REVIEWS

Check out Wonder Mike singing Rapper's Delight!

This album was released in the year 1980, and it is considered the first full length hip-hop album. On that album, they had a hit song that you may have heard; Rapper’s Delight. This song was the first rap or hip-hop song to be in the top 40 of the Billboard Top 100. It ranked #36 in January 1980. Rapper’s Delight was also added to the National Recording Registry by the U.S. Congress in 2011.

In Englewood, New Jersey, record producer Sylvia Robinson wanted to record a rap single after her record label, All Platinum Records, went bankrupt. APR then became Sugarhill Records, and Sylvia started to make the rap group. The original members are Michael Anthony Wright (aka “Wonder Mike”), Henry Lee Jackson (aka “Big Bank Hank”), and Guy O’Brien (aka “Master Gee”).

Sugarhill Gang is still pretty active now, even though Big Bank Hank died of cancer in 2014. They still perform every once in a while with other artists like Chuck D from Public Enemy and Queen Latifah, with Henry Williams (aka “Henn Dog”) as their third member.

This is a great album for anyone who likes hip-hop or rap, described as having, “inventive rhymes, complex counter-rhythms, and brash boastfulness presaged the tenets of hip hop.” Since hip-hop is officially 52 years old, some say that hip-hop as a genre reached its peak around the mid-80s, and the rapping aspect has been getting more and more popular. You can listen to Sugarhill Gang in any place where you listen to music.