The Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight (Official Video)

Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for sharing the music video of The Sugarhill Gang performing "Rapper's Delight" in honor of the fact that on September 16, 1979, The Sugarhill Gang's 'Rapper's Delight' was released.
This was the first rap song to enter the US Hot 100.

"Rapper's Delight"
Lyrics
"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.
Now, what you hear is not a test
I'm rappin' to the beat,
And me, the groove, and my friends are gonna try to move your feet.
See, I am Wonder Mike, and I'd like to say hello,
To the black, to the white, the red and the brown,
The purple and yellow. But first, I gotta
Bang bang, the boogie to the boogie,
Say up jump the boogie to the bang bang boogie,
Let's rock, you don't stop,
Rock the rhythm that'll make your body rock.
Well so far you've heard my voice but I brought two friends along,
And the next on the mic is my man Hank,
C'mon, Hank, sing that song!

Check it out, I'm the C-A-S-A, the N-O-V-A,
And the rest is F-L-Y,
You see I go by the code of the doctor of the mix,
And these reasons I'll tell you why.
You see, I'm six foot one, and I'm tons of fun
When I dress to a T,
You see, I got more clothes than Muhammad Ali
And I dress so viciously.
I got bodyguards, I got two big cars
That definitely ain't the wack,
I got a Lincoln Continental and a sun-roofed Cadillac.
So after school I take a dip in the pool,
Which is really on the wall,
I got a colour TV, so I can see
The Knicks play basketball. Hear me talk about
Checkbooks, credit cards, mo' money
Than a sucker could ever spend,
But I wouldn't give a sucker or a bum from the Rucker
Not a dime 'til I made it again. Everybody go
Ho-tel, mo-tel, what you gonna do today? (say what?)
'Cause I'm a get a fly girl,
Gonna get some spank and drive off in a def OJ. Everybody go
Ho-tel, mo-tel, Holiday Inn,
Say if your girl starts actin' up, then you take her friend.
Master Gee! My mellow!
It's on to you, so what you gonna do?

Well, it's on'n'n'on'n'on on'n'on,
The beat don't stop until the break of dawn.
I said M-A-S, T-E-R, a G with a double E,
I said I go by the unforgettable name
Of the man they call the Master Gee.
Well, my name is known all over the world
By all the foxy ladies and the pretty girls.
I'm goin' down in history
As the baddest rapper there ever could be.
Now I'm feelin' the highs and you're feelin' the lows,
The beat starts gettin' into your toes
You start poppin' your fingers and stompin' your feet
And movin' your body while while you're sitting in your seat
And then damn! Ya start doin' the freak, I said
Damn! Right outta your seat
Then you throw your hands high in the air,
Ya rockin' to the rhythm, shake your derrière
Ya rockin' to the beat without a care,
With the sureshot MCs for the affair.
Now, I'm not as tall as the rest of the gang
But I rap to the beat just the same.

I got a little face, and a pair of brown eyes
All I'm here to do, ladies, is hypnotize

Singin' on'n'n'on'n'on on'n'on,
The beat don't stop until the break of dawn
Singin' on'n'n'on'n'on on'n'on,
Like a hot buttered pop da pop da pop dibbie dibbie
Pop da pop pop,
Don't you dare stop
Come alive y'all, gimme what you got

I guess by now you can take a hunch
And find that I am the baby of the bunch
But that's okay, I still keep in stride,
'Cause all I'm here to do is just wiggle your behind

Singin' on'n'n'on'n'on on'n'on,
The beat don't stop until the break of dawn.
Singin' on'n'n'on'n'on on'n'on,
Rock rock, y'all, throw it on the floor

I'm gonna freak you here, I'm gonna freak you there,
I'm gonna move you outta this atmosphere.
'Cause I'm one of a kind and I'll shock your mind
I'll put TNT in your behind.
I said one, two, three, four
Come on, girls, get on the floor
A-come alive, y'all, a-gimme what you got
'Cause I'm guaranteed to make you rock

I said one, two, three, four,
Tell me, Wonder Mike, what are you waiting for?

I said a hip hop,
The hippie to the hippie
The hip hip a 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.
A Skiddleebebop, we rock, scooby doo,
And guess what, America, we love you

'Cause you rocked and a rolled with so much soul,
You could rock 'til a hundred and one years old.
I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast,
But we're like hot butter on your breakfast toast

Rock it up, Baby Bubba!
Baby Bubba to the boogie da bang bang da boogie
To the beat, beat, it's so unique
Come on everybody and dance to the beat!

[Drum break]

A hip hop
The hippie to the hippie the
Hip hip a hop and you don't stop, rock it
Rock it out, Baby Bubba to the boogie da bang bang
The boogie to the boogie, the beat.

I said, I can't wait 'til the end of the week
When I'm rappin' to the rhythm of a groovy beat
And I attempt to raise your body heat.
Just blow your mind, so you can't speak

And do a thing but a-rock and shuffle your feet
And let it change up to a dance called the freak
And when you finally do come into your rhythmic beat,
Rest a little while so you don't get weak.

I know a man named Hank
He has more rhymes than a serious bank
So come on, Hank, sing that song,
To the rhythm of the boogie, the bang bang da bong!

Well, I'm Imp the Dimp,
The ladies' pimp,
The women fight for my delight.
But I'm the grandmaster with the three MCs
That shock the house for the young ladies

And when you come inside, into the front,
You do the freak, spank, and do the bump
And when the sucker MC try to prove a point,
We're a treacherous trio, we're the serious joint!

From sun to sun and from day to day
I sit down and write a brand new rhyme
Because they say that miracles never cease
I've created a devastating masterpiece

I'm gonna rock the mic 'til you can't resist,
Everybody, I say it goes like this
Well, I was coming home late one afternoon
A reporter stopped me for an interview

She said she's heard stories and she's heard fables
That I'm vicious on the mic and the turntable
This young reporter I did adore,
So I rocked some vicious rhymes like I never did before

She said, "Damn, fly guy, I'm in love with you.
The Casanova legend must have been true."
I said, "By the way, baby, what's your name?"
Said, "I go by name of Lois Lane.
And you could be my boyfriend, you surely can,
Just let me quit my boyfriend called Superman."
I said, "He's a fairy, I do suppose
Flyin' through the air in pantyhose
He may be very sexy, or even cute,
But he looks like a sucker in a blue and red suit,"
I said, "You need a man man who's got finesse
And his whole name across his chest.
He may be able to fly all through the night,
But can he rock a party 'til the early light?
He can't satisfy you with his little worm,
But I can bust you out with my super sperm!"

I go do it, I go do it, I go do it, do it, do it.
And I'm here and I'm there,
I'm Big Ban Hank, I'm everywhere
Just throw your hands up in the air
And party hardy like you just don't care
Let's do it, don't stop, y'all, a tick tock, y'all, you don't stop!

Go ho-tel, mo-tel, what you gonna do today?
Say what?
I'm gonna get a fly girl, gonna get some spank, drive off in a def OJ,

Everybody go, "Ho-tel, mo-tel, Holiday Inn."
You say if your girl starts actin' up, then you take her friend

I say skip, dive, what can I say?
I can't fit 'em all inside my OJ,
So I just tak half, and bust 'em out,
I give the rest to Master Gee so he can shock the house

It was twelve o'clock one Friday night
I was rockin' to the beat and feelin' all right
Everybody was dancin' on the floor
Doin' all the things they never did before

And then this fly, fly girl with a sexy lean
She came into the bar, she came into the scene
She travelled deeper inside the room
All the fellas checked out her white Sassoons

She came up to the table, looked into my eyes
Then she turned around and shook her behind
So I said to myself, it's time for me to release
My vicious rhyme I call my masterpiece

And now people in the house, this is just for you
A little rap to make you boogaloo
Now the group you hear is called Phase Two
And let me tell you somethin', we're a helluva crew

Once a week, we're on the street
Just to cut in the jams and look at your feet
For you to party, you gotta have the moves,
So we'll get right down and get you a groove

For you to dance, you got to be hot
So we'll get right down and make you rock
Now the system's on and the girls are there
You definitely have a rockin' affair

But let me tell you somethin', there's still one fact
And to have a party, you got to have a rap
So when the party's over, you're makin' it home,
And tryin' to sleep before the break of dawn
And while you're sleepin', you start to dream,
And thinkin' how you danced on the disco scene
My name appears in your mind,
Yeah, a name you know that was right on time

It was Phase Two just doin' a do
Rockin' you down 'cause you knew we could
To the rhythm of the beat that makes you freak,
Come alive girls, get on your feet

To the rhythm of the beat to the beat the beat
To the double beat beat that makes you freak
To the rhythm of the beat that says you go on
On'n'on into the break of dawn

Now I got a man comin' on right now
He's guaranteed to throw down
He goes by the name of Wonder Mike
Come on, Wonder Mike, do what you like!

I say a can of beer that's sweeter than honey,
Like a millionaire that has no money
Like a rainy day that is not wet,
Like a gamblin' fiend that does not bet

Like Dracula without his fangs,
Like the boogie to the boogie without the boogie bang
Like collard greens that don't taste good,
Like a tree that's not made out of wood

Like goin' up and not comin' down,
Is just like the beat without the sound, no sound
To the beat beat, you do the freak
Everybody just rock and dance to the beat

Have you ever went over a friends house to eat
And the food just ain't no good?
I mean the macaroni's soggy, the peas are mushed,
And the chicken tastes like wood

So you try to play it off like you think you can
By saying that you're full
And then your friend says, "Mama, he's just being polite.
He ain't finished, uh-uh, that's bull!"

So your heart starts pumpin' and you think of a lie
And you say that you already ate
And your friend says, "Man, there's plenty of food."
So you pile some more on your plate

While the stinky food's steamin', your mind starts to dreamin'
Of the moment that it's time to leave
And then you look at your plate and your chicken's slowly rottin'
Into something that looks like cheese

Oh so you say, "That's it, I gotta leave this place.
I don't care what these people think.
I'm just sittin' here makin' myself nauseous
With this ugly food that stinks."

So you bust out the door while it's still closed
Still sick from the food you ate
And then you run to the store for quick relief
From a bottle of Kaopectate

And then you call your friend two weeks later
To see how he has been
And he says, "I understand about the food,
Baby Bubba, but we're still friends."

With a hip hop the hippie to the hippie
The hip hip a hop, a you don't stop the rockin'
To the bang bang boogie
Say up jump the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie the beat

I said, "Hank, can ya rock?
Can ya rock to the rhythm that just don't stop?
Can ya hip me to the shoobie doo?"
I said, "Come on, make, make the people move!"

I go to the halls and then ring the bell
Because I am the man with the clientèle
And if ya ask me why I rock so well,
A Big Bang, I got clientèle

And from the time I was only six years old
I never forgot what I was told
It was the best advice I ever had
It came from my wise and dear old dad

He said, "Sit down, punk, I wanna talk to you.
And don't say a word until I'm through.
Now there's a time to laugh, a time to cry.
A time to live and a time to die.
A time to break and a time to chill.
To act civilized or act real ill.
But whatever you do in your lifetime
You never let an MC steal your rhyme."

So from six to six 'til this very day
I'll always remember what he had to say
So when the sucker MCs try to chump my style
I let them know that I'm versatile

I got style, finesse, and a little black book
That's filled with rhymes and I know you wanna look
But the thing that separates you from me
And that is called originality

Because my rhymes are on from what you heard
I didn't even bite, not a go---word
And I say a little more, later on tonight
So the sucker MCs can bite all night

A tick a tock, y'all, a beat beat, y'all
A let's rock, y'all, you don't stop
Ya go, "Ho-tel, mo-tel, what you gonna do today?"
Say what?
Ya say, "I'm gonna get a fly girl, gonna get some spank and
Drive off in a def OJ."

Everybody go, "Ho-tel, mo-tel, Holiday Inn."
Ya say if your girl starts actin' up, then you take her friends

A like that, y'all, to the beat, y'all
Beat beat y'all, ya don't stop!
A Master Gee, my mellow
It's on to you so what you gonna do?

Well, like Johnny Carson on the Late Show
A like Frankie Crocker in stereo
Well, like the Barkay's singin' "Holy Ghost"
The sounds to throw down, they're played the most

It's like my man Captain Sky
Whose name he earned with his super sperm
We rock and we don't stop
Get off, y'all, I'm here to give you what you got
To the beat that it makes you freak
And come alive, girl, get on your feet

A like a Perry Mason without a case
Like Farrah Fawcett without her face
Like the Barkays on the mic
Like gettin' down right for you tonight

Like movin' your body so you don't know how
Right to the rhythm and throw down
Like comin' alive to the Master Gee
The brother who rocks so viciously

I said the age of one, my life begun
At the age of two I was doin' the do
At the age of three, it was you and me
Rockin' to the sounds of the Master Gee

At the age of four, I was on the floor
Givin' all the freaks what they bargained for
At the age of five I didn't take no jive
With the Master Gee it's all the way live

At the age of six I was a-pickin' up sticks
Rappin' to the beat, my stick was fixed
At the age of seven, I was rockin' in heaven
Don't you know I went off

I gotta run on down to the beat you see
Gettin' right on down, makin' all the girls
Just take off their clothes to the beat the beat
To the double beat beat that makes you freak

At the age of eight, I was really great
'Cause every night, you see, I had a date
At the age of nine, I was right on time
'Cause every night I had a party rhyme

Going on'n'n'on'n' on on'n'on
The beat don't stop until the break of dawn
A sayin' on'n'n'on'n' on on'n'on
Like a hot buttered de pop pop de popcorn..."


Background on this song
This was the first rap song to enter the US Hot 100. 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 the summer of 1979, but was relegated to the B-side of a more traditional R&B tune.

"Rapper's Delight," released on September 16, 1979, was a serious push to get a rap record into the mainstream, and it worked. The song reached the Hot 100 (at #84) on the chart dated November 10, and cracked the Top 40 (at #37) on January 5, peaking at #36 a week later. These chart positions may look modest, but getting a rap song national attention was quite an accomplishment, making "Rapper's Delight" a seminal song in hip-hop history. The winning formula was boastful lyrics over a sampled beat - a technique that became ubiquitous in rap.
The Fatback Band used an original beat on their song "Kim Tim III," making "Rapper's Delight" the first rap song to use a sample, which of course was done without permission, as no precedent existed for clearing a sample. The beat that plays throughout the song was taken from "Good Times" by Chic, a song that was in the crates of every DJ who played at the block parties where rap got its start. The "Good Times" groove was easy to loop, creating a breakbeat that was perfect for MCs. The Sugarhill Gang wasn't the first to borrow it - Queen used the bassline in their song "Another One Bites The Dust."

"Rapper's Delight" didn't just sample the beat; the string stabs were also lifted, so the entire "Delight" track was made up of pieces from the Chic song.

"Good Times" was written by Chic's guitarist/producer Nile Rodgers and bass player Bernard Edwards. Rodgers heard "Rapper's Delight" for the first time when he was out at a club and the DJ played it. After he threatened a lawsuit, the credits on the song were changed. Originally, Sylvia Robinson and the three rappers were listed as the song's writers, but now the only composers listed are Rodgers and Edwards, who receive all the songwriting royalties it brings in (Edwards' share goes to his estate, as he died in 1996).
The group was put together by Sylvia Robinson, owner of the New Jersey label Sugarhill Records, to take advantage of the rap music that was gaining popularity at New York City block parties. Her son, Joey Robinson, just 18 years old at the time, was the vice-president of promotion for the label and found the rappers for the group: Wonder Mike (Michael Wright), Big Bank Hank (Henry Jackson) and Master Gee (Guy O'Brien), all from Englewood, New Jersey. None of them had much credibility, and weren't part of the "crews" that were rapping and dancing at the block parties. Some members of the early hip-hop scene thought the group was a sham, but the song became very popular in clubs and had a huge impact.

Robinson, a shrewd businesswoman who died in 2011 at age 75, is the same Sylvia who had a hit in 1973 with "Pillow Talk," and was half of Mickey And Sylvia, who had the 1956 hit "Love Is Strange." She discovered rap music because her kids likes it, and used her business savvy and industry experience to create the first hit in the medium.
You can find many different mixes of "Rapper's Delight," but the original 12" single went on-and-a-on-and-on-on-and-on for 14 minutes and 27 seconds (although the label on the single said it was an even 15 minutes). The radio edit runs 4:55, removing lots of bragging, some of the Superman and bad meal stories, and verses of unresolved metaphors ("Like a Perry Mason without a case, like Farrah Fawcett without her face").
"Big Bank" Hank Jackson, one of the three rappers in the group, stole the Superman part from MC Grandmaster Caz, a rapper who was part of a crew called the Cold Crush. Hank worked as a manager for the Cold Crush and was a bouncer at a club where they played. He used the rap to get in the group, and even used the part where Caz spelled out his nickname - "Casanova," going so far as to rhyme that he's "The grandmaster with the three MCs" (The Sugarhill Gang had just three members, the Cold Crush had four). Caz feels he was never given proper credit, and in 2000 he released a song called "MC Delight" where he addressed the issue, rapping: "the cat who bit this rhyme was my manager, pure treason I'll tell you why..."

In Caz' version of events, Hank called him up after he got the gig with Sugarhill Gang, asking for a rap he could use with the group. Caz gave it to him, but expected some credit in return, which never came. Neither did the royalties, as Caz didn't sue.
There was a video made for this song, thus making it the first rap music video. It was a performance video with the rappers doing the song in a disco while the crowd dances along. It was low budget, but professionally done with decent production value (switcher wipes!).

The disco was called the Soap Factory. Located in Palisades Park, New Jersey, it hosted a syndicated TV series called the Soap Factory Disco Show from 1977-1979. In 1979, The Sugarhill Gang performed this song on the show, and that performance became the de facto video.

Sylvia Robinson at Sugar Hill Records was an innovator in this regard, as she understood that videos were a great way to promote a song in Europe, and commissioned them for some of her artists (Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five got one for "The Message"). As America caught on to music videos, the clip got a lot of exposure on New York shows like Video Music Box that featured rap videos. MTV, which launched in 1981, didn't play a rap video until 1984, when they aired Run-D.M.C.'s "Rock Box," but when they started Yo! MTV Raps in 1988, "Rapper's Delight" got some spins.
This song opened the floodgates for many more rap records. Many of these releases were on the Sugarhill label, which was home to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Spoonie Gee, and a female group called Sequence. In December 1979, Kurtis Blow became the first rapper to release a single on a major label when he put out "Christmas Rappin'," and in 1980 he had the first rap gold record with "The Breaks." Blondie became the first white act to chart with rap when they hit #1 with "Rapture" also in 1980.

Most rap records at the time were coming out of small, independent labels like Bobby Robinson's Harlem company Enjoy. It took a few more years before major labels signed a significant number of rappers, although in 1982, Tommy Boy Records had some success with Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock."
This was a far bigger hit in the UK, which was a step ahead of America when it came to widespread acceptance of rap music. In England, where there is a large Jamaican population, rap music wasn't too far removed from the reggae music that featured "toasters" who added vocals over breaks in the music. Kurtis Blow's "Christmas Rappin'" made the UK Top 40 the same month as "Rapper's Delight": December 1979.
At first, this was not released on an album, only as a 12" single, because Sugarhill Records did not think an entire album of rap music would sell. It has since appeared on numerous compilation albums.
The Sugarhill Gang made two more visits to the Hot 100; first when "8th Wonder" charted at #82 in 1981, then with "Apache" at #53 in 1982. They faded into obscurity, but returned in the '90s to play nostalgia shows. In 1999, they released a children's rap album called Jump On It.
In 1998, The Sugarhill Gang performed this for a Turner Broadcasting party. Turner used the performance in a commercial for The Goodwill Games, but did not have the group's consent and was ordered to pay the group almost $3 million in a 2001 judgment.
The bass line on this song was played live by a 17-year-old named Chip Shearin, who got the gig for the session because his friend knew the studio owner, Sylvia Robinson. Shearin was paid $70 to re-create the bass line from the song "Good Times" for 15 minutes. He recorded the part with a live drummer, which formed the rhythm track for the song. When he asked Robinson what she was going to use it for, she replied: "'I've got these kids who are going to talk real fast over it."

Sheerin ended up playing some live gigs with the band and became a successful studio musician and composer of jingles.
This was covered by the Def Squad (Redman, Keith Murray, Erick Sermon of EPMD) in 1998 on the El Nino album which was released on Def Jam. It was called "Def Squad Delite," and the verses were partly changed. It also appeared on the compilation In Tha Beginning... There Was Rap (1997 Priority), where different hip hop artists covered famous old hip hop hits. >>
The 2002 hit "The Ketchup Song" (known in Spanish as "Asereje"), is about a guy who loves this song but doesn't understand the lyrics, so he makes up his own. What he makes up translates into the lyrics of "The Ketchup Song."
This song has been used in a variety of TV shows, including One Tree Hill, Martin, Scrubs, Entourage and Medium. Its most famous movie use was in the 1998 Adam Sandler movie The Wedding Singer, where it is sung by the elderly actress Ellen Dow, playing up to the comedy trope of old lady rapping. Other movies to use the song include Kangaroo Jack and CB4.
Kid Rock sampled this on his 1998 hit, "Bawitdaba."
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1077
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