Sugar Hill Gang - “Rapper’s Delight”

Have you ever went over to a friend’s house to eat and the food just ain’t no good?

Actually, yeah, that just happened to me this evening.

I couldn’t help but think back to this listen, while sitting at dinner with a family friend (who doesn’t read this blog—I made sure), and believe me when I say that the chicken definitely tasted like wood.

Anyway, while not the first single released to feature the unknown new style known as “rap” (that particular distinction goes to “King Tim III [Personality Jock] by the Fatback Band, issued only weeks before), the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” was the first to do it big. From the moment you hear that immortal hook, “I said a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie to the hip-hip hop and you don’t stop…” you instantly know you’re listening to a true classic, a truly funky, danceable, and memorable listen. The Sugarhill Gang were three emcees: Big Bank Hank, Wonder Mike, and Master Gee, assembled by producer Sylvia Robinson, who headed up Sugarhill Records. Though in the early hip-hop community the trio were viewed with some disdain as a “manufactured” group, the Gang had the connections, a backing band, and the money to make it happen, as well as Sylvia, who was not quite sure where this fast talking over music would take them, but noticed the spark that the hip-hop community in NYC had. Recreating the bass line from Chic’s “Good Times” with Sugar Hill’s in-house band, the Gang went to work, recording nearly 15 straight minutes of party rhymes and amusing anecdotes and boasts for the track. When the song hit in late 1979 it entered the top 40, introducing to America at large and inspiring a generation to come about the new phenomenon known as hip-hop.

Like many hip-hop fans about there, I too have a special place in my heart for “Rapper’s Delight.” It was a catalyst, much like “The Message,” and without it hip-hop would’ve been a very different beast. Many, many, many rappers trace their roots to this particular record, and the song has entered popular culture, with the song, or lines from it, appearing all over the place. A classic of classics.