Blondie - Rapture (12" Special Disco Mix)

Blondie - Rapture (Special Disco Mix) / 12 Inch Extended Remix (HQ Audio)

Rapture was Blondie's ninth top-five single, and their last until their comeback in 1999.

A defining theme of their five-year career before Rapture was their transitions between genres: punk (X Offender), pop (Denis Denis, Hanging on the Telephone), disco (Heart of Glass, Atomic), and even reggae (The Tide Is High).

Rapture was perhaps their most unexpected left turn, but once again, it resulted in an enduring classic.

The track came about because band members Chris Stein and Debbie Harry had become interested in New York’s downtown scene, regularly attending hip-hop parties in the Bronx. They befriended pioneers like Fab 5 Freddy and members of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five and decided to incorporate elements of rap music into their sound.

"Debbie and I were hanging out with Fab 5 Freddy a lot, and we were really into the whole downtown scene. Hip-hop was just beginning to explode, and we wanted to do something with that energy," says Stein.

Blondie developed Rapture over a period of time, only releasing the track once they felt they had it just right.

The initial version of the track - much slower and more dreamlike - was re-titled Yuletide Throwdown and released in 1981 as a free Christmas flexi-disc by UK magazine Flexipop. Blondie reissued this version in 2021, along with a new remix by Cut Chemist. It can be found online and makes for an interesting comparison.

“When we first recorded Rapture, it was slower," says Stein. "The slower tape was just bass, drums, and guitar doubling the bass - I don’t think much else. I took the tape to my home studio and added stuff, then Debbie and Fred did their vocals.”

Fred - Fred Braithwaite, aka Fab 5 Freddy - was a key player in the New York street art movement in the mid-to-late 1970s as a member of the Fabulous 5 graffiti group, known for painting entire New York City subway cars.

He was also influential in the early development of other elements of hip-hop - DJing, MCing, and breakdancing - introducing people to the famous Bronx block parties of the time, including Stein and Harry.

Fred is name-checked in the lyrics ("Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody's fly"), as is Grandmaster Flash ("Flash is fast, Flash is cool"), who was invited to feature in the Rapture video but his schedule didn't align.

Fab 5 Freddy does appear in the video, walking alongside Debbie Harry, while artist Jean-Michel Basquiat stands in for Grandmaster Flash as DJ. Legendary street artist Lee Quiñones, another Fabulous 5 member, also makes an appearance.

Rapture was released in January 1981 in the UK, spending seven weeks on the chart, peaking at number five. In the US, it reached number one and became the first rap video to be played in rotation on MTV when the channel launched later that year.

The Special Disco Mix featured here was created by Blondie producer Mike Chapman for the UK release. It’s longer than the US 12" version, with a slightly richer, harder sound.

As well as the track's commercial success and cross-genre appeal, its legacy lies in its influence on many other artists: Rapture has been sampled by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, KRS-One, The Black Eyed Peas, Destiny's Child, Wu-Tang Clan and Kanye West, amongst others.

Year: 1981 Label: Chrysalis Cat no: CHS 12 2485