Rapper's Delight

Rapper's Delight is a 1979 rap song by the musical trio Sugarhill Gang, now classified as hip-hop. It was written by Bernard Edwards, Nile Rodgers, Sylvia Robinson, Michael Wright, Guy O'Brien and Hank Jackson.

Background

Successful songwriter and producer Sylvia Robinson got the idea for a hip-hop song when she heard someone rapping to a beat in the background at a child's birthday party. The hip-hop scene was an underground scene until then, and since no established MC could be found who wanted to make a commercial recording, she put together a trio herself with Henry Jackson, Michael Wright and Guy O'Brie and named it Sugarhill Gang, after her own label Sugar Hill Records.

For the beat, they used Chic's disco hit Good Times, which had been a number one hit in 1979. The original authors Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers were not asked for permission, they were only subsequently listed as co-authors and shared in the proceeds. The beat was re-recorded, as sampling was not common at the time, but also slightly altered. The funk of the original with rhythm guitar and piano became a refrain-like background beat with fade-ins. The recording lasted 14 minutes and was recorded in one piece, which is why it was released as a maxisingle. A shorter version of the track was issued for Europe and US radio.

The single was released on September 16, 1979, and entered the U.S. charts shortly thereafter. On the soul charts, it reached #4; on the pop charts, it reached #36 and went gold for selling a million records. However, the song was also successful in Europe, where it was a top 5 hit in numerous countries. It is debatable whether it was the first hip-hop recording, but in any case it was the first internationally commercially successful hip-hop single, pioneering the new genre in the record industry. The track was inducted into the Rock and RollHall of Fame as a defining song of the era. According to the music magazine Rolling Stone, the track ranked 251st among the 500 greatest songs of all time in 2010.

The Sugarhill Gang released the album The Sugarhill Gang in 1980 with Rapper's Delight as the main song. Internationally, the song remained the trio's only major success. By 2004, the song had entered the British charts three more times: in 1986 on a split single with Positive Force's We Got the Funk as the second side, as a 1989 remix by Ben Liebrand, and in 2004 after being used in an episode of the series Scrubs - The Beginners. Only in the U.S., the trio had some minor success beyond the song, even with the second album.

Cover versions and allusions

The song has been covered quite a few times by different musicians since its creation, including Erick Sermon, Redman and Keith Murray together in 1997 and Coolio in 2004.

• The 1980 German-language cover version Rapper's Deutsch by G.L.S.-United (consisting of Thomas Gottschalk, Frank Laufenberg and Manfred Sexauer), is considered one of the first German-language rap songs. From the NDR radio host Günter Fink comes a parody called Rapper's Fink.

• The 1983 song Alpenrap by the Austrian band Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung is stylistically reminiscent of Rapper's Delight and contains an allusion to the song (the lyrics refer to "Seppl's Delight").

• Russian cover version Рэп (Rap) was released in 1984 by Час пик.

• The Austrian singer Falco used parts of the opening lines several times, first in 1985 for Urban Tropical (B-side of Rock Me Amadeus) and the following year for the song The Sound of Musik. Again a reference to this can be found in the title Body Next to Body, released in 1987.

• The summer hit Aserejé, released by the Spanish female trio Las Ketchup in 2002 and launched in Europe as The Ketchup Song, is also based on Rapper's Delight. It describes the story of the dance-obsessed Diego, who doesn't understand the English lyrics of his favorite song. The chorus line "I said a hip-hop, the hippie ..." thus becomes the Spanish gibberish "Aserejé ja dejé ...".

• In 2009, Sugarhill Gang made a guest appearance on Frenchman Bob Sinclar's Lala Song, which is reminiscent of Rapper's Delight in places and was successful on the charts on the European continent.

• In 2014, a video clip in which snippets of conversation between the U.S. host Brian Williams and the editors of the American late-night show The Tonight Show were edited together in such a way that it appears as if he is rapping this song achieved great success on the Internet video portal YouTube as well as other social networks.

• In 2019, the piece was used in Paco Rabanne's latest commercial for 1 Million and Lady Million.