The Greatest Rap Group (And Record) of All Time

This is my view on the greatest rap group - who also had the greatest rap record - of all time: The Sugarhill Gang. They're the group that really made rap into a mainstream music form and had the first bona fide hit rap record.

 

Rap's Greatest Group: The Sugarhill Gang

They weren’t the first rappers. They weren’t the first rap group. They didn’t even make the first rap song. What they did, however, was put rap on the map.

When The Sugarhill Gang released their single Rapper’s Delight in 1979, rap (or hip hop, as it’s known now) was considered a fad. It was the hula hoop of the music industry: it might attract a few ardent admirers, but it didn’t have any staying power. It wasn’t a threat to more traditional or established forms of music, so there weren’t a lot of people really following it. Nevertheless, Rapper’s Delight went on to become a Top 40 single – the first rap song to achieve that accomplishment. Moreover, it become a worldwide hit. Needless to say, the Sugarhill Gang – made up of members Master Gee, Big Bank Hang, and Wonder Mike – became household names.

Of course, it’s not just the success of the record that makes The Sugarhill Gang the greatest rap group in history. It’s really the impact. As stated, no one really cared about rap and rap acts prior to the release of Rapper’s Delight. However, the group’s success proved both the broad-based appeal and staying power of the genre. In other words, The Sugarhill Gang made rap a viable and successful (not to mention profitable) music form that the recording industry suddenly had to take note of. Rap acts suddenly began getting signed to major labels, and the rest is history. But the Sugarhill Gang is the reason that history exists.

 

Rap's Greatest Song: Rapper's Delight

I was tempted to put the opening lyrics to Rapper’s Delight here, but honestly, is there anybody on the planet who doesn’t know those words? If so, there's a youtube link below, but it is unquestionably the greatest rap song of all time. It was released in 1979, at a juncture when rap wasn’t even fully established a a music genre. And yet, this single essentially came out of nowhere and rocked the music industry back on its heels. The song became not just a hit in the U.S. (becoming the first rap single to crack the Top 40 at #36), but around the globe, becoming a worldwide phenomenon. It topped the charts in most places at either number #1 (e.g., the Canadian and Dutch charts) or #2 (for example, Norway and Sweden) – with the U.K. being a notable exception (#3).

Basically, the song introduced rap to the world at large and made music executives aware of a new genre that had appeal to far more than just a niche market. The success of the song opened doors to rap acts and prompted the promotion of rap music to put it on par with other respected music genres. But far more than the commercial success is the song’s sheer prevalence and longevity. Almost everybody has heard the song and knows the lyrics, which may be why even today – over 30 years after it’s release – the song is constantly used in various media such as television and films, and the lyrics are consistently used by other artists. That can be said of almost no other song in rap/hip hop, which is an industry that seems to pride itself on being all things fresh and current.

In short, 20 years from now, when all other rap songs are regularly forgetten a year or two after their release, people will still know the lyrics to Rapper’s Delight.

 

Honorable Mention

While I’ve stated my reasons for declaring the Sugarhill Gang and Rapper’s Delight the Greatest Rap Group and Record, respectively, of all time, there are some other indivudals and group who did their part, and I wouldn’t want to leave them completely unacknowledged. This list will not be all-inclusive (otherwise I’d be here all day), so I may continue to add to it as I update this lens. Moreover, these acts are in no particular order and some of them may even have come a little after the Sugarhill Gang’s heyday:

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Kurtis Blow
Run-DMC
Whodini

 

Rapper's Delight Lyrics

Okay, can you really have a discussion of Rapper’s Delight and not launch into the lyrics just a little bit? Unfortunately, I don't want the headache that goes along with using song lyrics in even a non-commercial context, so - if you're interested - you can find them here.

What's Wrong With "Empire"

For a guy who's from the hood, I've done a lot of un-hood shit in my time: gone to see musicals, taken a cooking class, even gotten a mani-pedi.  (Okay, that mani-pedi was the bomb, I don't care what anyone says!)  Usually, whenever I did stuff like this, there was a girl involved. (What - you thought I just busted up into a spa on my own and asked them if they could squeeze me in for  a facial?) 

 

Most fellas out there will understand what I'm talking about - you end up doing a lot of crap that's contrary to your nature simply because your girlfriend's into it.  It's kind of like that scene in Pulp Fiction, where Samuel L. Jackson's character says that his old lady's a vegetarian, which essentially means that he's one, too.

 

Anyway, one of the many un-hood things I did back in the day because of girls was watch soap operas.  Yes, the Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, Erica Kane-is-getting-married-again? type soaps. One thing I could always count on with those were absurd plots, over-the-top characters, and just plain-ole batshit antics across the board.

 

And what does all this have to do with Empire?  In my opinion, Empire - in just its sophomore season - has morphed into a nighttime soap.

 

First of all, let me say that I've been a fan of Empire since it premiered earlier this year on Fox, and no one was happier than I was to see it turn into a ratings juggernaut.  The show was a rare combination of intricate storytelling and compelling characters that merged into an irresistible drama. Now it's turning into a throwback to the 1980's, even to the extent of copying the star-of-the-week formula, a la The Love Boat (eg, Chris Rock, Ludacris, etc.).

 

So what's gone wrong?  How did a show with so much going for it suddenly start to nosedive?  And nosedive it has, with ratings - although still strong - steadily decreasing week after week. (Oddly enough, I knew just on gut instinct that the numbers had to be down because each episode of the show seemed less enjoyable than the last.  It was only when I actually did a little research today that I found my suspicions confirmed.) Personally, I think there are couple areas we can point to, but let's start with the characters, who have become deeply flawed, conceptually, in my opinion.

 

Take Andre, for instance.  He has supposedly found his faith, but spends the first couple of episodes begging Lucious to let him come back in out of the rain. To me, that's in direct contradiction of a man who's found GOD. If he truly has the Almighty in his life, then he doesn't need Lucious. I think it would have been more in keeping with his newfound faith (and provided a better storyline) if he had simply walked away after Lucious stiff-armed him.  Then, it could have been Lucious running to Andre and begging him to come back after realizing that only his eldest son has the know-how, savvy and connections to run Empire from a financial perspective.

 

On a side note, I have to admit I like Andre's wife; she is straight up ride-or-die.  To be honest, though, when the show premiered and they revealed that Andre was bipolar, I wasn't sure if she was real (or just a figment of his imagination) for the first couple of episodes because initially they didn't show her interacting with anyone other than him.  Right now she's being used merely as a plot device for the Anika storyline, but hopefully that will change soon because I could easily see them writing her out of the show.

 

Speaking of Anika, this is another character that they've done weird things with.  In the first season she was confident and smart - a woman strong enough to (a) go toe-to-toe with Cookie (although that raises the question of how smart she is after all), and (b) walk away from Lucious when she realized he was a scoundrel. She was also a competent A&R exec with her own stable of artists that she had developed. Now she's seemingly gone batshit crazy - over Hakeem, no less (who's really an immature punk, if we're being honest) - and has seemingly lost everything.  My impression from Season 1 was that she could have taken her artists and gone to just about any record label out there. It's hard to reconcile that earlier character with this woman who's now putting on blond wigs, pretending to be a chauffeur, and doing a bunch of other crap that is inconsistent with the Anika the show originally presented.

 

Next, the storyline has dipped from absurd into the plain stupid.  I mean, would you really place the badly-decomposed body of a murdered man into the car of a federal prosecutor (especially one looking to send you up the river)? That's just another crime that they'll eventually try to pin on Lucious, because there's no way an autopsy is going to say Vernon died of natural causes.  And Cookie in a gorilla suit? What the hell was that about? I could go on, but why bother?  It's just depressing as hell... 

 

More to the point, there's no central theme with respect to the plot. In the first season, it was all about Lucious' illness and the need to pick a successor; just about everything circled around that motif. Now, there's nothing; the show just seems to be randomly drifting along, staggering around aimlessly like a zombie from The Walking Dead.

 

The are other issues that could be singled out for discussion, but this is enough for now. All in all, while the show is still doing well enough in the ratings to survive, it has clearly made several missteps in a very short period of time, all of which begs the question: has the show jumped the shark already?  I could point to a dozen things - several of which have already been mentioned - that could be construed as jumping the shark: the gorilla suit gag; planting Vernon's body in the prosecutor's car; Anika playing dress-up.  It's just sad that the show, with so much potential and such tremendous talent (both in front of and behind the camera) has seemingly lost its way this early in its life cycle.  Hopefully someone will find a way to right the ship soon, before they crash into the rocks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My First Gritty Urban Blog Post

This blog was originally intended to be a forum where I talk about my attempts to write novels in the gritty urban genre.  However, knowing myself, I can almost promise that I will be writing about almost anything that occurs to me. Hopefully it will at least be entertaining (and connected to the concept of "urban" in some way), but - as one man's meat is another man's poison - I can't even promise that.

 

As to my books, I've actually started writing a few of them and also have some covers picked out.  I still need to work on the beginning, middle and end of each one, but other than that I'm all set.  I just need to hit "publish"...  :>)

 

Seriously though, this is going to be an interesting endeavor for me. I'm looking forward to not just sharing my stories here, but also my ideas and opinions about various topics.  Keep your fingers crossed that it all turns out well.