I got into a discussion today about this issue.
Which was the first popular song that could be classified as ‘rap?’
The guy I was talking about said Aerosmith’s originial “Walk this Way” from the '70s was early rap. I don’t think it was, but our perception of it is colored by the later version of it with Run DMC.
The first I can remember hearing was “Rappers Delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang from the late 70s.
blondies rapture had a rap part in it…thats the first “rap song” to make it to the masses…sugar hill was minor…but is credited to be the first “rap song” to be recorded…run dmc did a cover of walk this way and had aerosmith join in on it…i think that was the first rap tune to make it on the top ten charts…then vanilla ice had the first top ten album…followed by mc hammer…from there is all history…if im incorrect please correct me
It evolved from Jamaican Dub music and street DJs. Rapper’s Delight was indeed the first full-on rap recording.
I’ll third Sugarhill’s Rapper’s Delight as the first recorded. There was lots of other hip hop being performed before that, though.
Aerosmith’s Walk This Way wasn’t hip hop. If it was, the Boston radio station that first aired the Run DMC version wouldn’t have got buried under an avalanche of complaints.
Pish. It was actually invented by John Skelton. 
Katisha, you’ve made my day.
Re. the OP, y’all might want to read up on DJ Kool Herc, generally credited with inventing hip-hop as much as any one person can be said to have “invented” a genre of music. Think Sam Phillips with rock and roll, or Bill Monroe with bluegrass.
Rapper’s Delight ended up selling two million copies and hit #4 on the R&B charts … hardly minor.
Blondie’s Rapture was the first rap song to cross over to the white mass market, and hit #1 on the pop charts.
Spoken or chanted portions of a song go back waaay before the beginnings of rap, including things like DJ toasting in Jaimaican dub, the talking blues, and even Barry White records. Not to mention more avant garde guys like Gil Scot Heron or the Last Poets from the late 1960s.
I have to vote for James Brown. Anything with a bit of funk has to have roots in James Brown.
I have to second the James Brown (HANH!) thing. Funkiest brother who ever lived!
Thanks! I aim to please.
Well, the “music” played by Azathoth’s servitors sounds remarkably like mondern Rap. And those idiots have been playing that stuff for ages now.
“King Tim III” by The Fatback Band was the first recorded rap song. It was released a few months before “Rapper’s Delight”