Song · Sugarhill Gang
“Rapper's Delight” by Sugarhill Gang
From the EP The Great Rap Hits (1980)
“Rapper's Delight” by Sugarhill Gang appears on 7 radio countdowns from 5 stations between 2014 and 2026. It was first released in 1980 on the EP The Great Rap Hits. Its best result is #138 on the 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,209 indie & aaa song of all time, #167 of the '70s and #490 of the '80s.
Watch
Video from YouTube (Sugarhill Records). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Rapper's Delight" was the Sugarhill Gang's first single, a 1979 release on Sugar Hill Records with Sylvia Robinson producing, and it's the record that first carried rap to a mass audience. The Fatback Band's "King Tim III" got there a whisker earlier, but this is the one that broke through, and the trio did it in a single take.
The groove comes straight from Chic's "Good Times", which brought Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards around threatening a lawsuit and ended with the pair added to the songwriting credits; a piece of Love De-Luxe's "Here Comes That Sound Again" is in the mix too. The rhymes roll on loose and easy, and the beat never lets up. The Library of Congress put it in the National Recording Registry in 2011, and the Grammy Hall of Fame took it in 2014.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 550 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2014) | 885 |
| 2018 | 453 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs | 892 |
| 2020 | 550 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2021 | 138 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s | 909 |
| 2022 | 168 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2022 | 184 | KEXP | KEXP Top Songs of the Last 50 Years (1972-2022) | 491 |
| 2026 | 948 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about "Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.