Rapper's Delight

For the rap group, see Rappers Delight Club.

"Rapper's Delight"
Song

Rapper's Delight is a 1979 single by American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang. While it was not the first song to feature rapping, it is the first song made by a hip hop or rap group, and is generally considered to be the first true hip hop release, followed closely (just a few days) by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's "Superrappin". "Rapper's Delight" is the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world through massive and immediate radio airplay. The song is ranked #248 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and #2 on VH1's 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs.

Background

In late 1979, Debbie Harry suggested that Nile Rodgers join her and Chris Stein 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 Chic's "Good Times," which Harry wanted Rodgers to appreciate. Rodgers experienced this event the first time himself at a high school in the Bronx. A few weeks later, Blondie, The Clash and Chic were playing a gig in New York at Bonds 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, much like I would playing guitar with Prince." A few weeks later Rodgers was on the dance floor of New York club LaViticus and suddenly heard the DJ play a song which opened with Edwards 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."

History

"Rapper's Delight" hit #36 on the U.S. pop charts, #4 on the U.S. R&B charts, #1 on the Canada Singles Chart, #3 on the UK singles chart, and #2 on VH1's top 100 hip-hop songs of all time. In 1979 it became the first hip-hop single to go gold. The following year, the song was the anchor of the group's first album The Sugarhill Gang.

It was the first Top 40 song to be available only as a 12-inch extended version in the U.S. — no 7-inch, 45-RPM record was made. In Europe, however, it was released on the classic 7-inch single format, with a shorter version of the song.

The song inspired Blondie's 1980 hit "Rapture", which is considered by some to be the second major hip hop hit after "Rapper’s Delight".

Predecessors

Like many songs from the time, "Rapper's Delight" was performed over the breakdown section of a disco hit (played by the group Positive Force), in this case Chic's "Good Times."

Although "Good Times" is reported as being replayed by Positive Force, there is some debate among hip hop historians. The strings and piano sections on "Rapper's Delight" sound so close to the original recording that it's possible that portions of the track are in fact samples taken from the Chic track. Since the recording of "Rapper's Delight" predates the advent of the sampler this would have to have happened either by editing the studio tape or by having a DJ cut them into the track.

The song currently holds the record of sampling a previously recorded song in the shortest period of time, less than two months. After this song many other hip hop records sampled other previously recorded funk tracks; incidentally some other funk tracks sampled by later hip hop artists were newer than the Rapper's Delight song itself. Due to the persistence of hip hop sampling funk records in the early 1980s, it's believed that hip hop was originally intended to be an "extension" to the funk genre.

"Charlie Rock" of the Harlem World Crew suggests, Sylvia Robinson of Sugar Hill got the idea for the rap from a concert she saw at Halem World (116th & Lenox). He says "one night at Harlem world, we were having a birthday party for Sylvia Robinson, who was once a recording artist herself. Her big hit was called “Pillow Talk”. The crew was up on stage rapping and Sylvia Robinson was sitting in a balcony directly in front of the stage with Fatman. As Fatman began to divulge to her that we were in the studio, and that he felt this was the perfect time to put this Hip Hop thing on wax, Ms. Robinson was taking it all in. A short time later she released “Rapper’s Delight” with the Sugar Hill Gang. She beat us out of the box, but the record was dope! It will always be a legendary classic. DJs are still rocking the house with that joint today."⁴

Grandmaster Caz

Big Bank Hank once managed Grandmaster Caz (Casanova Fly) of The Cold Crush Brothers. Hank's verse was originally written by Caz as evidenced by his first line: "I'm the C-A-S-A-N-O-V-A and the rest is F-L-Y". Sugarhill and Hank never gave any money or credits as a songwriter or co-writer to Grandmaster Caz.

Cover versions

• The cast of the film CB4 (including Chris Rock) released a cover on the film's soundtrack
• Def Squad (Redman, Erick Sermon, Keith Murray) released a cover in 1998 on the album El Niño
• Keller Williams released a cover version of the song on his 2004 live album Stage.
• Southside Allstars (Kano, Sway, Skibbadee among others featured) released as a BBC 1Xtra exclusive.
• Brazilian rapper Gabriel O Pensador used the same beat in his song "2345meia78" in 1997.

Other use in media

In an episode of Scrubs the Sugar Hill Gang alarm clock JD gives Turk for a wedding present plays "Rapper's Delight", later it is played in Turk and Carla's new car.

Cole sang "Rapper's Delight" on an episode of Fox's Martin to audition for Biggie Smalls before being thrown out of Martin's apartment.

On an episode of Living Single the entire cast rapped one verse from "Rapper's Delight." Khadijah started with the line "have you ever been over a friend's house to eat...." before the rest of the cast joined in to finish the verse.

In the 1998 feature film The Wedding Singer (starring Adam Sandler) in a clip towards the end, the old lady (played by Ellen Dow) that he has been teaching to sing surprises everyone when she gets up on stage and starts performing this song.

In 2002, Spanish group Las Ketchup parodied this song in the chorus of their hit "The Ketchup Song (Asereje)", which reached number one in the UK chart.

In 2003, the song appeared in the multi-award-winning Honda television advertisement Cog.

In July 2009, Evian Water used the song in their roller-skating baby commercial, "Evian's Roller Babies (Live Young)" which is especially popular on YouTube with over 3.7 million hits in a week. The song was produced by Dan the Automator and features Chali 2na (of Jurassic 5) along with Casual and Domino (of Hieroglyphics). Tepr, Van She Tech and The Bewitched Hands on the Top of our Heads did the remix.

In the 2009 London Musical Sister Act, composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater referenced the song (albeit, a pastiche version) in the song "Sunday Morning Fever".

References

4. Interview with Charlie Rock

External links

• Rapper's Delight Video - The original 1979 video.
• Silver jubilee for first rap hit — BBC article about the single on its 25th anniversary