Rapper's Delight Delights Me, Still

It's 1980. I'm twelve and at a middle school dance. The DJ plays a song I've never heard before.

It opens with eight long measures of percussion atop the bass. At measure five, clapping comes in. A tantalizing synth zooms in from outer space and back out again. Then come the words:

I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie, to the hip hip hop-a you don't stop the rock it to the bang-bang boogie say up jump the biggie to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.

-The opening lyrics to Rapper's Delight by The Sugarhill Gang

This thing.

Still gives me chills.

_____

Rapper's Delight was the first rap song I'd ever heard – the first super quick words and rhyme conveying story you hope to catch but it goes by too quickly, so you have to hope it comes on the radio again soon, and that you'll have your cassette player in hand ready to hit "record" the minute it comes on. Some of you remember what I'm talking about.

In those years, I lived in a community outside Washington D.C. that was quite diverse, which was so important for my developing identity as a Black and biracial child. But that experience would be short lived, because Daddy worked for President Carter and Reagan beat Carter later that fall. So when Daddy lost his job my folks decided we'd move to Wisconsin the following summer. As I packed up my bedroom, I sealed up Rapper's Delight in a box with other records. I also carried it with me to the midwest in my bones.

We moved 800 miles north and west, and I began my freshman year in a high school of about 1,200 kids, almost all of whom were white. My new friends listened to artists like The Cars, Journey, Duran Duran, Davie Bowie, Blondie, Cyndi Lauper, Soft Cell, Simple Minds, Talking Heads, Tears for Fears, The Police, and The Cure. But occasionally in the soundscape of my midwestern town I'd catch a sliver of The Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight on the airwaves, and when I did, it beckoned me. It said This music is here, baby, don't forget it. Don't forget how it makes you feel.

_____

So imagine my delight when a few years back I was browsing online and saw the opening lyrics to Rapper's Delight laid out as a poster you could hang on a wall. Oooh, I said in a text to Dan with the link. We need this. We have a lot of art in our yard and I thought we might add these words to our eclectic outdoor mix. Dan, who is an artist and works with metal, thought about making the poster into a metal sign. Ultimately we decided that a painted sign on the side of the house was the way to go.

For my Christmas present in 2019, Dan told me he'd hired a sign painter. The pandemic slowed the process down. But before long, two humans came and painted these glorious lyrics in a sign that is eleven-feet-tall on the side of our house directly across from my outdoor writing pod where I write these thoughts down for you.

I truly love these words, and I'm proud to wear them on my house. So, I was a tad embarrassed when I learned that The Sugarhill Gang weren't necessarily the dope dudes I'd thought they were.

You see, mid-pandemic, I was settled in with Dan and our son Sawyer to watch the Netflix documentary "Hip Hop Evolution," which featured incredible original footage of artists and producers cutting tracks in basements and backyards, spinning records for hungry dancers in clubs, and selling mix tapes on the street. It also offered fascinating interviews and biographies of key players involved with the origin of hip hop.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that The Sugarhill Gang were actually not the scrappy visionaries that I'd thought they were. That instead, a shrewd producer named Sylvia Robinson – who wanted to capitalize on the tremendous popularity of this new method and flavor of music by bringing it to pop audiences – decided to cherry-pick a group of musicians and form them into a group of her making, for the sole purpose of writing Rapper's Delight. Robinson succeeded. Rapper's Delight became the first rap single to become a Billboard Top 40 hit. So while yes, The Sugarhill Gang came out of hip hop's inaugural era in the 1970s, they were a facsimile, a re-production, of the real thing. These dudes and this song were thought to be marketable to the pop audience. And, they were. And well, that's how the song found little old me.

Hence my feeling a tad of embarrassment. Meaning, I thought I'd loved hip hop from the start. I've come to realize that I liked the candied version of it that was meant to appeal to the masses. Kinda like liking the Americanized version of Chinese Food. Or even American cheese.

But you know what? To hell with that – fact is, I loved it. It spoke to me when I was twelve and it found me across the airwaves when I needed it and it speaks to me still! 🎤 🤎

_____

Are there any lyrics you'd paint on a wall to remind you of something that deeply matters? If so, what are they? Share in the comments below!

🏚You've been in Julie's Pod, an online community of over 11,000 subscribers. If you aren't already one of them, well what are you waiting for 🤣 Sign up. (It's free!) You can take care of that here. Julie's Pod is made up of folks who know that by opening up and getting vulnerable about what's up with us, we grow and help others do the same. The community has grown because readers like you simply share a post with a friend. So, if you know someone who should read this post, please share it by clicking here.

📝 If you left a comment on any post before today, whether here or on social media, I've probably responded, and I always appreciate what you have to say even if I may feel differently. Please feel welcome to join the conversation. I want you to. We need to get MUCH better at being cordial and thoughtful in response to what other people have to say, while also articulating our own truths. This is a good place to practice.

☎️ For those who can't comment publicly, no worries. I've set up the hotline 1-877-HI-JULIE where you can leave an anonymous voicemail to let me know what's on your mind. I respond to these calls most Mondays live on my Facebook page at noon Pacific Time (while keeping the caller's identity private).

💰 I was just at a Palo Alto City Council meeting where we learned that the city desperately needs a business tax in order to fund more affordable housing, safer train crossings, and enhancements to public safety, but the wealthy local businesses are saying 1) they can't afford it and 2) they're going to throw all their money at an effort to defeat the city's business tax proposal. Are you kidding me, capitalism?! 🤑 Did I mention I'm running for local office to take on stuff like this?

🎁 If you've read this far, you are definitely entitled to a free "Julie's Pod" sticker for your laptop, phone, or water bottle courtesy of me and the U.S. Postal Service. Just DM me your snail mail address (or if you don't know how to DM a person, just email me@lythcott-haims.com). I promise to toss your snail mail address in the trash as soon as I pop the sticker in the mail to you!

👋🏽 If you're interested in learning more about me and my work, please follow me @jlythcotthaims on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and/or TikTok and check out my website. If you're interested in supporting my campaign for Palo Alto City Council (my response to the shards of glass all around us in America) you can do that here.

📸 Cover Photo Credit: Getty Images/Michael Loccasino

@ 2022 Love Over Time LLC All Rights Reserved