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“Wonder Mike,” “Big Bank Hank,” and “Master Gee” might just be a few unfamiliar names to you, but when they’re combined into a music group something amazing is outputted: The Sugarhill Gang. In 1973, these individuals were expertly assembled by producer Sylvia Robinson (founder of hip-hop label Sugar Hill Records) and husband/co-owner Joe Robinson, prior to any sort of major hip-hop movement. In fact, The Sugarhill Gang practically created the movement itself with the very first song they released.
Rapper’s Delight, an unforgettable, nearly 15-minute long rap epic (shortened to 4:55 for the single), was the first hip-hop song to ever reach the Billboard Top 40 charts, thus causing the hip-hop scene to really break out and become a hugely popularized and adored genre. This infectious song has a seriously bouncy beat with playful lyrics like “I said a hip hop / Hippie to the hippie / The hip, hip a hop, and you don’t stop, a rock it,” that make this track positively delightful (Oh, that’s why the name makes sense!).
In an interview back in the day, Joe Robinson had this to say about the 1979 hit song: “No 15 minute record has ever got played on the radio, so I said, what am I gonna do with this? But all I had to do with it was get one play anywhere and it broke.” It was the novelty track that made it huge; the king of the one-hit wonders. Listen to Rapper’s Delight right here and get your old school rap on.
