The Woman Behind ‘Rapper’s Delight’

The single “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang was the first rap song to be commercially recognized as a hit record. The woman who made it all possible was Sylvia Robinson, a former R&B singer before co-founding Sugar Hill Records with her husband, Joe.

In search of avoiding bankruptcy due to pending lawsuits, Robinson took a risk of bringing music that was only played in clubs to the radio. At the time, DJ’s who spoke over methodical beats drew the crowd’s attention normally getting a positive response.

Seeing this appreciation for club-goers, Robinson assorted a random conglomerate of rappers and thus formed the Sugarhill Gang. Although only hitting number 36 on the U.S. pop charts, “Rapper’s Delight” was the first rap ever recorded on vinyl.

Regardless of being the first rap song, Sugarhill Gang still boasted of their material wealth, high fashion, and superiority over others.

 “ya see i got more clothes than muhammad ali                                                                                                                         and i dress so viciously
i got bodyguards, i got two big cars
that definitely aint the wack”

Unlike the gangster rap, “Rapper’s Delight” didn’t use vulgar language, but started showing early signs of misogyny to come in hip-hop. One line insinuates that if a woman refuses a man’s advance on her; go for her friend.

“Everybody go, hotel motel holiday inn
Say if your girl starts actin up,                                                                                                                                                 Then you take her friend”

Prior to running a record label, Robinson saw herself at the top of the Billboard’s R&B singles chart claiming the number one spot with her song “Love Is Strange.” The song became a crowd favorite after being featured in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing.

After taking up song writing, Robinson almost sold a hit record to gospel singer, Al Green, who denied it to avoid hurting his image as a religious man. So, Robinson decided to record it herself.

The provocative single “Pillow Talk” represented woman’s desire to be loved and their ability to freely express themselves regardless of what others try to tell them.

“Ooh, I don’t wanna see you be no fool
What I’m teachin’ you tonight, boy, you’ll never learn it in school, oh, no
So friends who tell me wrong from right
I’ll ask to borrow their pants some cold and lonely night”

Robinson would later sign Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to the label and helped produce the 1982 single “The Message.” The song was detrimental in creating the foundation for the gangster rap during the late 1980’s selling more than 8 million copies.

During the opening lines of the song, Grandmaster Flash compares the lifestyle of a ghetto to a jungle.

“It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under”

 Grandmaster Flash goes on to list all the problems in the ghetto describing all the poverty, lack of education, filth, drugs, and prostitution that infested and deteriorated ghettos.  He also describes his attempt to get away from this lifestyle.

“Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far…

She went to the city and got social security
She had to get a pimp, she couldn't make it on her own …

Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
I can't take the train to the job, there's a strike at the station “

Suffering from cancer, Sylvia Robinson died in 2000 and is still considered as the “mother of hip-hop.”

Resources:

Hobson, Janell "Can't Stop the Women of Hip-Hop." Ms. Magazine 24 Feb. 2011,

McKinley Jr., James C. "Sylvia Robinson, Pioneering Producer of Hip-Hop, Is Dead at 75." The New York Times 30 Sep. 2011.