RAPTURE
“Rapture” is a song by the American rock band Blondie from their fifth studio album, Autoamerican (1980). In January 1981, “Rapture” was released as the second and final single from the album. The song reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it stayed for two weeks. It was the first #1 song in the U.S. to feature “rap”. The song peaked at #4 in Australia and #5 in the United Kingdom. (More from Wikipedia)
“Katz Rap” (“Cat Rap”) by Ja Ja Ja came out the year after Blondie’s pioneering single “Rapture” was released.
(February 2012)
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The song by Face to Face called “Under the Gun” (1984) that – like Blondie’s early foray into hip-hop, “Rapture” (from 1980) – includes a long verse that is spoken rather than sung. I can’t prove it, but from what I can tell, this qualifies as the first Christian rap song.
(June 2012)
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Of more importance though is the ground-breaking song “Rapture” by Blondie – with a rap section that was performed by Deborah Harry – that was released in 1980 on their album Autoamerican. As noted in Wikipedia, this was the first song to top the American charts that featured rap, and also the first rap video to be broadcast on MTV.
The rap section of “Rapture” is not conventional rapping by a long shot; it has a stream-of-consciousness quality about it and is mostly a strange science-fiction tale about a “man from Mars” who eats cars, bars, and finally guitars. The first line name-checks a hip hop pioneer – “Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody’s fly” – and this man later became the first host of Yo! MTV Raps, using this line as his musical intro.
Also mentioned in “Rapture” is Grandmaster Flash. I saw an interview with him once where he talked about the effect that “Rapture” had on his musical vision, which led to the release of “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. I was amazed when I heard him say that.
(September 2016)
