The sugarhill gang
formed in Englewood, New Jersey, 1979
Members
Wonder Mike
Master Gee
Big Bank Hank
classic sugarhill gang from the early 80s & ‘79
rappers delight - 1979
The long version of their debut single that started it all.
8th wonder - 1980
An ace for many a b-boys sleeve. The get down of this beat comes from a smooth track by Daisy Lady called “Seventh Wonder.”
Hot hot summer day - 1980
A funky bit of classic hip hop that beat Will Smith’s happy rap by over ten years. A Tribe Called Quest sampled this on “After Hours.”
Apache - 1981
A VERY popular hip hop beat used by many in the hip hop world. This hit by the same name “Apache” was taken from Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band,1973.
funk box - 1982
Not so much hip hop as a Funkadelic sounding track vocoder and all. And a little synth gives it even more electronic flair.
Do you know this about the sugarhill gang?
Sugarhill Gang had the first major Hip Hop hit ever recorded with "Rapper's Delight.” Which caused a mass release of Hip Hop singles that same year due to its popularity.
Big Bank Hank’s rap in “Rapper’s Delight” was supposedly stolen from one of Grandmaster Caz’s old rhyme books.
Sylvia Robinson, the founder of Sugarhill Records (which is a very impressive and powerful story all it’s own) decided to form The Sugarhill Gang after seeing the massive popularity of Hip Hop in New York in the late '70s.
Sylvia started The Sugarhill Gang in a similar way to how the first boy band, The Monkees, was created. Which was more a forming of strangers to put marketing behind and less about showing a reverence for the music as an entity. This is probably the reason many MCs turned her offers to record down.
"Rapper's Delight", which borrowed the break from Chic's "Good Times", sold over 8 million copies.
It was so popular that the radio DJs would often play the full 15-minute version. Hip Hop’s popularity grew because the extended version was requested back to back, filling up a half-hour of air time on the radio.
Drunk History on Comedy Central has an interpretation of The Sugarhill Gang and Sylvia Robinson's story.
Sugarhill Gang’s label Sugarhill Record was co-founded by Mladen Mladenovic aka Milton Malden a Yugoslavian immigrant.