I think a funny thing about rappers delight for me is that I didn't hear it until, you know, well into hip-hop fandom in part because, you know, I was born a few years after it came out.

And when I came into loving rap music, it was the early 90s, most prominently. And it just wasn't a part of the dialogue and the place I was at.

You know, my family didn't play it.

My brother was very, my oldest brother was very much old school hip-hop had who did not listen to Sugar Hill gang.

You know, like many people, the song was the song.

And after that, they kind of faded.

But it wasn't a big, it wasn't really in my orbit. So the single Rappers Delight came out in the Biggie to the Buckees, say,

I'll jump the bookie to the bang bang, bang, bluish, let's rock.

You don't stop, rock the rhythm that I make your body rock.

So the single Rappers Delight came out in 1979, but the full-length album that hosted that single came out early in 1980.

Sugar Hill Gang, in a lot of ways, actually, was probably ill-equipped to make a full album.

And so that is why I think it's important to talk about the merits of the album in terms of

importance instead of quality, because while they were not necessarily equipped to create an album of

rapping, they kind of had to, you know, at the start of many evolutions,

is kind of just someone who is willing to fall on the grenade, so to speak,

and kind of step out into some uncharted territory

and make something that shows other people that it can be done.

In preparation for this piece, I knew I had to reach out to Dart Adams, who's a hip-hop historian.

He is just an encyclopedia of knowledge.

And, you know, someone I think I often turn to

when I want to ask the question of okay is this history as I remember it correct or am I just

remembering it the way I want to remember it you know and the conversation with dart will be

...