RIP: Big Bank Hank of the Sugarhill Gang Is Dead at 57

Sad to read that Henry Jackson (Big Bank Hank) died today at 57 in New York after a battle with cancer. While many people credit Blondie with having the first rap song to cross over, the Sugarhill Gang's 1979 single "Rapper's Delight" eked its way into the Top 40 in early 1980, peaking at 36 and paving the way for the music we know today. Read about the song's fascinating pedigree below.

Via Wikipedia:

In late 1978, Debbie Harry suggested that Chic's Nile Rodgers join her and Chris Stein at a hip hop event, which at the time was a communal space taken over by teenagers with boombox stereos playing various pieces of music that performers would break dance to. Rodgers experienced this event the first time himself at a high school in the Bronx. On September 20, 1979 and September 21, 1979, Blondie and Chic were playing concerts with The Clash in New York at The Palladium. When Chic started playing "Good Times", rapper Fab Five Freddy and the members of the Sugarhill Gang ("Big Bank Hank" Jackson, Mike Wright, and "Master Gee" O'Brien), jumped up on stage and started freestyling with the band. A few weeks later Rodgers was on the dance floor of New York club Leviticus and heard the DJ play a song which opened with Bernard Edwards' bass line from Chic's "Good Times". Rodgers approached the DJ who said he was playing a record he had just bought that day in Harlem. The song turned out to be an early version of "Rapper's Delight," which also included a scratched version of the song's string section. Rodgers and Edwards immediately threatened legal action over copyright, which resulted in a settlement and their being credited as co-writers.[3] Rodgers admitted that he was originally upset with the song, but would later declare it to be "one of his favorite songs of all time" and his favorite of all the tracks that sampled Chic (although it wasn't sampled, but was interpolated)[4] He also stated that "as innovative and important as 'Good Times' was, 'Rapper's Delight' was just as much, if not more so.".[5]