Deborah Harry - The Original Iggy Azalea (1981)

[1CK1S]

Debbie Harry is light years better than Iggy.

Also she has street cred for putting the genre on when MTV didn't want to.

 

The user and all related content has been deleted.

 

[S2J]

Ehh, from a lazy pov, sure its similar, but not really.

1) She was primarily a singer, and could in fact sing, and 2) Rapture is actually a decent contribution to that era.

The Iggy shyt is far more sinister.

 

[5 Grand]

Everything that's being said about Iggy in the other thread ( the other 10 threads) was being said about Blondie/Deborah Harry in 1981. they said white people were trying to take over the genre we created. Now it's 30 years later and she's simply a footnote in the history books.

You could even say she helped the culture, but at the time we didn't see it that way.

 

[D0wn]

Debbie Harry is light years better than Iggy.

Also she has street cred for putting the genre on when MTV didn't want to.

In 1981, MTV didn't even want to play MICHEAL FUCKING JACKSON, so of course they wouldnt want to play no rap shit.

2. did she help the genre get on? Or did her skin help her get on??

U acting like ppl who ignored rap at the time, heard her, liked her song. Then said, "now im gonna listen to those niggers".

And nigga wanna give this goofy bitch props, then shit on ELvis. Niggas need to learn to be consistent.

 

[S2J]

Everything that's being said about Iggy in the other thread ( the other 10 threads) was being said about Blondie/Deborah Harry in 1981. they said white people were trying to take over the genre we created. Now it's 30 years later and she's simply a footnote in the history books.

You could even say she helped the culture, but at the time we didn't see it that way.

Thats fair...but w/ music we have experience to show that genres DO have expiration dates.

So music genres as a whole isnt on some upward increasing slope that will never crash.

So what happened then (in hip hops infancy) could have pushed things forward, but now, at hip hop's possible peak, the same thing could actually kill it.

 

[Lab Baby]

Even if you look at it in hindsight, back then there was a time where no one knew where the culture was going, except where it was then. Hip hop was still in its infacy. Someone like Debbie coming in would be a red flag, cuz it seems like history repeating itself. But Debbie had a huge amount of respect for the culture, and didn't try to mimic it. Rapture was a pure rock song, with only slight elements of hip hop. Debbie to me was just a music lover with just as much adoration for Grandmaster Flash as she did for the Beatles. Iggy seems to be just clueless (no pun intended) about where she's at or what she's doing. No prior musical background, no real knowledge of growing up in America, let alone the hood. Labels herself "pop rap" but uses a southern accent to get her message across. Real heads can tell the difference. Debbie and Iggy is a bad comparison. I can actually credit Debbie for distinguishing the line between a real hip hop head from a different race to a culture vulture. We got Vanilla Ice the fuck outta here when we were at our money hungriest. This is a different time. We know Iggy is a fraud, but somewhere in between a slow economy, racial divide, and an increasingly monopolizing music industry, she manages to get by.

@5 Grand, seeing that you have knowledge of these things... what was the opinions of the David Bowies, Elton Johns, Hall and Oates, etc? They made a lot of Black sounding music, would you put them in the Iggy category? Serious question.

 

[Jabu_Rule]

Everything that's being said about Iggy in the other thread ( the other 10 threads) was being said about Blondie/Deborah Harry in 1981. they said white people were trying to take over the genre we created. Now it's 30 years later and she's simply a footnote in the history books.

You could even say she helped the culture, but at the time we didn't see it that way.

Why wouldn't they be worried then? You see what happened to Disco only a couple years before that? That was black music but white folks came through with their gimmicks. That shit didn't fade out. Some cracker started a racist campaign against it, burning albums in stadiums. Basically it was race music that infected everyone. Instead of letting it be, they destroyed the entire genre. They stopped playing it everywhere and black folks couldn't eat and went underground and slowly created House, and they stole that too. How much are we supposed to let it slide?

 

[5 Grand]

@5 Grand, seeing that you have knowledge of these things... what was the opinions of the David Bowies, Elton Johns, Hall and Oates, etc? They made a lot of Black sounding music, would you put them in the Iggy category? Serious question.

I was born in 1973 so David Bowie and Elton John were already on their way out when I was coming up but I remember Hall and Oats vividly. I even had the I Can't Go For That 45 as a kid. I liked them and jammed to their music when it came on the radio. They have a handful of songs I liked.

But the difference between the groups you named and Iggy is they didn't dress like they were Black or use mannerisms or as we used to say, 'perpetrate the fraud'. Then again, music videos were in their infancy and there weren't many rap videos to imitate.

Good music is good music. The reason I posted that Blondie song is because I see a lot of similarities between her and Iggy. Truth be told, I have the album with Rapture and its dope. Its called AutoAmerican. I didn't buy it when it came out, I wouldn't have, but over the years I copped it and she's a phenomenal singer.

But you make a good point, there have always been top 40 songs by White artists that crossed over to a Black audience. But we're used to the other way around. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Here's an analogy, look at President Obama, he dresses "white" and "talks white" but he wouldn't have gotten the job if he dressed and talked like (fill in the blank). Its the reverse situation. White people are up in arms that a Black man is president, "Blacks are taking over America!!!"

Time will tell how Iggy is remembered. Is she a fraud or an entertainer thats good at what she does? Only time will tell.

As far as David Bowie, Elton John and Hall and Oates, those guys are legends. Not really my cup of tea but they have songs I like and I'm sure most Black people my age would agree. Vanilla Ice is a different story.

 

[white715]

No it's not the same Hip hop back then had not hit the mainstream, Debbie wasn't attaching herself to something popular to make a come up. Blonde was already a successful band and had little if anything to gain from rapping.

Plus she was actually cool with Fab 5 Freddy who put her on to Hip hop and took her around the culture. Her involvement in the Hip hop was more organic than Iggy's involvement.

 

[5 Grand]

No it's not the same Hip hop back then had not hit the mainstream, Debbie wasn't attaching herself to something popular to make a come up. Blonde was already a successful band and had little if anything to gain from rapping.

Plus she was actually cool with Fab 5 Freddy who put her on to Hip hop and took her around the culture. Her involvement in the Hip hop was more organic than Iggy's involvement.

How is Deborah Harry being cool with Fab 5 Freddy any different than Iggy being cool with T.I.?

And who's to say that Iggy isn't genuinely interested in Hip Hop?

 

[bkzlostchild]

Debbie Harry not only down for hip hop but for the culture as well.

If y'all guys have the chance, check out this film called "Downtown '81" starring Jean-Michel Basquiat. Debbie Harry also in the film. If I was home, I post the YouTube vid on here

 

[white715]

No it's not the same Hip hop back then had not hit the mainstream, Debbie wasn't attaching herself to something popular to make a come up. Blonde was already a successful band and had little if anything to gain from rapping.

Plus she was actually cool with Fab 5 Freddy who put her on to Hip hop and took her around the culture. Her involvement in the Hip hop was more organic than Iggy's involvement.

How is Deborah Harry being cool with Fab 5 Freddy any different than Iggy being cool with T.I.?

And who's to say that Iggy isn't genuinely interested in Hip Hop?

Because Iggy and T.I. have a business relationship

 

[5 Grand]

No it's not the same Hip hop back then had not hit the mainstream, Debbie wasn't attaching herself to something popular to make a come up. Blonde was already a successful band and had little if anything to gain from rapping.

Plus she was actually cool with Fab 5 Freddy who put her on to Hip hop and took her around the culture. Her involvement in the Hip hop was more organic than Iggy's involvement.

How is Deborah Harry being cool with Fab 5 Freddy any different than Iggy being cool with T.I.?

And who's to say that Iggy isn't genuinely interested in Hip Hop?

Because Iggy and T.I. have a business relationship

I don't know the details but can you say for sure that Fab 5 Freddy didn't have a business relationship with Blondie? I know they worked on the Wildstyle Soundtrack together. But that was after Rapture.

I'd be willing to bet everything I own that she paid somebody to help her say that verse in Rapture.

 

[JDSTAYWITIT]

Debbie Harry actually contributed to urban hiphop culture durin it's inception particularly with the Graf Art element ..she was one of the people that served as almost a liason to the manhattan art sceen that was happening at that time in nyc... And if i recall correctly she was the first one to actually buy a basquiat painting and was pushing to promote his talents featuring him and fab 5 fred in this video... She was fuckin with hiphop before it was the hip thing to do within the masses

If you want to say that she benifited off of black urban culture thats fair but Ultimately Debbie Harry wasn't a caricature of urban culture in the way that Iggy has fashioned herself to be

 

[5 Grand]

If you want to say that she benifited off of black urban culture thats fair but Ultimately Debbie Harry wasn't a caricature of urban culture in the way that Iggy has fashioned herself to be

In hindsight that's true, but at the time we thought she was a culture vulture. And I was like 8 or 9 years old at the time but I still thought there was something wrong with her video getting played 24/7 while real rap groups like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 or The Sugarhill Gang weren't getting any play.

 

[JDSTAYWITIT]

If you want to say that she benifited off of black urban culture thats fair but Ultimately Debbie Harry wasn't a caricature of urban culture in the way that Iggy has fashioned herself to be

In hindsight that's true, but at the time we thought she was a culture vulture. And I was like 8 or 9 years old at the time but I still thought there was something wrong with her video getting played 24/7 while real rap groups like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 or The Sugarhill Gang weren't getting any play.

But that don't make her Iggy Azalalia my nigga.... Iggy Actualy is more of what you thought Debbie was ...

 

[SneakDZA]

don't talk shit about blondie.

 

[king hassan]

This is funny, Debbie Harry was a punk rock singer, and she just rapped a little that's it that's all, and the scene she was in was the scene at the time, period, point blank.