LimeWire Music Blog

I still can’t believe it’s been 30 years since seminal little ditty “Rapper’s Delight” kicked off this whole hip-hop thing. The anniversary of the anthem is now being celebrated by its creators, the legendary Sugar Hill Gang, who’ve managed to outlast nearly everyone who was in the ’70s rap game. The group, consisting of Wonder Mike, Master Gee and Big Bank Hank, first unleashed the classic on the masses over Chic’s “Good Times” track in 1979 and, if you’ve ever listened to a hip-hop record since then, you have these three to thank for jump starting the movement.

“We have gone and come, and learned and lived Hip Hop from the minute we [first] went into the studio [in the late ‘70s] ‘til the time that we are now living in as we speak, and we’re just humbled and fortunate to be considered as individuals who helped usher in this mega situation that has become a worldwide phenom,” Master Gee told HipHopDX.

To celebrate the song’s run, a documentary on the group, directed by Roger Paradiso, is set for a release in early 2010 as well as a celebration of 30 years of the culture by the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. Approached by the Hall to put together a celebratory performance, the result will be the “Past, present and Future Of Hip Hop Tribute Concert,” which will see the Gang along with Naughty By Nature, Kid Rock Paul Wall, and more take the stage.

And let Wonder Mike tell it, (you know the guy who spit “To the hip hop, the hippie, the hippie to the hip hop’…you know the rest), he still can’t believe that the crew is still celebrated to this day for being such pioneers to the genre.

“I saw a interview with Mary Hart from Entertainment Tonight with Ringo [Starr] and Paul [McCartney] of The Beatles], and it was kinda along the same lines. Paul said sometimes he wakes up and he says, ‘Wow!,’ [and] he’ll call Ringo out-the-blue and say, ‘Can you believe we were a part of that?’ And, basically that’s how I feel. We’ve come a long way from beginning to now.”

Much respect to Sugar Hill.