In 1979, the Billboard charts were filled with disco and new wave music. That's when the fledgling hip-hop group released a single with thumping bass lines, catchy rhymes and relentless length. In retrospect, almost every aspect of Sugarhill Gang Rapper's Delight seems wrong. Most of the members of the hastily formed group were from New Jersey, not the Bronx, the home of hip-hop, and were not well known in the local rap scene.
It was run by a former record label producer known for producing modern tunes. The bass line is taken from a disco hit and most of the lyrics, including their names, are from other MCs. The full version played for 14 minutes. The song was written in one go.
The whirlwind story of Sugarhill gang members Big Bank Hank, Wonder Mike and Master Gee began after resident producer Sylvia Robinson found inspiration in a Harlem nightclub next to a New Jersey pizzeria.
In 1979, Robinson, 43, and her husband, Joe, went bankrupt after her record label, All Platinum Records, went bankrupt. But when her nephew was hosting a birthday party at the Harlem World nightclub, Robinson heard DJ Lovebug Starsky singing rhymes and phrases while playing dance music and saw an opportunity.
"While we were sitting there, the DJ was playing music and talking about it, and the kids were going crazy," Robinson told the Star-Ledger in 1997. "All of a sudden, I heard people say, 'If you put this on a record , it will be the most beautiful thing in the world.’ “I didn’t even know rap existed.”
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