1980 · Behind the Songs
When rap stepped into the pop charts.
“Rapture” (1980), from Autoamerican, includes a rap section. Harry’s rap is playful and referential, name-checking figures from music and film, and it sits inside a song that is otherwise pure Blondie pop.
The song matters not because the rap is technically perfect, but because it opened a door. It showed a pop audience that rap could belong on the radio, and it showed hip-hop artists that pop charts were not closed to them. “Rapture” is a bridge song, and bridges are often more important than the songs on either side of them.