The Sugarhill Gang, a group conceived by Sugar Hill Records' founder Sylvia Robinson, released "Rapper's Delight" in September 1979. Four months later, the song cracked the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, landing at No. 37. Subsequently, The Sugarhill Gang became the first rap group to have a Top 40 hit.
"I think we were in Europe when that happened," Wonder Mike tells RAPstation. "I flipped out. I didn’t know anything about charts, I just knew I loved music all my life. And I listened to everything from hard rock like Steppenwolf to the Temptations to Iron Butterfly—everything.
"To be on the chart, I was like, 'Oh my god to be in the company of these people. At one point, it was us and Michael Jackson. That chart was in the studio hanging up. But it burned down in New Jersey."
But the song wasn't without controversy. Due to a sample of Chic's single "Good Times," Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards sued Sugar Hill Records for copyright infringement, resulting in a writing credits on the song and settlement. But the good certainly outweighed the bad. In addition to being included on numerous "Best Hip Hop" tracks of all time lists, it was preserved in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2011. Three years later, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Wonder Mike, Grandmaster Caz (who's credited as a writer), Big Bank Hank and Master Gee brought the song to life, but Big Bank Hank would see an early death. In November 2014, around the time "Rapper's Delight" was getting inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, Hank passed away from cancer at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in New Jersey. He was 58. To celebrate the song's 43rd anniversary, revisit it below.
