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STAGE AND SCREEN

What was the first rap record?

Michael Cullen, Dublin, Ireland
  • It's generally agreed to be 'Rappers Delight' by the Sugarhill Gang. Although there were earlier recordings knocking around New York, this was the first on proper vinyl. It was a very small hit in the US but quite big in the UK. I remember them on Top Of The Pops. Blondie had the first breakthrough rap with Rapture. Novelty rap singles followed including the Hitler Rap (Mel Brooks), The Snot Rap (Kenny Everett) and the Stutter Rap (Morris Minor & the Majors).

    Simon Moffatt, Swindon, UK
  • As with most genres of music you can argue for hours about what "rap" actually is, but the first incontrovertable "rap" record would be "Rappers Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang which came out in about 1979. But you could easily argue that at least some of the work of Gil Scott Heron or the Last Poets from the early 70s is "rap" and these artists were in turn building on earlier traditions. Jamaican DJ "toasting" has obvious similarities to rap, albeit to a different rhythm. Plenty of ska records from the mid to late 60's include some toasting, so the earliest recorded practitioner might be someone like King Stitt?

    Guy Hearn, Sydney, Australia
  • The first rap record to chart in the UK was "Rappers Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang, 1979. The subject of the song, as with many others of the genre, is the artists themselves.

    Stephen Pepper, Kingston upon Thames, UK
  • More to the point, when can we expect the last rap record?

    David Vickery, Croydon, UK
  • I understand that many current rappers have (believe it or not) cited "Rapture" by Blondie, with its rap section, as being a seminal (if not the first) example. Surely speech to music, however, goes back for centuries. This begs the question - when did this first become known as "rap" and why?

    Meg Clubley, London, UK
  • Rap music is usually traced back to such late 70s offerings as the Fatback Band's "King Tim III" and Sugarhill's "Rapper's Delight", which were the first rap/hip-hop records.

    However, The Last Poets' eponymous debut album (1970) which was a rap record in all but name, has a as good a claim as any to being the first.

    Gareth Owen, Newcastle-U-Lyme, UK
  • "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang.

    Neil Jackson, Newcastle Upon Tyne
  • Led Zeppelin's "The Crunge" on Houses of the Holy had a rap type theme to it. I believe this was around 1974...

    Simon Barker, Hull E Riding
  • Rapper's Delight is always cited but who among those people who have already written responses to this query remember Sugarhill's limited edition rough cut, given away with copies of GangTown Fanzine? My mother used to have a copy of this magazine with the disc still attatched but it has gone AWOL recently. I believe one of the tracks was called Rap Neck or The Rap Neck or something similar. Anyone else shed any light on this?

    J, Brixton
  • My Fair Lady (1956) - Rex Harrison spoke all of his songs. Also biggest seller (18 million if you include Broadway, London and Film recordings - all by Harrison)

    John McKendrick, Newbury Berkshire
  • The misinformed view that Rap music is simply spoken lyrics is the cause of a lot of dreadful music written mostly by white "artists", calling it Rap.

    Andrew Prockter, London England
  • Further to earlier answers, it is generally accepted that 'Rapper's Delight' is the first rap record, despite being beaten to the punch by Fatback's 'King Tim III' by a month or so, the rhymes on 'Rapper's Delight' reflecting more closely the style that had grown in the South Bronx. However, the first few years of rap recordings were dominated by records in which bands of studio musicians recreated riffs, rather than having a DJ cutting up old vinyl (which is where the musical element of hip hop began). The first record demonstrating the DJ's art was probably Grandmaster Flash's 'Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel' (1980), and the first which had a DJ extending one break while MCs rhymed over it was (again, probably) Run-DMC's 'Sucker MCs' (1983). Trust me, I'm conducting PhD research in old school hip hop.

    Simon Bottom, Liverpool
  • It is indeed Rapture by Blondie.

    Jo Nadin, Peckham, London, UK
  • Bob Dylan's song, subterrainean homesick blues is most certainly a rap song and i think the date is about 1962.

    Gav, Newcastle UK
  • Further to all this, according to the sleevenotes on the excellent "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" compilation, the first rap record was "Vicious Rap" by Tanya Winley. It still sounds pretty good too

    Guy Hearn, Sydney Australia
  • 60's experimental flower power combo Love have a rapped section on one of songs on their 1963 albumn 'Forever Changes'.

    Seth, Edinburgh UK
  • No, Gav in Newcastle, Subterranean Homesick Blues is not "most definitely" a rap song - it is heavily influenced by (some might say ripped off) Chuck Berry's Too Much Monkey Business. It is sung, not rapped. See also Elvis Costello's Pump It Up and REM's The End of the World as We Know It. The first rap record? How about The Revolution will not be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron?

    Jon Dennis, Brixton London
  • Yes that Dylan song IS a rap song. I have thought that for years. Subterranean Homesick Blues was on the album Bringing All Back Home in 1965. All you people need to look up these lyrics and get schooled.

    Jack D, Los Angeles USA
  • You're all wrong. Not only did Lord Buckley record the earliest rap records in the 1940s and 50's, he recorded the earliest song with "rap" in the title. ("Bad Rapping by the Marquis De Sade"). Try hard, his recording as still available. (see lordbuckley.com)

    Ralph Stephen, London, UK
  • The original "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith is undoubtedly the finest rap record ever made. You may think that Run DMC turned it into a rap track, but the original included some far superior rapping.

    Paul Cook, England
  • The first rap number 1 was, of course, 'West End Girls' by Pet Shop Boys..."sometimes you're better off dead, there's a gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head" and son on

    Craig, London UK
  • Pigmeat Markham - Here comes the judge

    Brian Calder, Denia, Spain
  • I know a lot of hip-hop vinyl nerds, and I mean a lot! As far as I am aware, the first rap record is by Fatback Band, King Tim III, Personality Jock. This is considered the first rap record on vinyl as it is an intentional hip-hop record, not the use of the word rap as in what James Brown or Muhammad Ali would have used.

    Waxer, Portsmouth, UK


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