Rapper's Delight

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"Rapper's Delight"
Rappersdelight.jpeg
One of the pressings of the 1979 US 12-inch single crediting Chic's "Good Times" on its side label
Single by The Sugarhill Gang
from the album Sugarhill Gang
ReleasedSeptember 16, 1979[1]
RecordedAugust 2, 1979
Genre
Length3:55 (single version)
4:55 (album version)
6:30 (12" short version)
7:07 (long single version)
14:35 (12" long version)
LabelSugar Hill
Songwriter(s)Bernard Edwards, Nile Rodgers, Sylvia Robinson, Henry Jackson, Michael Wright, Guy O'Brien, Curtis Brown, Alan Hawkshaw (uncredited)
Producer(s)Sylvia Robinson
The Sugarhill Gang singles chronology
"Rapper's Delight"
(1979) 		""
(1980)
Alternative release
One of pressings of the 1979 US 12-inch single not crediting Chic's song
One of pressings of the 1979 US 12-inch single not crediting Chic's song

"Rapper's Delight" is a 1979 hip hop track by the Sugarhill Gang and produced by Sylvia Robinson. Although it was shortly preceded by Fatback Band's "King Tim III (Personality Jock)", "Rapper's Delight" is credited for introducing hip hop music to a wide audience, reaching the top 40 in the United States, as well as the top three in the United Kingdom and number-one in Canada. It was a prototype for various types of rap music, incorporating themes such as boasting, dance, honesty and sex, with the charisma and enthusiasm of James Brown.[citation needed] The track interpolates[2] Chic's "Good Times", resulting in Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards suing Sugar Hill Records for copyright infringement; a settlement was reached that gave the two songwriting credits. The track was recorded in a single take.[3] There are five mixes of the song.

"Rapper's Delight" is number 251 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and number 2 on VH1's 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs. It is also included on NPR's list of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century. It was preserved in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2011 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4]

In 2014, the record was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[5]

Background[]

In late 1978, Debbie Harry suggested that Chic's Nile Rodgers join her and Chris Stein at a hip hop event, which at the time was a communal space taken over by teenagers with boombox stereos playing various pieces of music that performers would break dance to. Rodgers experienced this event the first time himself at a high school in the Bronx. On September 20 and 21, 1979, Blondie and Chic were playing concerts with The Clash in New York at The Palladium. When Chic started playing "Good Times", rapper Fab Five Freddy and the members of the Sugarhill Gang ("Big Bank Hank" Jackson, "Wonder Mike" Wright, and "Master Gee" O'Brien), jumped up on stage and started freestyling with the band. A few weeks later, Rodgers was on the dance floor of New York club Leviticus and heard the DJ play a song which opened with Bernard Edwards's bass line from Chic's "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 also included a scratched version of the song's string section. Rodgers and Edwards immediately threatened legal action over copyright, which resulted in a settlement and their being credited as co-writers.[6] Rodgers admitted that he was originally upset with the song, but later declared it to be "one of his favorite songs of all time" and his favorite of all the tracks that sampled (or in this instance interpolated) Chic.[7][better source needed] He also stated: "As innovative and important as 'Good Times' was, 'Rapper's Delight' was just as much, if not more so."[8]

A substantial portion of the early stanzas of the song's lyrics was borrowed by Jackson from Grandmaster Caz (Curtis Fisher) who had loaned his 'book' to him—these include a namecheck for "Casanova Fly", which was Caz's full stage name.[9] According to Wonder Mike, he had heard the phrase "hip-hop" from a cousin, leading to the opening line of "Hip-hop, hippie to the hippie, to the hip-hip-hop and you don't stop", whilst he described "To the bang-bang boogie, say up jump the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat" as "basically a spoken drum roll. I liked the percussive sound of the letter B". The line "Now what you hear is not a test, I'm rappin' to the beat", was inspired by the introduction to The Outer Limits ("There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture").[10]

Before the "Good Times" background starts, the intro to the recording is an interpolation of "Here Comes That Sound Again" by British studio group Love De-Luxe, a disco hit in 1979.[10]

According to Oliver Wang, author of the 2003 Classic Material: The Hip-Hop Album Guide, recording artist ("Pillow Talk") and studio owner Sylvia Robinson had trouble finding anyone willing to record a rap song. Most of the rappers who performed in clubs did not want to record, as many practitioners believed the style was for live performances only. It is said that Robinson's son heard Big Bank Hank in a pizza place.[citation needed] According to Master Gee, Hank auditioned for Robinson in front of the pizza parlor where he worked, whilst Gee himself auditioned in Robinson's car.[10] A live band was used to record most of the backing track, including members of the group "Positive Force": Albert Pittman, Bernard Roland, Moncy Smith, and Bryan Horton.[11][12][10]

claimed during a 2010 interview that he was the bass player on the track. At the age of 17, he had visited a friend in New Jersey. The friend knew Robinson, who needed some musicians for various recordings, including "Rapper's Delight". Shearin's job on the song was to play the bass for 15 minutes straight, with no mistakes. He was paid $70 but later went on to perform with Sugarhill Gang in concert. Shearin described the session this way:

The drummer and I were sweating bullets because that's a long time. And this was in the days before samplers and drum machines, when real humans had to play things. ... Sylvia said, 'I've got these kids who are going to talk real fast over it; that's the best way I can describe it.'[13]

Wang said:

There's this idea that hip-hop has to have street credibility, yet the first big hip-hop song was an inauthentic fabrication. It's not like the guys involved were the 'real' hip-hop icons of the era, like Grandmaster Flash or Lovebug Starski. So it's a pretty impressive fabrication, lightning in a bottle.[13]

Personnel[]

Music videos[]

The Sugar Hill Gang appeared on the syndicated Soap Factory Disco Show in late 1979, and their performance later became the song's official music video.[18] The group's performance on the Palisades Park-based program demonstrates the significant overlap between early hip hop and disco of the late 1970s.

Alternate music videos exist as well. One appears to have been recorded by Dutch broadcasting company AVRO at a hotel pool in early 1980.[19]

History[]

"Rapper's Delight" peaked at number 36 in January 1980 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart,[20] number 4 on the U.S. Hot Soul Singles chart in December 1979,[21] number 1 on the Canadian Singles Chart in January 1980,[22] number 1 on the Dutch Top 40, and number 3 on the UK Singles Chart. The single sold over 2 million copies in the United States, grossing US$3.5 million for Sugar Hill Records.[23] In 1980, the song was the anchor of the group's first album The Sugarhill Gang.[24]

It was the first Top 40 song to be available only as a 12-inch extended version in the U.S. Early pressings (very few) were released with a red label, with black print, on Sugar Hill Records, along with a 7" 45rpm single (which is very rare). Later pressings had the more common blue label, in orange colored "roulette style" sleeves, fashioned after the label for Roulette Records; Roulette's Morris Levy had invested in Sugar Hill. Even later pressings were issued in the more common blue sleeves with the Sugarhill Records logo. In Europe, however, it was released on the classic 7-inch single format on French pop label Vogue, with a shorter version of the song. It was this 7" single that reached number one in the Dutch chart. The song ranked number 251 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[13]

A British version of the song, with rewritten lyrics, was recorded for the song's 25th anniversary in 2004 by an ensemble of performers including Rodney P, Chester P, Kano, Simone, Yungun, Sway, J2K, Swiss, Baby Blue, Skibadee, Luke Skys, and MC D.[25]

Legacy[]

  • 1996, New York City merenhouse group Proyecto Uno, in the song “Qué Sabes Tu?”, the last track off of their debut album New Era, interpolates the lyric ‘hotel, motel Holiday Inn’, replacing Holiday Inn with rival hotel Sheraton.
  • In the 1998 romantic comedy film The Wedding Singer, Ellen Albertini Dow (in character as "Rosie") performed the first few lines of the song. Her performance was also included on the film's soundtrack.
  • The chorus of the 2002 hit "The Ketchup Song" by Las Ketchup incorporates the lyrics "I said a hip hop, the hippie, the hippie" in a Spanish nonsensical distortion ("Aserejé ja de je de jebe").[26]
  • During a dream sequence in the 2003 comedy film Kangaroo Jack, the titular kangaroo raps a portion of the song.
  • In "My Old Friend's New Friend", a 2004 episode of the TV sitcom Scrubs, the Sugarhill Gang appears in two of J.D.'s fantasies singing the song.
  • The song appeared on the soundtrack of the 1999 PS1 game Thrasher Presents: Skate and Destroy, as well as the 2004 game Tony Hawk's Underground 2, the 2010 game Major League Baseball 2K10, and the 2018 racing game Forza Horizon 4.
  • A February 2014 episode of Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon showed a mash-up video of Brian Williams rapping the song during the show's first week. The video also included Lester Holt.[27][28] It went viral on YouTube, reaching over 8,000,000 views in about a week.
  • The song was parodied by Basehead (played by Orlando Jones) in the Adult Swim series Black Dynamite (which is based on the smash hit blaxploitation film), which explains Basehead's life.
  • The song is mentioned in the 2015 song "Art Deco" by Lana Del Rey.
  • The song was performed by the Swedish Chef during "Pig Out", a 2015 episode of The Muppets.
  • Redfoo of LMFAO released his solo debut album, Party Rock Mansion, on March 18, 2016. The third track on the album, titled "Too Much", resembles "Rapper's Delight".
  • The song is sung by the main characters in the 2016 film Everybody Wants Some!!.
  • The song was used at Apple's 2016 WWDC conference, when Bozoma Saint John demonstrated the features of the revamped Apple Music application.
  • This song was used in the 2018 Fred Rogers documentary film Won't You Be My Neighbor?
  • Austrian rapper and musician Falco used lyrics from "Rapper's Delight" in his songs "The Sound of Musik" and "Body Next to Body", the latter a duet with actress Brigitte Nielsen.
  • In the Simpsons episode, "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade", the song was parodied on a safety video using the lyrics to tell children how to cross the road safely.
  • The song was used in a Honda advertisement nicknamed "The Cog", where it was played after the completion of a Rube Goldberg effect.
  • In an episode of Martin, Cole (Carl Payne) briefly performs the song to audition for rap star the Notorious B.I.G., who made a guest appearance on the show.
  • In the final episode of The Get Down, the song is played during the credits.[29]
  • Mexican singer Aleks Syntek's single "Tu necesitas" has similar rapped parts, sung in Spanish.[citation needed]
  • In the opening scene of the 1997 movie The Pest with John Leguizamo, his character, Pest, sings an adaptation of "Rapper's Delight" during the opening sequence.
  • Rapper Pitbull's 2009 song "Hotel Room Service" contains the lyric "We at the hotel, motel, Holiday Inn".
  • In the 2008 action film Go fast of Olivier Van Hoofstadt
  • Jennifer Lopez listened to the song at the age of 8 while in a schoolyard and it was a "defining moment" for her.[30]
  • TLC adapted one of the song's lyrics in its 1994 hit song "Switch" ("At the hotel, motel, Holiday Inn, I said if you man starts actin' up, Switch and take his friend").
  • The song was featured in the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Season One Battle Pass as part of the "80s Hip-Hop" War Tracks
  • Bill Bailey and Oti Mabuse danced to the song as their couple's choice dance in Series 18, Week 4 of Strictly Come Dancing.

Charts[]

Certifications and sales[]

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[50] Platinum 249,000[49]
France — 623,000[51]
Netherlands (NVPI)[52] Gold 100,000^
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[53] Gold 25,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[54] Gold 400,000double-dagger
United States (RIAA)[55] 2× Platinum 2,000,000[23]

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
double-dagger Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

See also[]

  • List of 1970s one-hit wonders in the United States

References[]

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  2. ^ Branch, Darrell. The Beat Game: The Truth About Hip-Hop Production. Create Space. 2014
  3. ^ "'Rapper's Delight'". National Public Radio. December 29, 2000. Retrieved December 20, 2010. The story goes that Big Bank Hank, Wonder Mike, and Master Gee met Sylvia Robinson on a Friday and recorded "Rapper's Delight" the following Monday in just one take.
  4. ^ "Complete National Recording Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved December 18, 2015.
  5. ^ "GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Class Of 2014". grammy.com. June 21, 2017. Retrieved September 25, 2017.
  6. ^ "The Story of Rapper's Delight by Nile Rodgers". RapProject.tv. Retrieved October 12, 2008.
  7. ^ "Twenty First Century Music: Nile Rodgers interviewed by Peter Paphides at Waterstone's, Piccadilly, London". Twentyfirstcenturymusic.blogspot.com. November 10, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  8. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved 2014-08-12.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. ^ "Writing cred for 'Rapper's Delight' sparks grudge". New York Post. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Simpson, Dave (May 2, 2017). "Sugarhill Gang: how we made Rapper's Delight". The Guardian. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  11. ^ "Positive Force - Biography & History - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  12. ^ "Albert Pittman". www.facebook.com. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b c Menconi, David (March 14, 2010). "The riff that lifted rap". News & Observer. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved 2010-04-19.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b "music-bnb". wixsite.com. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  15. ^ "The riff that lifted rap – Music – NewsObserver.com". July 14, 2011. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
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  26. ^ "TODO LO QUE SUBE DEBE BAJAR, LO IMPORTANTE ES QUE AHORA ESTAMOS ARRIBA". Terra Networks (in Spanish). 2004. Archived from the original on February 27, 2014. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
  27. ^ Read, Max (February 20, 2014). "Brian Williams Does a Perfect "Cover" of "Rapper's Delight" on Tonight". Gawker. Archived from the original on October 12, 2015.
  28. ^ "Brian Williams Raps Rapper's Delight" Archived October 17, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon NBC. 2014.
  29. ^ "The Get Down Part 2 Soundtrack (Complete Song Listing) - What's On Netflix". whats-on-netflix.com. April 7, 2017. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  30. ^ Trcinski, Matthew (March 18, 2020). "Jennifer Lopez: How the Song 'Rapper's Delight' Changed Her Life". Showbiz CheatSheet. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
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  39. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – The Sugarhill Gang – Rapper's Delight". VG-lista. Retrieved August 22, 2011.
  40. ^ "South African Rock Lists". Retrieved July 3, 2019.
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  43. ^ "Swisscharts.com – The Sugarhill Gang – Rapper's Delight". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved August 22, 2011.
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  48. ^ "TOP - 1980". Top.france.free.fr. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  49. ^ "Juno Album, Singles Data" (PDF). Billboard. January 24, 1981. p. 102. Retrieved March 2, 2021 – via World Radio History.
  50. ^ "Canadian single certifications – Sugar Hill Gang – Rapper's Delight". Music Canada.
  51. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 13, 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-26.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  52. ^ "Dutch single certifications – Sugarhill Gang – Rapper's Delight" (in Dutch). Nederlandse Vereniging van Producenten en Importeurs van beeld- en geluidsdragers. Retrieved March 4, 2021. Enter Rapper's Delight in the "Artiest of titel" box.
  53. ^ Sólo Éxitos 1959-2002 Año A Año: Certificados 1979-1990 (in Spanish). Iberautor Promociones Culturales. 2005. ISBN 8480486392.
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  55. ^ "American single certifications – Sugarhill Gang – Rapper's Delight". Recording Industry Association of America.

External links[]

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