I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie To the hip hip hop-a you don't stop the rock ...
Has there ever been a more influential opening line in popular music? I would argue not. Wonder Mike’s lines in ‘Rapper’s Delight’ cut 42 years ago, named and defined the most influential ‘new’ genre in music that there has been in my lifetime, a cultural sea change altering music, fashion, language and attitudes immeasurably, globally.
Not bad for a first release from an indie label.
Now what you hear is not a test: I'm rapping to the beat And me, the groove and my friends are gonna try to move your feet
I love The Sugarhill Gang Rapper’s Delight, all 14:53 of it. It is just the sound of pure joy bottled, the sound of a crew of people getting off on their own creativity and invention. The sound of folks forging ahead, making something brand new for themselves and their friends where there were no rules, no guidelines, no precedents and no limits, just blue skies over Sugar Hill.
I love the tale of the label getting in young musicians to play the Chic/Love De-Luxe backing track, no samples then) for 14 minutes without pause or mistake, the producer explaining ‘I’ve got these kids who will talk real fast over it‘. Not exactly easy money!
And the lyrics they talked real fast, oh man the lyrics! Rapper’s Delight is by turns funny, macho, playful and very daft, the word play is truly great at times and I can think of no better song dealing with social awkwardness over eating bad food cooked by a friend’s mum; ‘Kaopectate’ being a much underused word in popular music.
Highlights? all of it! Dissing Superman to Lois Lane, obviously
He may be very sexy or even cute But he looks like a sucker in a blue and red suit" I said, "You need a man who's got finesse And his whole name across his chest
Plus the simple boast ‘I’m six foot one and tons of fun‘, sadly as someone who didn’t make it that far ‘I’m five foot eleven and a half’ only rhymes with ‘and I badly need a bath’. Damnit, I’ll never cut it as an MC.
Huge kudos needs to go to Sylvia Robinson who I don’t think doesn’t get the credit she’s due for her role in the genesis of rap; producer of the track, founder and CEO of Sugar Hill Records, instigator of the recording – she put the group together, added vocals and even a little vibraphone to proceedings. Forget some of the other MCs around at the time, Sylvia should be the best-known figure of them all. I really can’t conceive how a black woman could possibly have been edited out of history …
Rapper’s Delight was the first hip-hop song to be played on the radio, the first US Top 40 single to only be available on 12″. Basically it kicked the doors off their hinges and suddenly exposed us all to these human cartoon characters talking real fast over the music.
To me the music sounds like the great Sugar Hill Records 12″ sleeve, bright colours, fantastical and with a touch of the urban landscape.
Well, my name is known all over the world By all the foxy ladies and the pretty girls I'm going down in history As the baddestrapperblogger there ever could be
1091 (Get) Down.
PS: Because you’re worth it:
I too am 5 foot 11 and a half.
If you want Geoff can do a graph.
Now Mrs. Bop don’t you laugh
But I got parts longer than a giraffe.
Dude, bragging about the length of your neck is soooo 1983.
You are a bad ass blogger!
Dude, don’t bring my ass into this!
They keep dragging you back in.
Um, I’m 6’2″ and… gunning for you? Done sniffing glue? Tying my shoe? Wearing all blue? Not Adrian Belew? Old and yet new? Escaped from a zoo? Without stuff to do? Scaring you, BOO! ? Taller than you? Making cows moo? Cooking with roux?
42 years ago? Goodness me.
Wow! No wonder Owen Sound is the officially recognized global capital of hip hop!
And I even avoided the 6’2″, eyes of blue… I mean, total professionalism here.
The town was called Owen before Aaron moved there
(smiley face thing, like the kids use, probably)
You have Grace Too
Always loved the early hip-hop practice of hiring studio hands to replicate a groove they liked…see if you can figure out what tune they’re trying to “sample” here! It’s a tough one!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rPbzgbgsYg
I would never have got that without looking it up, brilliant.
It’s like the Fun Lovin Criminals wanted to sample Smoke on the Water, Ritchie B was rude to them and so they just played it themselves with a slight variation and kept the royalties.
Proper great tune. Like you say, pure joy bottled.
It’s such a satisfying one to own too, I just love the label generic sleeve.
Where it all began and I remember hearing this when it came out. I didn’t know what it was, but it was kinda cool.
Something totally new and fun. What’s not to like?
Is this the one that goes “I’m rapping, I’m rapping, I’m rap rap rapping”?
No, you’re confusing it with that Deicide track.
Oh yep. That was it. From their ‘Amon: Feasting The Beats’ remix album
I hated it when they tried to sell out, that LP cover with Glen Benton in his pants … truly satanic.
And he didn’t need to burn an inverted cross down there either. His forehead was bad enough.
Or Max Headroom
Pure joy is right. What a rich and deep well for so much to spring fourth
Absolutely, they were having enormous amounts of fun, or sounded like.
I’m Nana Clanger and this track’s a banger.
To be fair ‘connection’ is a bit of a tough rhyme!
I heard this song a lot when I was in the service. My African-America comrades in arms played the shit out of it. It did rub off on me as I used to quote the lyrics: “Got a colour TV so I can see the Knicks play basketball.”
Isn’t it just fun? Sunny music for me.
I didn’t realise about the no sampling thing – that’s pretty amazing. Surely it came in soon after that?
Shortly, I think. They could manipulate tapes the old-fashioned way I guess, but I suspect sampling would stay out of the reach of small labels and street artists for a good long time.
There’s a big story about the legal battle between Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards and Sylvia Robinson regarding royalties which is worth checking out… I don’t think it got resolved until the 1990s or something.
Yup but it was the row over ‘White Lines’ in ’84 that broke the company.