The Untold Truth Of The Sugarhill Gang

The Sugarhill Gang is often credited with creating the first major hip hop album as well the first chart-topping rap single with "Rapper's Delight" in 1979. But there's a lot more to their story than that. Here's the truth behind these music pioneers.

Sylvia Robinson was a minor music star in the mid-20th century. As one half of the duo Mickey and Sylvia, she topped the Billboard R&B chart in 1957 with the single "Love is Strange." Then she had a solo hit in 1973 with "Pillow Talk." In the late 60s, she and her husband, music industry veteran Joe Robinson, started a soul and R&B label called All Platinum Records. The company had some successful soul singles in the early 70s, but by the end of the decade, their influence had faded and they were on the verge of bankruptcy. Robinson saw a potential financial save at a Harlem club one night in 1979 in the form of rap, the recently emerging New York-centric party music made by talk-singing over R&B and disco records.

As Robinson's son Joey recounted to NPR in 2000,

"She saw where a DJ was talking and the crowd was responding to what he was saying, and this was the first time that she ever saw this before. And she said, 'Joey, wouldn't this be a great idea to make a rap record?'"

First, Robinson would need a bass groove for rappers to rap over, so she paid 17-year-old New Jersey session musician Chip Shearin $70 to do it. Meanwhile, the label recruited some rappers, and they all made "Rapper's Delight" together. The song was attributed to the Sugarhill Gang, and it became the first release on the All Platinum's imprint Sugar Hill Records.

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Assembled by a record exec | 0:00
The Gang is formed | 1:44
No second takes | 3:20
Chic origins | 4:10
Stolen lyrics | 5:08
A number of firsts | 6:11
First rap album | 7:18
Later struggles | 8:06
Sugarhill Gang vs. Snapple | 9:10
Fighting for their name | 10:06

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