The transformation of rap to a commercial genre, was highly influenced by Sylvia
Robinson and The Sugarhill Gang. Before Sugarhill Gang, rap wasn’t truly considered to be a
commercial genre, in large part due to it being an art form always experienced live. The most
solidified people in the emerging genre, such as Grandmaster Flash and Kool Herc chose not to
sign to a record deal, since they already had a constant stream of money from hosting live
shows. This changed however, when Sylvia Robinson wandered upon the MC to be known as
Big Bank Hank rapping along to a cassette of GMC. Since she was looking to sign a rap group,
she offered him and two other MC’s Wonder Mike and Master Gee a record deal. When they
accepted and got their newly recorded single “Rapper’s Delight” on the radio and hot 100 list, it
sparked many different reactions. Since rap wasn’t widely unknown outside of New York, this
was many people’s first introduction to Hip-Hop, resulting in nearly everyone liking it. When
other more previously successful people heard it, they were awestruck, viewing this new single
as corny. Essentially, Sugarhill Gang sparked the transition of Hip-Hop being a live art form to a
genre that could be recorded, increasing the opportunity to earn money from this “newfound”
genre. This also led to a necessary change in the relationship between the Dj and the MC.
The dynamics between the DJ and the rapper evolved significantly once Hip-Hop began
to make its appearance around the world. Before the recording of rap, The disk-jockey was the
main attraction of the party while the MC’s were viewed as more of a filler and crowd engager.
When you examine many rap groups of this era, such as Audio Two, Eric B and Rakim to
Grandmaster Flash and his MC’s, The DJ was often regarded as the most significant
component of the song. Once this change between DJs and MC’s took place however, many
upcoming rap groups didn’t even have a designated DJ, opting for producers, such as RZA of
The Wu-Tang and The Sugarhill Gang with Robinson.
The switch between live dj-ing to sample based production was a significant turning point
in Hip-Hop history. While working with Sugarhill Gang, Robinson decided to loop certain parts of
a song, turning Rapper’s Delight into a sample-based song, incorporating loops. As Kajikawa
stated in “Sounding Race” this was essentially the translation of Grandmaster Flash’s quick mix
theory (looping breaks using two of the same record) into the studio. This brought out a certain
smoothness previously unseen with no scratches or sharp transitions between breaks that was
relatively commonplace after the recording of Rapper's Delight. This looping of small parts of a
song lets the MC’s make more complex rhyme schemes and craft longer narratives due to a
more predictable pattern and precision of the beat's timing.
My last summary paragraph focuses on two individuals who are considered early founders of
the early Hip-Hop movement. Clyde, who is widely regarded as Hip-Hop's founding father, better
known as Kool Herc began to host parties with his sister Cindy Campbell, upon which he would
spin records for people to dance along to. After a couple parties, he realized people especially
liked certain sections of the records, which he called breaks, as a result, he would pick up the
needle and drop it back on the estimated start of the break, repeating the break section of the
record as many times as he chose to. Grandmaster Flash took this idea one step further by
setting up two turntables with the same record playing on both of them. He would mark the start
of a break using a crayon and let it spin while rewinding the other record, so you would always
have one of the two records playing the break section. This was a much smoother way of
playing the breaks that ever found before, with no gap time between breaks and more precise
placements of where the breaks started.
