The Best of Sugarhill Gang [Rhino] (CD - 1996)

Additional personnel: The Furious Five, Kory-O (vocals).

Producers include: Sylvia Inc., Joey Robinson Jr., Larry Johnson, Michael Johnson, Jigsaw Prod. Inc.

Compilation producers: David McLees, Shannita Williams-Alleyne.

Includes liner notes by Shannita Williams-Alleyne.

Personnel: Pete Wingfield (keyboards, background vocals).

Audio Remasterers: Chris Clarke; Dan Hersch.

Liner Note Author: Shannita Williams-Alleyne.

Contrary to popular belief, the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" was not the first rap song. For much of the world, however, it represented the first exposure to the burgeoning style, consisting of stripped-down backbeats, sampled music clips, and half-spoken/half-sung rhymed vocals from performers known as MCs. And a fine introduction it was--over the eminently danceable bass line from Chic's "Good Times," rappers Wonder Mike, Master Gee, and Big Bank Hank laid down a rotating round of infectious, witty, quick-tongued raps. The hip-hop nation was born.

Rhino's best-of compilation brings together 10 additional tracks by the Sugarhill Gang, including the hits "8th Wonder" and "Apache." Like the breakthrough single, these tunes borrowed instrumental lines from popular songs and featured ebullient, call-and-response, party-minded raps, introducing a host of catch phrases and motifs that would become common currency for the next several decades. Though the Sugarhill Gang was never as innovative as contemporaries Grandmaster Flash or Afrika Bambaataa, they nevertheless opened the floodgates to one of the most powerful and popular musical styles of the 20th century. The definitive RAPPER'S DELIGHT reads like a blueprint for the genre. minimize