What was the first song with a rap verse to hit #1?
The fun thing about good music is that someone always shows up to borrow a sound, twist it around, and create something nobody's heard before. Radio programmers in the late '70s were treating rap like a novelty act, and the genre spent years trying to break into the mainstream. What was the first song with a rap verse to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100?
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Correct Answer: "Rapture" by Blondie
(Source)If you're a fan of the Wu-Tang Clan, you have a blonde new wave singer to thank for introducing some members to rap. Actual hip-hop couldn't get mainstream radio play in the early '80s, but Blondie could. Debbie Harry and bandmate Chris Stein were spending time with Fab 5 Freddy out in the Bronx, and by 1979, they figured they'd try writing their own rap song. That's how "Rapture" came about, but I have no idea why the song is about a man from Mars eating Cadillacs and Subarus. The track hit number one in March 1981 and made Blondie's rap verses the first to top the Billboard Hot 100 (it would also be their last time topping the chart). It took almost another decade before an actual rap song topped the charts, and of all people, of course it was this one.
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