{"id":292910,"date":"2021-07-07T16:18:16","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T13:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/blondie-looks-back-on-iconic-80s-music-video-rapture\/"},"modified":"2021-07-07T16:18:16","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T13:18:16","slug":"blondie-looks-back-on-iconic-80s-music-video-rapture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/blondie-looks-back-on-iconic-80s-music-video-rapture\/","title":{"rendered":"#Blondie looks back on iconic ’80s music video ‘Rapture’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Blondie looks back on iconic ’80s music video ‘Rapture’<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

Forty years ago, Debbie Harry went on network TV to introduce a new musical phenomenon called hip-hop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most recent fad to catch on with kids in our big cities and metropolitan areas is rapp<\/a>ing,\u201d the Blondie singer explained<\/a> to the audience on the network variety show \u201cSolid Gold,\u201d in 1981.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After mentioning some of the genre\u2019s rising stars from the Bronx \u2014 the Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, the Funky 4 + 1 \u2014 Harry introduced her band\u2019s latest rap-inspired video.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing our new single, \u2018Rapture,\u2019\u201d Harry said, in a professorial tone, \u201cBlondie and some of our friends put together a number to show you what rapping in the street scene is like.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 Qui\u00f1ones and Fab 5 Freddy, Debbie Harry<\/a> rapping, voodoo dancers, a goat!<\/p>\n

The mini-film \u2014 directed by Keith Macmillan, a k a \u201cKeef\u201d \u2014 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\u2019s hip-hop, art and clubbing cultures in a totally unprecedented way. When the new cable channel MTV launched later that year, in August 1981, \u201cRapture\u201d was not only the sole \u201crap\u201d video it aired on its first day, it was one of the few clips that had any kind of urban grit at all \u2014 not to mention one of the few that included people of color. (MTV wouldn\u2019t air a video by a rap group until Run-DMC\u2019s \u201cRockbox\u201d<\/a> a whole three years later.)<\/p>\n

\""Rapture"
The 1981 video \u201cRapture\u201d was the first of its kind for a hip-hop video.<\/figcaption>
Photo by Charlie Ahearn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOne of the things that strikes me about \u2018Rapture\u2019 is that it really was the first in many ways,\u201d Harry told The Post. \u201cIt\u2019s funny because at the beginning, I didn\u2019t like [the video] so much \u2014 I was probably thinking in a more grandiose kind of style, to get the true atmosphere of the Lower East Side where the train yards are and create something truly wild \u2026 But now, I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is one of the all-time great New York City videos,\u201d said Sean Corcoran, who curated the exhibit \u201cNew York New Music: 1980-1986,\u201d currently at the Museum of the City of New York<\/a>. \u201cIt really encapsulates the kind of cross-pollination and energy that was happening in the city at that time, especially downtown. It shows Blondie \u2014 who were already a successful band with hits at this point \u2014 taking this new form of New York music and really absorbing it and honoring it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRapture\u201d couldn\u2019t have happened without Fred Brathwaite \u2014 a k a Fab 5 Freddy. Brathwaite, an artist and man-about-town, met Blondie guitarist Chris Stein through the public access show \u201cTV Party,\u201d and he took Stein and Harry to their first hip-hop show in the Bronx, in 1979, where they saw a then-21-year-old turntable whiz Grandmaster Flash perform.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\"\"
Though he couldn\u2019t make it on the day of the shoot, Grandmaster Flash collaborated with Debbie Harry and an array of other rising stars to create the groundbreaking video.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI was playing at a place called Webster Gym, when I saw Freddy coming from the rear with somebody with blond hair,\u201d Flash told The Post. \u201cI just kind of froze.\u201d When Brathwaite introduced them, Harry said, \u201cI\u2019ve been staring at you for the past 20 minutes or so, and I must say, you are quite incredible on those turntables. I\u2019ve never seen anything like that before,\u201d Flash recalled. Then she said, \u201cYou know something? I feel so good about this, I\u2019m going to make a record about you.\u201d Six months later, he heard Harry rapping, \u201cFlash is fast, Flash is cool,\u201d on the radio. \u201cShe kept her word!\u201d he whooped.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harry and Stein wanted the video to combine the uptown hip-hop world with the arty downtown scene they frequented. It would feature a house party DJed by Grandmaster Flash, graffiti and a host of eccentric New York characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt ended up being kind of the cartoon version of reality,\u201d said Stein.<\/p>\n

\"1981
The \u201cRapture\u201d video was shot on a sound stage decked out to look like the Lower East Side. Debbie Harry is seen here with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Fred Brathwaite, Walter Steding, Lenny Ferrari and others.<\/figcaption>
Credit: Charlie Ahearn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because they couldn\u2019t execute such a complex treatment on the actual streets of New York, an Upper East Side soundstage had to substitute for the Lower East Side. So Harry and Stein asked graffiti artists Brathwaite and Lee Qui\u00f1ones to spray-paint the walls to give the set a gritty authenticity.<\/p>\n

\u201cFreddy and I got there that morning, and we basically improvised as we went,\u201d said Qui\u00f1ones. Years of painting subway cars had taught him to paint very quickly. \u201cI said, \u2018Let\u2019s make it this big. Let\u2019s make it this small. Let\u2019s flavor it up with some vintage you know, patina-looking tags, just to give it a really gritty, street, downtown [vibe]. I wanted to make it very unique and very genuine to the time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The band members then started asking everyone they knew to play a part. \u201cThe policeman was a UK journalist who was doing a story on us at the time,\u201d said Stein. \u201c[Drummer] Clem [Burke\u2019s] girlfriend Diane was in there, [punk violinist] Walter Steding was in there \u2014 it was a lot of people we knew.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Debbie
Debbie Harry of Blondie helped bring hip hop to a larger audience in the early \u201980s.<\/figcaption>
Redferns<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe room was quite crowded with people that I recognized from the Mudd Club,\u201d said filmmaker Charlie Ahearn, who was on set observing. \u201cI remember in particular, there was a woman with a goat, who I used to call Monica, because when I would see her at the Mudd Club she reminded me of \u201960s Italian film star Monica Vitti. She had that hard elegance of an Italian actress, so I thought she was really cool. And there she was leading the goat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goat\u2019s name was Mona,\u201d said Stein. \u201cWe found some guy who was a farmer in New Jersey or something, and he brought a goat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The director, Keef, hired choreographer William Barnes to play the top-hatted \u201cMan from Mars.\u201d Barnes arrived to set already dressed in the white suit he wears in the video. \u201cIt was incredible to meet him,\u201d Harry said. \u201cHe was very self-assured, he had a strong persona.\u201d The band never heard from him again after the shoot. \u201cHe has an IMDB page with this video and that\u2019s it,\u201d said Stein.<\/p>\n

\""Rapture"
The DJ in Blondie\u2019s \u201cRapture\u201d music video was actually Jean-Michel Basquiat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The last piece of the puzzle: the DJ. Grandmaster Flash was ostensibly supposed to play the turntables, but he was unable to make it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to be in that video so bad,\u201d Flash told The Post. \u201cBut the record label I was at wouldn\u2019t allow me to appear in it \u2026 I was so angry \u2026 I was supposed to be in the video with Fab, like that was my moment. But my replacement was pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

That replacement: Basquiat, who happened to be hanging out on set.<\/p>\n

\u201cJean really wanted to do graffiti on the [house party] set, but Keef didn\u2019t want him to, he wanted it to just be a blank red wall behind him,\u201d said Stein. However, the artist did enhance Qui\u00f1ones\u2019 and Brathwaite\u2019s scribblings with some of his own famous phrases, like \u201cBuild a fort, set it on fire\u201d and \u201cPay for soup.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe soundstage people just couldn\u2019t wait to paint it over,\u201d Harry said.<\/p>\n

\"Debbie
Debbie Harry of Blondie in 1978.<\/figcaption>
Armando Gallo\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The video opens with Barnes \u2014 the Man from Mars \u2014 high-stepping down a dark New York City sidewalk. He peers into a window of a basement apartment, where Harry, in a tube top and short shorts, wanders through a house party, dancing and singing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if the director Keith MacMillan had the fancy idea of having the guys kind of dance awkwardly with Debbie [in the party scene],\u201d said Blondie drummer Clem Burke, who sports a beard in the film. \u201cWe weren\u2019t exactly *NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys, but I guess it\u2019s somewhat endearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Blondie
Chris Stein and Debbie Harry of Blondie invited patrons of the Mudd Club (where they are pictured performing) to be extras in the video.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Harry then stops to spit some bars in front of Basquiat\u2019s DJ booth, before wandering out into a graffiti-splattered street scene. Behind her, Qui\u00f1ones and Brathwaite pretend to tag their already-painted walls, a little girl does ballet, people in kooky outfits saunter back and forth, voodoo dancers shake. (During the shoot, one of the voodoo practitioners, who Barnes brought with him, fell into a trance, and the crew had to stop filming until she came out of it. \u201cThat\u2019s their religion, so it probably wasn\u2019t as extraordinary for them as it was for us,\u201d Harry said.) At the end, Barnes leads the band outside, where they disappear into the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt somewhat reminded me of Sesame Street, in the way that it looked like a friendly ghetto,\u201d said Ahearn. \u201cI love the video; I love the song. It\u2019s very important that it didn\u2019t steal anything away from hip-hop.\u201d<\/p>\n

It did take a long time for much of the mainstream to catch up with Blondie. MTV refused to air another rap video till 1984, and it wasn\u2019t until 1987 that it would launch its first hip-hop program, \u201cYo! MTV Raps,\u201d hosted by \u201cRapture\u201d vet Fab 5 Freddy.<\/p>\n

Yet Flash said that Blondie helped introduce hip-hop \u2014\u00a0and him \u2014 to a far greater audience. \u201cShe kind of opened the gates for us to take [rap] from the Bronx, to downtown, to Queens, to different parts of the city,\u201d he said. \u201cSo for that, I want to say thank you.\u201d\u00a0\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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