Rapper's Delight

Yesterday evening while running some pool errands (skimmer, floaties, thermeter - I don't think it will ever end), I was listening to Super Shuffle on Sirius satellite radio. Its a cool station in that you can hear everything from 80's Ozzy to today's Hinder to Country to Rapper's Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang. If you're unfamiliar with that song, its the one the the old lady sings at her anniversary during The Wedding Singer (she nailed it). To wit --

i said a hip hop the hippie the hippie

to the hip hip hop, a you dont stop

the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogie

to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.....

Anyway, while I'm sure there were many predecessors, I remember it being the first rap song that I ever really heard.

The scene was 10th grade Algebra II, 1982, and my teacher was an absolute music nut. We used to see her (probably then 40) at all the concerts we went to, such as Ozzy, Krokus, Aerosmith, Billy Squier, etc. etc. She had also seen the Beatles and Stones live which we thought was the coolest thing.

In this class, there was a very tall, gangly kid who was white, if it matters. For the most part he was pretty quiet and bored with the class but when he spoke up it was usually something hysterical that was said. He sat in the back and one day was quietly singing Rapper's Delight to his buddy as class was filing in before it actually began.

The teacher heard him and was intrigued. I remember the quick staccato style and beat box delivery and thinking how strange, yet cool, it sounded. Apparently, she did too. So she asked him, knowing he was a ham, to come up front and belt it out. He did without hesitation and it was pretty cool. He was VERY good.

Anyway, upon hearing the song yesterday in its entirety, its seems to me rap hasn't changed all that much. Its sampled over Chic's Good Times which I knew was an existing song, but googling it taught me the name of it and the band. It also featured, which is still prevalent in today's rap, tons of talk in the first person (amazing how many songs are in the second person - is that pretty much the only genre in the second person?), word spelling, copious beat and lots of self glorification (check it out here). I can't remember if there was scratching, though.

It was interesting to hear it again and I truly like the song as well as many other rap songs, albeit the pop-friendly ones. There's something about creatively sampling songs, or even covering them, that I find really cool. While I can't get too into the gangster stuff or degrading of women songs I certainly don't mind a listen when a good one comes on.

Give it a listen if you haven't heard it in a long time. I think you, too, may see how much it has influenced today's rap/pop music.

This concludes today's history lesson. Class dismissed.