Rapper's Delight takes rap music global

October 1979: Number 5 in our series of the 50 key events in the history of R&B and hip-hop musicFamously, the first hip-hop single wasn't actually the first. Rapper's Delight, the Sugarhill Gang's 15 minutes of fame, was beaten to shops by King Tim III (Personality Jock), the B-side of a Fatback Band 12-inch. But it was Rapper's Delight – a debut both for hip-hop's first imprint and its eponymous group – that sent this new music around the world, a global audience forever associating this ...

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