Prior to Rapper’s Delight, hip-hop music was once an underground niche that most people thought was just a fad.
{youtube}tAnojTvyc0g{/youtube}
The Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight was the first rap song to enter the US Top 40. Rap music had been around for about seven years, but it was usually heard at block parties and discos where DJs would loop breakbeats and MCs would add live vocals. Outside of the Bronx, rap was generally considered a fad, and record companies had no interest in financing it. The first rap song commercially released was Kim Tim III (Personality Jock) by the Fatback Band, which came out in July 1979, but was relegated to the B-side of a more traditional R&B tune.
Rapper's Delight, released in September 1979, was a serious push to get a rap record into the mainstream, and it worked, cracking the US Top 40 in January 1980 and becoming a seminal song in hip-hop history. The winning formula was boastful lyrics over a sampled beat - a technique that became ubiquitous in rap.
it has now become generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world. The song's opening lyric “I said a hip hop, The hippie, the hippie, To the hip, hip hop, and you don't stop, a rock it To the bang bang boogie, say, up jump the boogie, To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.” is world-renowned.
Get a chance to hear your favorite old-school rap songs during Y101’s Friday Gold Rush. The Rhythm Crew will be playing all the hits songs from yesteryears, so get ready for some nostalgia, only here at the rhythm of the city, Y101, Always First.
#y101fm #alwaysfirst #rhythmofthecity #entertainment