Icons. Legends. Pioneers.
In the midst of Black History Month and recent 50th anniversary celebrations of the ever-evolving genre of hip-hop, The Aquarian was lucky enough to nab an interview with the rap group that single-handedly created said genre overnight. The Sugarhill Gang, known for their infamous single “Rapper’s Delight,” quite possibly put hip-hop on the map as it was the first rap song to enter the Top 40 in the Billboard Hot 100.
The group notably formed in 1979, and all original members – Michael “Wonder Mike” Wright, Henry “Big Bank Hank” Jackson, Guy “Master Gee” O’Brien, and Henry “Hen Dogg” Williams – were born and raised right here in Englewood, New Jersey. They are the one and only, and although the group disbanded in 1985, their reformation in 1994 proved their timelessness as much as it did their originality.
Hip-hop was legitimately born with The Sugarhill Gang. People were ready to retire disco when 1979 came along, and for the then-new five-piece, the transition they wanted to take with their music came pretty easily. It all started with “Rapper’s Delight.”
“It was the simplest thing ever done,” Wonder Mike admits about writing and recording their history-defining single releases. “We listened to the song until 3:00 a.m. until everybody went home. I had a pretty good ear for music. The entire globe hadn’t heard anything like this before and the lyrics were catchy. We are here 45 years later and still get bombarded with calls for us to perform.”
The rap group were on the cusp on something big, obviously, but still thought the song was going to be a regional hit, as it was being played only in the Northeast at first. “I thought ‘Rapper’s Delight’ was going to be a tri-state area thing. WKTU played it first. WBLS wouldn’t play it. You have to look at it as the perspective that rap music was not the most accepted form of music in 1979. The only people who were smart enough to deal with hip-hop were people who were savvy enough to understand that was the thing at the time,” says Master Gee. “You can’t even turn on the radio without hearing a rap song nowadays.”
Eventually, after the song took over the nation as a whole, The Sugarhill Gang were hit with some lawsuits from Nile Rogers and Grandmaster Kaz, but there are no regrets. “It is what it is,” Master Gee says about the speedbumps in their heyday. “You have to remember that we were the first of our kind on a commercial level in music and entertainment. We are what the world that has gauged this art form by. We are who we are today as a result of ‘Rapper’s Delight.'”
He adds, “We didn’t pay our dues before our career. We had to pay for them after. It was a perfect storm – from the music, the lyrics, and the personalities. We always had to try to deal with immediate notoriety and awareness of who we are.”
The band was truly the first of its kind, and, just like The Beatles, they had their fair share of notoriety as soon as their hit song hit major airwaves. This is not lost on Wonder Mike who shares, “The ironic thing is in 1964 when the Beatles came out, it was different, but 15 years later girls were screaming for us just like how they screamed for the Beatles.”
Hen Dogg is quick to explain that their appeal had to do with being the ones who broke new ground: “There was never another rap group at the time, so our influences were Marvin Gaye and Earth, Wind & Fire.”
In 1985 the group split up due to unforeseen circumstances, and because the genre was changing, as well. “All this new hip-hop was coming out and it was slick. Next thing you know our conga player wrote ‘The Message’ and that changed hip-hop forever. Boundaries changed, but then that record changed everything,” explains Wonder Mike.
“By 1985, I realized things weren’t as exactly as I thought they should be just by osmosis. I couldn’t fix what was going on and the dimension of hip-hop was not what it had become. In the nineties it became television, commercials, movies. In 1985, you made a record and you toured. I made a decision that I didn’t want to continue on at the label and disbanded the group,” says Master Gee. However, The Sugarhill Gang reunited in 1994 and have been together since – touring, writing, and recording (including a hip-hop record for kids in 1999.)
In 2014, one of the original and founding members of the group passed away; Henry “Big Bank Hank” Jackson was a force to be reckoned with as he shined in the group with his sharp vocals.
“Hank was the biggest cat that I ever knew. We recorded a song ‘Living in the Fast Lane,’ and from up to that point Hank could not write a lyric – it took him three days to put down 16 bars. One thing about Hank, though? You knew his voice when he came on that microphone. He lit up the whole studio. He always nailed his performance,” says Master Gee. “He was a different person altogether. He was genuine and would give you the shirt off his back, but he could tell a tale” adds Hen Dogg.
The band looks back on the neighborhood in Englewood, New Jersey, where they grew up and still hold a special place for it . “It’s changed,” Master Gee admits. “It’s another world now. There was a Blimpie’s at the corner and now there are condos on top of the thing…. The only thing that is constant is change.”
Things have changed for the rap legends themselves, as well, especially as they continue doing what they love. “We got grandchildren, we are in control of our business, we are friends and have been friends. The only thing that remains the same is that we could do our magic act all over the world.” However, hip-hop is more tangible nowadays than ever before. “It’s much more attainable for wealth now – ten times over than when we first started,” continues Master Gee.
“Life is cyclical and so is music. It started out with our style, and it got a little rougher and more graphic. It never stops changing,” says Wonder Mike. “It changes with the generation, too,” Hen Dogg notes. “Maybe it will change in another 10 years. What we are fortunate about is that ‘Rapper’s Delight’ is always in demand and we give the crowds 110%.”
Rap, hip-hop, and all the sub-categories that have come out of such are not a trend. The Sugarhill Gang proved that. You shouldn’t expect to see these guys to slow down after 45 years in this game either, because like Hen Dogg said, they’re always giving fans their all.
“We are always in a town near you. I have a nationally syndicated radio show called Master Gee Theater. We have a new album coming out. We have opportunities for television and film projects,” says Master Gee. “Now that rap music has many dimensions, we are fortunate to be catching up to the curb.”
Today, the Sugarhill Gang look back fondly at the genre they created and are continuously proud of. As groundbreaking and revolutionary as the genre was in 1979, much of it is because of “Rapper’s Delight,” which was (and will always be) a hip-hop staple. “We can’t help the status and history of ‘Rapper’s Delight’ has. People remember where they were the first time that they heard it,” says Wonder Mike. And as for what Master Gee hopes is their legacy 45 years after becoming the forefathers of rap and kickstarters of hip-hop, he says, “I think one of the things we want to be remembered for is for being a group that gave the people that the people gave us. At the end of the day, it’s because of them that I can rock with my brothers.”
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