An Album/Song A Week: "Rapper's Delight" - Sugarhill Gang

In the fall of 1979, I was 15 years old and starting my first year in High School.  Going from middle school to high school was both a step up in many ways.  The first glimpses of being a young adult.  It was also culturally a new world.  The school I went to was a diverse mix of races for 1979.  But one thing I noticed is that there were more African-Americans in this school than in previous years.  The city I lived in didn't have a high school, so for the first year, I would get a ride.  And the city that the school was located had a heavy black population.  

In my music world this meant hearing more R&B songs than I ever heard on the radio.  By late 1979 though, I was expanding my listening habits.  I began to search for stations on the FM dial that specialized in R&B and Country music.  That coupled with my Billboard subscription meant I knew what songs and albums were topping all the charts.  

"Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang was released in the Fall of 1979.  First appearing on the R&B charts than crossing over ot the Hot 100.  It was a phenomenon.  This was a new sound and it took off at our school.  Kids would recite all the verses.  Portable tape decks would play it at lunchtime.  Even to my ears this was something special.  Yes, I've heard R&B songs that had spoken words in them, even rapping.  But nothing like this.  The real appeal to "Rapper's Delight" was how simple it was.  Taking the beat from Chic's "Good Times", which was just ending it's #1 chart run, the beat was familiar to everyone.  

A year later another important Rap single came out, Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks".  Soon Rap began to take off.  But "Rapper's Delight" was the catalyst.  It managed to peak at #36 on the Hot 100 in January 1980.  And while they never had another Pop hit they did have a couple more very good R&B hits, "Apache" and "8th Wonder".  But chart success wasn't the point.  Their legacy is with this one epochal moment.