Song of the day for September 16, 2024
Rapper’s Delight by The Sugarhill Gang is today’s featured song.
On this date in 1979, The Sugarhill Gang introduced the world to hip-hop with their single “Rapper’s Delight.” Opening with the now-classic lyric “I said a hip hop the hippie to the hippie/ To the hip hip hop and you don’t stop,” the track riffs off the upbeat bassline of Chic’s “Good Times,” and features the dextrous wordplay of Michael “Wonder Mike” Wright, Henry “Big Bank Hank” Jackson, and Guy “Master Gee” O’Brien. While the track wasn’t the first instance of rap on record, it was the first single to popularize the genre on a global level, landing in the US Top 40, and in the Top Ten in the UK, Canada, and across Europe. It has since been added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.
