I remember when we first heard Sugar Hill Gang. It was Rapper’s Delight on Sugar hill Records. It was a relatively new sound that was produced on their own label. I do not know if they knew it at the time but the choice to lay down tracks on their own label was the beginning of what has shaped the music industry since. I am certain they did not know they would fuel a musical genre that no one outside of Brooklyn and The Bronx thought would last more than a few years, forget about owning the business for the next 30+ years!
This was their first single and it was the first hip hop single to reach the Billboard Top 40 and they were the first hip hop performers on American bandstand, many folks believe RUN-DMC were first but it was actually Sugar Hill Gang. They were sued for sampling the beats from Chic’s Good Times, the first of many lawsuits that the Hip Hop business has had to encounter. They settled out of court and Nile Rodgers was afforded part o fall royalties forward. They were from Englewood, NJ and not NYC as most people assume.
They seem to have lost recognition for their pioneering music to others artists like RUN-DMC who were more famous and successful It is like Hip Hop refuses to acknowledge where it came form although it has had such a short history for a musical genre. Today, Old Skool means five or ten years ago, not the roots of a musical style that is diverse in its breath and focus based on a social movement of changing attitudes and actions to the greater good of all people. It is sometimes hard to see this in the music that is called Hip Hop today, although very danceable and fun.
