"Rapper's Delight" was The Sugarhill Gang's 1979 single. While it was not the first hip hop single, "Rapper's Delight" is generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world. The song is ranked #248 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was written by the members of The Sugarhill Gang (Henry Jackson, Guy O'Brien, and Michael Wright) in collaboration with two original members from the band Chic, bass player, Bernard Edward and guitarist, Nile Rodgers. It was recorded in October 1979 and released later that month.
Making the Band:
It was the late 1970s, and hip-hop was just beginning to grow. Massive hip-hop block parties involving DJs, free stylers, and b-boys were taking over the streets of New York City. Over in Englewood, New Jersey, producer and label owner, Sylvia Robinson became aware of the hip-hop takeover and wanted to become apart of it all. So, she brought together three locals from Englewood: Guy O'Brien, or Master Gee; local rapper, Michael Right, or Wonder Mike; and Henry Jackson, or Big Bank Hank. These three rappers were then teamed up with 3 musicians: bassist Doug Wimbish, guitarist Skip McDonald AKA Little Axe, and drummer Keith LeBlanc. Together they recorded all of The Sugarhill Gang's work.
History of the Song:
In late 1979, Debbie Harry suggested that Nile Rodgers join her and Chris Stein, the co-founder and guitar player of Blondie, at a hip hop event, which at the time was a communal space taken over by young kids and teenagers with boom box stereos, which would play various pieces of music that performers would break dance to. The main piece of music they would use was the break section of the band Chic's "Good Times." A few weeks later, Blondie, The Clash and Chic were playing a gig in New York at a nightclub. When Chic started playing "Good Times" then rapper Fab Five Freddy and what were the members of The Sugarhill Gang jumped up on stage and started free styling with the band - Chic joined in and let them as Rodgers puts it "do their improvisation thing like poets."
A few weeks later Rodgers was on the dance floor of a New York club and suddenly heard the DJ play a song which opened with Edward's bass line from "Good Times." Rodgers approached the DJ who said he was playing a record he had just bought that day in Harlem. The song turned out to be an early version of "Rapper's Delight," which Rodgers noted also included a scratched version of the song's string section.
Rodgers and Edwards threatened legal action over copyright, which resulted in them being credited as co-writers. Rodgers admitted that he was originally upset with the song, but would later declare it to be "one of [his] favorite songs of all time." He also stated that "as innovative and important as ‘Good Times’ was, ‘Rapper’s Delight’ was just as much, if not more so."
The Year- 1979:
The year 1979 was a big year in pop culture. Kramer vs. Kramer, Alien, and The Muppet Movie were three top grossing films in the U.S., just to name a few. In music, digital audio recording was just starting out with Stevie Wonder's album Journey through the Secret Life of Plants and Ry Cooder's pop/rock record Bop Til You Drop. In national news, The United States and the People's Republic of China establish full diplomatic relations, Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister of Britain, and U.S. Senator Edward Moore Kennedy announces that he will challenge President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination.
My Meta-Critique of my Historical Critique:
In the beginning, I knew that the historical critique was important but after going through the actual process, I discovered not only it's significance but also the information one gets when partaking in the analysis. One idea might lead to another, and you soon discover the whole back story of one song. This is both good and bad in that you may be distracted with all of the information that is out there in the world today. However, one thought ran through my mind as I was gazing over the screen of my laptop: the internet is so massive and full of information, without it, we might have had to go to the library many weeks in advanced to receive this information. If one was writing an eclectic analysis of this very song in 1979, the only way you may have had inside information is probably by word of mouth. It is interesting to look back and see how far we have come in terms of the amount of access we have to information in the outside world.
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