20/20 Report Hip-Hop Special (1981) – Part 1

1. @dashowest00 LOOOOOL

2. @1:00 “and its [rap music] use has broadened beyond mere entertainment”. It
   was never for mere entertainment… moron

3. The Big Payback by Dan Charnas says “the spring of 1981”. Blondie was on
   SNL in February 1981 and the book says 20/20 approached them “a few months
   later”, so I’m guessing it would be April or May 1981.

4. i dont agree with the blondie statement. the b boys took it outside of the
   bronx

5. Rap and Street Education

   i remember this shit like it was yesterday.. the birth of modern hip hop
   was studied by experts and critics lol. they thought it was a fad…blondie
   the first white female rapper…kurt blow….man this is the shit…. B Boy
   for life!

6. NYC…1973…the beginning of rap.

7. hahahahaaaa!!!

8. kids lern rhyme talk from thier street games lol

9. The world here blondie invented rap.

10. kingdom blow is an awesome album!!!!

11. Kurtis Blow sounds like funk more than rap

12. This is the first time I witnessed Hip Hop. Does anyone know what month in
    1981this aired?

13. I clearly remember listening to the more popular rap songs of ’81 in late
    summer and early fall. Those rap songs were new to me but they got a lot of
    airplay on black AM stations. I still remember hearing Sugar Hill Gang’s
    songs and West Street Mob’s music. They were very huge in L.A. in ’81.

14. I’m guessing between September and December because the reporter says
    Kurtis Blow is 22 years old and Kurtis was born August 9th, 1959.

15. Kurtis Blow looks like Kid Cudi

16. I saw this on Rap Radar in early summer, thanks for putting it here.

17. IDIOTS….they’re not saying Blondie invented rap. They’re saying alot of
    people(mainstream) at that point in time discovered rap because of that
    Blondie song……

18. Rap and Street Education

    @joedivision1992 NO SHE IS NOT

19. Very interesting to watch.

20. this is seriously old school hip hop,especially for network TV.3 whole
    years before “old school” run-dmc,whodini,etc. this is even months before
    kool moe dee took out busy bee.

21. @joedivision1992 Via TV Party, the relationship between Blondie, Fab 5
    Freddy, and Basquiat was the conduit for Hip-Hop to become a commodity,
    exposing Hip-Hop beyond the South Bronx/Harlem parks. Blondie’s Chris Stein
    is the primary musician on all of Wild Style, and Blondie with Freddy
    recruited Funky 4 + 1 to appear as the first Rap act on Saturday Night
    Live. So, yes, aside from Sugar Hill/Enjoy/et al, Blondie and Freddy are
    largely responsible for Hip-Hop being available to us.

22. That’s too revisionist. This program was made at the time and says the
    opposite. Rapper’s Delight hit No. 36. The Breaks hit no. 87. Rapture in
    contrast was No. 1 in the US for two weeks. It definitely did more than
    just a little to introduce this style to mainstream audiences and also to
    show its commercial potentional (national as opposed to regional; top of
    the national charts as opposed to the specialized charts). It’s a milestone
    no matter how we slice it.

23. The historical facts don’t seem to agree, but fair enough.

24. It was like fall….I saw the original show

25. In many ways, rap’s longevity is due to marketing and image. It’s the same
    with a lot of different kinds of music. There’s a core group that really
    appreciates music, and people who just want to be cool. The cool people
    bastardize the music itself, but they make it possible for the core fans to
    hear their music in the radio. As rap became more and more popular, it was
    less and less about the music. Same with rock n roll.

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