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Monday, January 7, 2013

206 Sugarhill Gang Regrets

Posted by on Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 12:23 PM

From the current regrets issue:

Charles Mudede, associate editor of The Stranger, regrets that I Want My Name Back, a documentary about the most important piece of music in the history of hiphop, "Rapper's Delight," was only attended by one person during its entire run at Northwest Film Forum. Can you believe that? Out of the 600,000 individuals in this rappity rap city, only one cared enough to watch a movie about the founding document of hiphop.
Anybody rapping today owes a serious debt to the Sugarhill Gang. Their "Rapper's Delight" broke hiphop right out of the ghetto and made it commercially viable. As I wrote in my review:
It is by no means unreasonable to argue that if "Rapper's Delight" had not been recorded, hiphop would have briefly lived and quietly died in the confines of NYC's metropolitan area. The event of "Rapper's Delight" transmitted this unknown and radically new urban culture across the entire surface of this world.
And yet, only one person in our big city took the time to watch this documentary—a documentary about the rise and fall of the men who introduced hiphop to millions. Only! One! Person!

 

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So was it you?
Posted by tired and true on January 7, 2013 at 3:04 PM
kamsbry 2
Wish I had known it was playing. I would have totally gone. I found that record in a storage room of a house we moved into when I was 12. Totally changed my whole perspective on music. At the time in suburban Portland you could not have heard Sugarhill Gang anywhere else.
Posted by kamsbry on January 8, 2013 at 9:39 AM

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