Rapper's Delight
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"Rapper's Delight" is a 1979 single by American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang; it was one of the first hip hop hit singles. It ranked #248 in the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time[1].
While it is neither the first hip hop single nor the first successful single of the genre, "Rapper's Delight" is generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world.
History
"Rapper's Delight" hit #36 on the U.S. pop charts, #4 on the U.S. R&B charts, and #3 on the UK singles chart. 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.
The word "damn" is censored when they say "goddamn".
It was the first Top 40 song to be available only as a 12-inch extended version — no 7", 45-RPM record was made.
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". The song also inspired Las Ketchup hit "The Ketchup Song", as the chorus of the song is "Rapper's Delight" lyrics pronounced phonetically in Spanish.[citation needed]
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.
Since the very birth of hip hop was the DJ's art (scratching and cutting), it is likely[original research?] the band (represented in the form of Sylvia Robinson, the label's founder and a woman well known for her business savvy at all stages of her career) were simply contesting usage of the recording to avoid paying a fee to Atlantic Records (while remunerating Rodgers and Edwards through their publishing entities with a reported $500,000 cash).[citation needed]
Not only was this the first rap song to be based on a funk song, but this 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. Because of the persistence of hip hop sampling funk records prior to 2000, it's believed that hip hop was originally intended to be an "extension" to the funk genre.
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".[2]
Cover Versions
- 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.
References
- ^ The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time : Rolling Stone
- ^ "The Evolution of Rapper's Delight". Retrieved June 20.
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External links
- Silver jubilee for first rap hit — BBC article about the single on its 25th anniversary