The subject says it all…
More than that. Blondie’s “Rapture” was the FIRST rap song. Of sorts. Though rap had begun developing in the Seventies, it had yet to gain any corporate acceptance. “Rapture” was the first commercially released rap single. So everone frum Public Enemy to Tupac to Eminem and Sean Combs owes their careers to Debbie Harry. That’s right, I said it.
I thought many people agreed that “Rappers Delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang was the first popular rap song.
Rapture was the first “rap” song to break the top 40.
The story goes that “Rappers Delight” was the first commercially produced single, but I have read some articles lately disputing that. If some small record label in NYC released 250 copies of a rap song, does that make it the first single produced?
Maybe you could say that “Rappers Delight” was the first mass produced single, but still, I’m guessing that is one of those facts you could never actually prove.
Well, http://www.allmusic.com says Rapper’s Delight was released in '79, while Blondie came along a year later. I bought my copy of Rapper’s Delight in a local record shop in Sweden, when it was new, so that stuff about small release is just crap. Especially since it sold 8 million copies.
“Rapper’s Delight” entered the Top 40 on 11/10/79 and peaked at #36 and is listed as the first “rap” record to make the Hot 100.
“Rapture” entered the chart on 1/31/81 and peaked at #1. Technically is could be considered to be the first rap record performed by a woman (if you ignore the five men in her band) to hit the Hot 100. I have no access to the R&B charts.
Info from Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles 1955-1996 8th Edition.
If by “fem rap”, you mean a spoken-word monologue to a musical background, performed by a female artist, I think that distinction goes to Judy Garland, with “You Made Me Love You,” where she begins declaring her undying love to a photograph of Cary Grant.
Otherwise, it might well be Blondie.
that ain’t rap.
Followup question: What/when was the next #1 rap song (Hot 100, either gender)?
The next #1 rap song in Billboard’s Hot 100 was the Pet Shop Boys’ “West End Girls”. It arrived there on 10 May 1986, and stayed one week.
The next after that was “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” by C & C Music Factory Featuring Freedom Williams. It arrived at #1 on 9 February 1991 and stayed two weeks.
In both cases, the verses were rapped, the choruses sung.
There was a large bit of regular singing in Rapture (much more than a chorus), but that rapped bit about the car-eating man from Mars is pretty long, too.
Thanks, Walloon. I guessed it was a longish time.
You all have it dead wrong, rap is derived from Calypso, Harry Belafonte sang The Banana Boat Song 20 years before any American, black white female or whatever.
Coincidentally, this topic was introduced 20 years before you posted to it. Mind. Blown.
Well I’ll be a monkies uncle! Didn’t look at the date, I was telling my 41 year old daughter that Rapture was the first rap song to hit No 1. I thought I had better fact check myself, when I found this page. Lol.
I don’t know about first female rap song, but at least “Rapture” wasn’t the first rap song by a white group. That must have been the Clash’s “Magnificent Seven” from 1980 (made it to #34 on the UK charts).
I wouldn’t call that rapping. In reggae though, a successor of calypso, there already was toasting in the 70s before any New York rap song which was very similar to rap. I’m not versed enough in the history of reggae and rap to know if New York rap was inspired by Jamaican music.
I agree—for one thing, the speaking would have to be rhythmical—but what is the definition of “rap”? How do we decide what does or does not qualify, for the sake of deciding questions like this thread’s?
I think you nailed it yourself: the spoken parts must be rhythmical.
I would argue that Zappa/Mothers “Trouble Every Day” beats it by about 14 years.
