Sugarhill Gang

Rap group

In 1979, disco music had reached its peak. Popular music was composed of a mix of performers from singer Rod Stewart to the band the Who to the duo of Peaches and Herb. Their styles were different, but predictable. A backlash against the popularity of disco was brewing and as radio listeners everywhere were turning on the station to hear another Olivia Newton-John song, something very new traveled across the airwaves. It was the sound of men talking fast and rhyming in time to the hit disco song "Good Times" by the successful group Chic. It was the introduction of hip-hop to the American public, and it was done by a group of New Jersey boys under the moniker of the Sugarhill Gang.

The song heard on the radio in 1979 was "Rapper's Delight." It was fifteen minutes long and brought hip-hop and the culture of rap to the forefront of attention. The Sugarhill Gang was composed of Guy O'Brien, Michael Wright, and Henry Jackson who went by their rap names, Master Gee, Wonder Mike, and Big Bank Hank, respectively. The story of their formation and the release and success of "Rapper's Delight" is rife with speculation and intrigue. In some ways it's a rags to riches story, but it's also exemplary of how a genre can be capitalized upon without honoring its true innovators. Brolin Winning wrote about "Rapper's Delight" for Remix magazine, "It wasn't the lyrical skills that carried it, nor the revamped disco groove; it was the whole package—a classic example of the sum being greater than its parts."

The Sugarhill Gang was the brainchild of Sylvia Robinson. She and her husband, Joe Robinson, owned a small record label called Sugar Hill Records in Englewood, New Jersey. Sylvia had been a part of the record business since the early 1950s—first as a teenage singer, then as part of the duo Mickey and Sylvia, and then later with her own 1973 hit song "Pillow Talk." During that time she also worked with her husband at their record company All Platinum Records. All Platinum went bankrupt in the late 1970s, and not long afterwards they formed Sugar Hill Records.

Putting the Act Together

Robinson is said to have come across hip-hop at a party in New York. Impressed by the sound and the audience reaction she decided to put together a rap record. How she ended up with O'Brien, Wright, and Jackson depends on what story you read and who is telling it. As with many origin stories, the facts seem to have been conflated and confused. Henry Jackson may have been discovered at the pizza joint where he worked, he may have been rapping at a party where Sylvia Robinson first heard him, or he may have been a friend of Joey Robinson, Sylvia's son, who they drove by and picked up to fill in for an original pick who never showed up to the studio. One story states that she drove with her son to audition Jackson. As they were sitting in their car parked on the street Jackson rapped over a song they had on a tape player in their car. O'Brien and Wright happened to walk by and they showed off their skills. Robinson picked all three to be the members of the group.

However the group was formed, O'Brien, Jackson, and Wright eventually ended up in the studio to record their first song. During recording, Robinson is said to have pointed at the rappers to cue them when to start rapping. The house band played key samples of the disco group Chic's hit song "Good Times," and "Rapper's Delight" was made. It was 15 minutes long and nothing like it had ever been heard on broadcast radio before. Andrew Drever of the Age wrote, "'Rapper's Delight' was the first track to crash through the hostile barrier of commercial radio—radio saw rap as a cheap fad at that time—and into mainstream consciousness." According to Steven Daly of Vanity Fair, the record was made on a $750 budget. Robinson explained to Eddie Drury of X-Press Online, "I thought it would be big in the northeast area of the United States, but three months after we even held the audition, we're performing in Germany."

The first station to play "Rapper's Delight" was WESL in St. Louis. When all was said and done the single ended up selling more than eight million copies. At the peak of its popularity, 50,000 copies of the song were selling each day. "Rapper's Delight" hit number four on Billboard's R&B charts and made it to number 36 on Billboard's popular music charts. One of the amazing aspects of the song's popularity is that radio stations would play the 15-minute song. As Robinson explained to Drury, "The radio stations would play the 15 minute version, in an era when songs were five minutes long. They could have cut it off, they could have faded it, they could have gone to commercial or whatever but they kept playing it and people would call up and say 'play it again,' and they would play it back to back. So you'd have 30 minutes of uninterrupted rap."

They'll Always Be the First

The Sugarhill Gang went on to record two more records with Sugar Hill before they disbanded in 1985. Their single "8th Wonder" made it to the number 15 spot on the R&B charts, while their next single reached number 13. The three original members went their separate ways, reportedly working odd jobs here and there outside the music business. In 1990, Joey Robinson, Jr., reformed the group, taking on the name of Master Gee and acting as manager. Since then the group has been touring. They released a children's record in 1999 called Jump On It! and donated some of the proceeds to the Boys and Girls Club of America. O'Brien, while not performing with the group, is involved in the music industry again. In 2005, he teamed up with his son Guy O'Brien, Jr., and Wright forming a group called M.G. Squad and recording an album titled Better Than Ever.

The Sugarhill Gang will always be known as the first rap group to reach international fame. They brought rap and hip-hop culture to the masses and helped launch a genre that continued to grow and change within its boundaries while also influencing popular music. The group stays busy touring, which takes them across the United States and as far as Australia. Robinson explained to Drever that the time seemed right to reunite when they did, "In the late-'80s we weren't getting much respect from the hip-hop community because of the style of rap that was out at the time. We were party, good-time rap, but everything became much more gangster…. Now things have come full circle. Rap is more fun again … bragging about how many girls they had, what clothes they got, just whimsical, foolish things, fun things." There was also a desire by many to experience what a Sugarhill Gang show was like, a desire by modern audiences to revisit the roots of rap.

Selected discography

Rapper's Delight: Best of Sugarhill Gang, Sugar Hill Records, 1980.
The Sugarhill Gang, Sugar Hill Records, 1980.
8th Wonder, Sugar Hill Records, 1982.
Jump On It!, Rhino Records, 1999.
Rapper's Delight, Castle Records, 2002.

For the Record …

Members include Henry Jackson, rapper; Guy O'Brien (replaced by Joey Robinson, Jr., 1990), rapper; Michael Wright, rapper.

Group put together in Englewood, NJ, by Sugar Hill Records owner, Sylvia Robinson and released single "Rapper's Delight," 1979; released Rapper's Delight: Best of Sugarhill Gang and The Sugarhill Gang, 1980; released 8th Wonder, 1982; band split up, 1985; band reformed and began touring, 1990; released Jump On It! 1999.

Addresses: Booking—Booking Entertainment.com, 275 Madison Ave., 6th Fl., New York, NY, 10016, phone: 212-645-0555, website: http://www.bookingentertainment.com.

Sources

Periodicals

Independent (London), April 29, 2003.

Jet, January 7, 2002.

Vanity Fair, November 2005.

Online

"Father and Sons of Rap," NorthJersey.com, http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MzgmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY3MTI1MTAmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk5 (November 4, 2006).

"Sugarhill Gang," Remix, http://remixmag.com/mag/remix_sugarhill_gang/ (November 4, 2006).

"Sugarhill Gang," X-Press Online, http://www.xpressmag.com.au/archives/000189.html (November 4, 2006).

"They Don't Stop," Age (Australia), http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/26/1079939824819.html (November 4, 2006).