The Sugar Hill Gang - Rapper's Delight (Original Extended Full Version) (1979 HQ)
The Sugarhill Gang are an American hip hop group, known mostly for its 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight," the first rap single to become a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The song uses an interpolation of the instrumental track from the hit "Good Times" by Chic as its foundation.
The members, all from Englewood, New Jersey consisted of Michael "Wonder Mike" Wright, Henry "Big Bank Hank" Jackson, and Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien. The three were assembled into a group by producer Sylvia Robinson, who founded Sugar Hill Records with her husband, record mogul Joe Robinson.The group and the record company are named after the Sugar Hill, Harlem neighborhood.
The Sugarhill Gang never again topped the US charts, though it had a slew of European hits, such as "Apache", "8th Wonder" (which was performed on the American music show Soul Train in 1981), "Rapper's Reprise (Jam Jam)", and "Showdown" (with the Furious Five). In 1999, the trio reunited and recorded Jump on It! a hip hop children's album.
In recent years, original members of the Sugarhill Gang have performed as the Original Sugar and as Rapper's Delight Featuring Wonder Mike and Master Gee.
On November 11, 2014, Big Bank Hank died at the age of 58 after a long battle with cancer.
"Rapper's Delight" is a song recorded in 1979 by American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang. While it was not the first single to feature rapping, it is generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world. The song is ranked 251 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and 2 on both About.com's and VH1's 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs. It is also included in NPR's list of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century. The song was also named as the Greatest Really Long Rock Song of all time by Digital Dream Door.It was preserved into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2011, calling it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
The song was recorded in a single take.There are three versions of the original version of the song: 14:35 (12" long version), 6:30 (12" short version), and 4:55 (7" shortened single version). Ten years after its initial release, an official remix by Ben Liebrand entitled "Rapper's Delight '89" was released.
