We’ve decided to dive into one of hiphop’s founding documents by Charles Mudede The presence of Snoop, Flavor Flav, and the establishment of breaking as a sport marked the 2024 Olympics in Paris as a hiphop event. This is not surprising. Hiphop is now the most listened-to genre in the United States and has had a huge impact on Korean and Latin American pop. But how did we get here? It began in the fall of 1979, when hiphop was an unknown art form to most of the country. That year, Sylvia Robinson, a recording artist who broke into the Top 40 in the fifties and sixties, started Sugar Hill Records in Englewood, New Jersey, with her husband after hearing a DJ rap at a birthday party for a relative. She signed three rappers—Wonder Mike, Big Bank Hank, and Master Gee—and named them the Sugarhill Gang. And that fall, the label released “Rapper’s Delight.” Sylvia displayed the exceptional foresight of embracing this new music in its very early stages. Her visionary sample of Chic’s 1979 disco smash “Good Times,” performed for the track by studio musicians, is now widely credited as one of the key elements that made “Rapper’s Delight” so accessible and opened this new music to the whole world. In Seattle, the first person to play it on radio was Robert L. Scott on 1250 AM KYAC, one of the seven Black-owned radio stations at the time, according to the Seattle Medium. The rest, as we love to say, is history. In honor of that history, we’ve decided to dive into one of hiphop’s founding documents. We will eventually annotate the entire original “Rapper’s Delight,” the gargantuan 14:35-minute version, line by line­—but we present here the key lines from the tamed, radio-friendly 3-minute edit. So here it is, a preliminary annotation of the track that made it possible for Dr. Dre and Jay-Z to be billionaires, Snoop and Martha Stewart’s world-famous friendship not only achievable but profitable, and a bad breakdancer at the Olympics go viral: “Rapper’s Delight.”  Wonder Mike 1) I said a hiphop, the hippie to the hippie The use of the term ”hiphop” at the start of the vocals helped set the stage for the common naming of this culture, in all of its forms: rapping, DJing, dancing, graffiti, and fashion. (There has been, it must be noted, a long and sometimes bitter debate about whether fashion is or is not one of the main branches of hiphop culture. We do not want to take sides in this debate, but we must point out that in 1979, the Sugarhill Gang didn’t dress in a way that’s distinct from disco culture. The same cannot be said about Run-D.M.C., a Queens crew that formed in 1983.)  2 ) The hip, hip-a-hop and you don’t stop rockin’ / To the bang, bang the boogie, say up jump the boogie / To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat Here, Wonder Mike samples scatting (or scat singing), which is a part of the jazz tradition, and had Al “The Acrobat of Scat” Jarreau as one of its popularizers. Among numerous other things, Al Jarreau is famous for the theme song for the ’80s TV show Moonlighting, which starred a waspish Cybill Shepherd and a young Bruce Willis. 3) Now what you hear is not a test, I’m rappin’ to the beat Because of rap’s newness—the genre was, in 1979, mostly unknown outside of the boroughs of New York City—the listener might have been confused by Sugarhill Gang’s vocal presentations not based on conventional harmony and thought they were instead hearing a mic check. Wonder Mike lets the listener know that this is not a test, this is not a mic check, this is “rappin’ to the beat.” There is also this to consider: “Rapper’s Delight” recreates, in form and substance, a kind of party that most Americans and citizens of the world were not familiar with, a DJ with emcees (masters of ceremony). The former was, for sure, well established (particularly during the disco period), but emcees who owe their origin to the Jamaican toaster and African griot, were barely known outside of NYC.  4) And me, the groove, and my friends are gonna try to move your feet As stated in Note 3, “Rapper’s Delight” recreates a hiphop party, a party with a DJ on the “wheels of steel” and rappers on the “M-I-C.” The job of the rapper is to keep party people out of their seats and engaged with the “groove.” Also important to note: At this point, the DJ was the central figure in hiphop, the way that the rapper is today. In the party setting, the MC would often need permission from the DJ to even get on the mic.  5) You 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 On the first internationally distributed rap record, an almost immediate shoutout to all the races. This gesture of inclusion cannot be overstated. It was the first declaration of a feeling that would be formalized in 1984 by Def Jam’s first release, “It’s Yours.” The rapper, T La Rock, on that Rick Rubin-produced track, also recreates a hiphop party, but this time it includes the cheers and responses of party people, with T La Rock declaring that the music, the rapping, the joy is all theirs, if they want it.  6) 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 riddle that’ll make your body rock See Notes 1 and 2. 7) Well, so far you’ve heard my voice, but I brought two friends along / And next on the mic is my man Hank / And come on, Hank, sing that song! This is called passing the mic. Back then, a party usually only had one mic to spare. So, it had to be passed around. The Beastie Boys celebrated this tradition in 1992 with the track “Pass the Mic.” Of course, by that time, rappers were rocking stadiums and had their own mics. Big Bank Hank 8) Check it out, I’m the C-A-S-AN the O-V-A, and the rest is F-L-Y In episode 1 of And You Don’t Stop: 30 Years of Hip Hop, Grandmaster Caz tells the story of Big Bank Hank asking to use some of his rhymes. Caz, aka Casanova Fly, said yes and tossed him a notebook. Hank not only used Caz’s raps but didn’t bother to swap Caz’s name with his own. And so Big Bank Hank makes his historic hiphop introduction with the line: “I’m the C-A-S-AN the O-V-A, and the rest is F-L-Y.” Ironically, in the extended version, Hank delivers the line: “But whatever you do in your lifetime, you never let an MC steal your rhyme.”  Questions around rappers writing their own rhymes would surface many times in hiphop. Eazy-E raps, “Ice Cube writes the rhymes that I say,” in the 1988 track ”8 Ball” and, in the 1995 track “Mad Bent,” Heather B asserts that nobody was “in the back writing my shit.”  There was also, in early hiphop, an obsession with “biting,” which included not writing one’s own rhymes, stealing another’s style, and, as the feud between Roxanne Shanté and the Real Roxanne demonstrated, jacking another rapper’s name. Originality was prized. “You got to have style and learn to be original,” rapped KRS-One in 1988. But biters were everywhere. And often as shameless as Big Bank Hank. In UTFO’s 1985 track “Bite It,” Educated Rapper expressed this scourge in a register that borders on paranoia: “If you ever had a shadow, one like mine / Time after time, you would find / Everything you did, and everything you do / And everything you want to do, they’d want to too.” 9) You see, I go by the code of the doctor of the mix and these reasons, I’ll tell ya why / You see, I’m six-foot-one and I’m tons of fun and I dress to a T / You see, I got more clothes than Muhammad Ali, and I dress so viciously This Muhammad Ali reference was a foreshadowing of the massive amount of eventual overlap between hiphop and sports. 10) I got bodyguards, I got two big cars that definitely ain’t the wack / I got a Lincoln Continental and a sunroof Cadillac “Wack” was among the most insulting terms that could be used in early hiphop. At this point in time, luxury American-made cars (not European) were the preference of many African Americans who could afford them. 11) So after school, I take a dip in the pool, which really is on the wall / I got a color TV so I can see the Knicks play basketball This type of subtle geographic reference to New York City’s historic NBA team was something that distinguished hiphop early on. The inclusion of what it’s like where you’re from exported local culture to the world. In Emerald Street: A History of Hip-Hop in Seattle, Ice-T said, “That’s what you do as a rapper, you’re kinda like a cheerleader for a neighborhood. That’s what a lot of people will ask, ‘Why do you always say the name of your [record] label or your street?’ Because that’s what the rapper does, it’s about shoutin’ out. You’re reppin’ a group.” Though Big Bank Hank bit his rhymes, he actually came from what many consider to be the birthplace of hiphop, the Bronx. The other rappers in Sugarhill Gang were from New Jersey, which, for NYC crews, was basically another country and was dismissed (dissed) as such. 12) Hear me talkin’ ‘bout checkbooks, credit cards, more money than a sucker could ever spend Boasting might be fantastic, but it had to be “up on things,” as Snoop put it in “Still D.R.E.” In our time, we are inundated with credit card offers. Back then, however, credit cards were relatively new and, therefore, a sign of wealth.  13) But I wouldn’t give a sucker or a bum from the Rucker not a dime ‘til I made it again This refers to the legendary street basketball courts at Rucker Park in Harlem, which hosted the famous, flamboyant Rucker Tournaments. That marks Hank’s third sports-related reference in this verse alone. 14) Everybody go, “Hotel, motel, whatcha gonna do today? (Say what?) / ‘Cause I’ma get a fly girl, gonna get some spank and drive off in a def OJ This was likely the first time many heard the word “def,” as in Def Jam, Mos Def, and Bigger and Deffer. Def, of course, means definitely. As for OJ, it was a luxury car service that operated in the Bronx. 15) Everybody go, “Hotel, motel, Holiday Inn!” / Say, if your girl starts actin’ up, then you take her friend Notice he uses “girl” instead of “bitch,” an epithet that in the 1990s not only became popular but interchangeable with “ho.” Queen Latifah addressed misogyny in hiphop in her 1993 hit track “U.N.I.T.Y.”  16) A-Master Gee, a-my mellow / It’s on you, so what you gonna do? See Note 7. Master Gee 17) Well, it’s on and on and on, on and on / The beat don’t stop until the break of dawn “Till the break of dawn” would become a familiar refrain in hiphop, referring to a party that lasts all night. 18) I said a M-A-S, a T-E-R, a G with a double E Master Gee is the second rapper on this song to spell out his name. Among the more famous to copy this technique would be Snoop’s “Capital S, oh yes, I’m fresh, N-double-O-P / D-O-double-G-Y D-O-double-G, you see?” in 1992’s “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang.” 19) I said I go by the unforgettable name of the man they call the Master Gee Each of the MCs on this track shout their own names out, again and again. This was not just about “ego trippin’” but making sure the people at a party or club remembered your name. Keep in mind that most rappers during this time (the late 1970s) were not on wax or the radio. As a consequence, spelling your name, repeating your name, and including shoutouts to your name was a matter of survival.  20) 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 could ever be Although not unusual for a rapper to say they are the greatest, it can breed conflict. In the mid-1980s, LL Cool J made a similar claim, and it started a longstanding feud with Kool Moe Dee.  21) Now I’m feelin’ the highs and ya feelin’ the lows / The beat starts gettin’ into your toes / Ya start poppin’ ya fingers and stompin’ your feet / And movin’ your body while you’re sittin’ in your seat See Note 4. 22) And then, damn, ya start doin’ the freak / I said damn, right outta your seat / Then ya throw your hands high in the air Back then, “damn” was as far as you could cuss on a record. In subsequent years, Schoolly D, Too $hort, 2 Live Crew, Ice-T, and NWA would go far beyond the curse-word barrier imposed on Master Gee.  23) Ya rockin’ to the rhythm, shake your derriere / Ya rockin’ to the beat without a care / With the sureshot MCs for the affair In the early years of hiphop, the MC devoted a lot of their raps to the art and greatness of the DJ. This was, indeed, their first function: Praising, to use the words of Run-D.M.C., the “big beat blaster.”  24) 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 / Singing on and on and on, on and on / The beat don’t stop until the break of dawn Clearly, Master Gee is the sensitive one of the bunch. Big Bank Hank is his exact opposite. He is a “macho man” on steroids. In the 14:35-minute version of “Rapper’s Delight,” Hank even claims that he “can bust you out with [his] super sperm.” A guy with a “little face and a pair of brown eyes” does not have “super sperm.” 25) A-singing on and on and on, on and on / Like a hot ready to pop the pop the pop dibbie-dibbie / Pop the pop-pop, you don’t dare stop / A-come alive, y’all, gimme what you got See Note 2. 26) I guess by now, you can take a hunch / And find that I am the baby of the bunch Master Gee was 17 years old at the time. 27) But that’s okay, I still keep in stride / ‘Cause all I’m here to do is just wiggle your behind This was a period when rappers did not have to be so hard or, as the social theorist Michelle Wallace put it, so “mac-ho.”  28) Singing on and on and on, on and on / The beat don’t stop until the break of dawn See Note 18. 29) Singing on and on and on, on and on / Rock-rock, y’all, throw it on the floor / I’m gonna freak ya here, I’m gonna freak ya 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 the tick, tick, tickets in your behind / I said a-one, two, three, four / Come on, girls, get on the floor / A-come alive, y’all, a-gimme what ya got / ‘Cause I’m guaranteed to make you rock At its core, “Rapper’s Delight” is a dance song that gets the party going and generates what hiphop scholar Tricia Rose calls, in the context of inna city pressure, “Black pleasure.” The vocal delivery of the hiphop MC gave the ability to not only tell a story but also incorporate encouragement to the party people. It’s also important to note that rappers were nothing without the person who had the equipment, the technical skills, and the beats. This is why in early hiphop, the name of the DJ often came before that of the rapper or rappers: DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Eric B. & Rakim, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. In fact, Ice-T’s hit, “Reckless,” from the 1984 soundtrack to the movie Breakin’, was all about his DJ, the Glove. However, it was this dynamic contribution from the Sugarhill Gang that initiated the shift from the DJ to the MC as the “center” of hiphop culture. The DJ for “Rapper’s Delight” was, undoubtedly, the great Sylvia Robinson. All hail the queen. Daudi Abe is a professor at Seattle Central College and the author of the critically acclaimed Emerald Street: A History of Hip-Hop in Seattle.