast... Flash is cool'..."
This was before Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five even got a record deal. But, Blondie were huge fans of Hip-Hop. In 1999, they recorded a Rap song with Coolio, U-God, Havoc and Inspectah Deck. It's the title track to their album, 'No Exit'. Definitely check out the "No Exit" video!
Blondie were very much into the New York scene, both Punk and Hip-Hop. And Debbie Harry was also a regular at Studio 54.
Also, Blondie and Fab Five Freddy recorded a Christmas Rap titled, "Yuletide Throwdown" in 1980. Freddy is in this video, too. He is the one painting 'Rap' on the wall. And the DJ at the part of the video where she starts rapping is none other than artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.