https://nypost.com/2021/07/07/blondi...video-rapture/
Forty years ago, Debbie Harry went on network TV to introduce a new musical phenomenon called hip-hop.
“The most recent fad to catch on with kids in our big cities and metropolitan areas is rapping,” the Blondie singer explained to the audience on the network variety show “Solid Gold,” in 1981.
After mentioning some of the genre’s rising stars from the Bronx — the Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, the Funky 4 + 1 — Harry introduced her band’s latest rap-inspired video.
“Using our new single, ‘Rapture,’” Harry said, in a professorial tone, “Blondie and some of our friends put together a number to show you what rapping in the street scene is like.”
What followed remains one of the most surprising, delightful and groundbreaking videos of all time. It has everything: Jean-Michel Basquiat playing a DJ, graffiti artists Lee Quiñones and Fab 5 Freddy, Debbie Harry rapping, voodoo dancers, a goat!
The mini-film — directed by Keith Macmillan, a k a “Keef” — was a revelation, in an era when most music videos consisted of a band pretending to perform a song on a soundstage. It not only told a story, it also merged New York City’s hip-hop, art and clubbing cultures in a totally unprecedented way. When the new cable channel MTV launched later that year, in August 1981, “Rapture” was not only the sole “rap” video it aired on its first day, it was one of the few clips that had any kind of urban grit at all — not to mention one of the few that included people of color. (MTV wouldn’t air a video by a rap group until Run-DMC’s “Rockbox” a whole three years later.)
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“The most recent fad to catch on with kids in our big cities and metropolitan areas is rapping,” the Blondie singer explained to the audience on the network variety show “Solid Gold,” in 1981.
After mentioning some of the genre’s rising stars from the Bronx — the Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, the Funky 4 + 1 — Harry introduced her band’s latest rap-inspired video.
“Using our new single, ‘Rapture,’” Harry said, in a professorial tone, “Blondie and some of our friends put together a number to show you what rapping in the street scene is like.”
What followed remains one of the most surprising, delightful and groundbreaking videos of all time. It has everything: Jean-Michel Basquiat playing a DJ, graffiti artists Lee Quiñones and Fab 5 Freddy, Debbie Harry rapping, voodoo dancers, a goat!
The mini-film — directed by Keith Macmillan, a k a “Keef” — was a revelation, in an era when most music videos consisted of a band pretending to perform a song on a soundstage. It not only told a story, it also merged New York City’s hip-hop, art and clubbing cultures in a totally unprecedented way. When the new cable channel MTV launched later that year, in August 1981, “Rapture” was not only the sole “rap” video it aired on its first day, it was one of the few clips that had any kind of urban grit at all — not to mention one of the few that included people of color. (MTV wouldn’t air a video by a rap group until Run-DMC’s “Rockbox” a whole three years later.)
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