“Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang is widely considered to be the first commercially successful rap record. Released in 1979, the hit single peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, a groundbreaking feat for hip-hop. Chances are you’ve heard the song at some point or another. If not, take a listen now:
Although “Rapper’s Delight” undeniably helped popularize rap as a genre, the jury’s still out as far as what the first actual rap song was. The Fatback Band’s “King Tim III (Personality Jock)” predates “Rapper’s Delight” by a couple of months and certainly qualifies as rap, but earlier examples have been suggested. While we’re on the subject of juries, now would be as good a time as any to bring up comedian Pigmeat Markham’s 1968 record “Here Come the Judge,” which definitely has an early hip-hop vibe to it. Check it out for yourself below.
We can take it even further back than that. There’s at least one prior recording of what sounds like somebody rapping, and it comes to us courtesy of yet another comedian. The song in question was a novelty version of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” recorded in 1954 by Art Carney, best known today for playing Ed Norton on The Honeymooners. Try telling us this doesn’t immediately make you think of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme:
So, can we officially credit Carney here with being a pioneer of what became known as rap music? Well, this is where things start to get debatable. Does it count if it’s a cover song, or does that make it more of a remix? Then there’s the matter of an old gospel group by the name of the Jubalaires, who put out a song called “Noah” in 1946. At the one-minute and 35-second mark below, vocalist Ted Brooks can be heard singing in a manner that some might describe as rapping:
However, it should be noted that the song above is devoid of a drumbeat, which is an essential element of a rap record. It can also be argued that the Jubalaires sound very much of their time, whereas the Carney song sounds like it could’ve been recorded decades later. We’ll leave it up to you to decide who the first rapper was, but one thing’s for sure: The idea of “rapping to the beat” was around way before the Sugarhill Gang came along.
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