Rappin' Down Town
''Rappin' Down Town'' is the third album from New York City-based rap/ hip hop group The Sugarhill Gang. Released in 1983, this album includes the minor R&B hits "The Lover in You" and "The Word is Out." The final three tracks on the album would also appear on the band's next album, '' Livin' in the Fast Lane'', the following year, with "Kick it Live" becoming a moderate hit. Background The Sugarhill Gang's debut single "Rapper's Delight" has been said to popularize rap music and bring the genre into mainstream music in America. ''Rappin' Down Town'' was the third album the group recorded and Reached Number #90 on the R&B chart. Track listing #"The Lover in You" (Pete Wingfield, Sylvia Robinson) (6:52) #"The Word is Out" ( Bernard Alexander, Doug Wimbish, Guy O'Brien, Henry Jackson, Michael Wright, Robinson) (5:40) #"Winner Is" (Wimbish, Skip McDonald) (6:48) #"Kick It Live from 9 to 5 (Michael Hepburn, Pleasure) (6:25) #"Space Race" (Wimbish, Ed Fletcher, McDonald) (7:41) # ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Sugarhill Gang
The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop trio. Their 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight" was the first rap single to become a top 40 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100; reaching a peak position of number 36 on January 12, 1980. This was the trio's only U.S. hit, though they did have further success in Europe until the mid-1980s. The trio reformed in 1994 and did a world tour in 2016. Formation and early years The members, all from Englewood, New Jersey, consisted of Michael "Wonder Mike" Wright, Henry "Big Bank Hank" Jackson, and Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien. The three were assembled into a group by producer Sylvia Robinson, who founded Sugar Hill Records with her husband, record producer Joe Robinson. The group and the record company were named after the Sugar Hill, Harlem, neighborhood. Their 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight" was the first rap single to become a top 40 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The group never had another U.S. hit, though it had multiple European hits, suc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Little Axe
Skip McDonald (born Bernard Alexander, September 1949) Allmusic biography/ref> is an American musician who also performs under the stage name Little Axe. Career Early career Grounded in blues music learned from his father, a steel worker who played blues guitar at weekends, McDonald spent his early days playing jazz, doo-wop, and gospel, and eventually relocated to New York City as a teenager with his band of friends, called The Entertainers. McDonald formed the group Wood Brass & Steel in 1973 with bass guitarist Doug Wimbish and drummer Harold Sargent. The group recorded two albums before their 1979 breakup. He then became part of the house band for Sugarhill Records and appeared as a session player on many early rap albums, including " The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. Post-Sugarhill After leaving Sugarhill, McDonald, Wimbish, and drummer Keith LeBlanc began working with Adrian Sherwood, and eventually formed the trio into the industrial/dub gro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Venus Dodson
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never far from the Sun, either as morning star or evening star. Aside from the Sun and Moon, Venus is the brightest natural object in Earth's sky, capable of casting visible shadows on Earth at dark conditions and being visible to the naked eye in broad daylight. Venus is the second largest terrestrial object of the Solar System. It has a surface gravity slightly lower than on Earth and has a very weak induced magnetosphere. The atmosphere of Venus, mainly consists of carbon dioxide, and is the densest and hottest of the four terrestrial planets at the surface. With an atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface of about 92 times the sea level pressure of Earth and a mean temperature of , the carbon dioxide gas at Venus's surface is in the sup ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ray, Goodman & Brown
Ray, Goodman & Brown is an American R&B vocal group. The group originated as The Moments, who formed in the mid-1960s and whose greatest successes came in the 1970s with hits including " Love on a Two-Way Street", "Sexy Mama", and " Look at Me (I'm in Love)". In 1978, they changed their name to Ray, Goodman & Brown and had further hits, including " Special Lady". The original Moments Early years The original members of the Moments were Eric Olfus Sr., Richard Gross (often incorrectly listed as "Richard Horsley"), and John Morgan. The Moments formed in Washington, D.C. during the mid-1960s. In 1965, at Washington D.C.'s Howard University, the Mizell Brothers and Freddie Perren (along with schoolmate Toby Jackson) founded Hog Records and signed the harmony group as the Moments. The Moments recorded "Baby I Want You" and "Pray for Me" for Hog. The lineup consisted of Olfus, Gross, and Morgan. Mark Greene joined after the single's release. The group then signed with the newly es ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Al Goodman (singer)
Willie Albert Goodman (March 31, 1943 – July 26, 2010) was an American singer and writer who performed as part of the musical trio Ray, Goodman & Brown, a group that was earlier called The Moments and was known for their songs "Love on a Two-Way Street", "Sexy Mama" and " Look at Me (I'm in Love)" as The Moments and later, " Special Lady" after changing their name to Ray, Goodman and Brown. Singing career Goodman was born on March 31, 1943, in Jackson, Mississippi and started singing a cappella doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ... while he was in high school. He headed to New York City at 19 and got a job with record producer Sylvia Robinson's All Platinum Records at her studio in Englewood, New Jersey, where Robinson first noticed him while he was singi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Duke Bootee
Edward Gernel Fletcher, known by his stage name Duke Bootee (June 6, 1951 – January 13, 2021) was an American early record producer and rapper. His best known single, " The Message", was released in 1982 on Sugar Hill Records. The hit song featured rappers Duke Bootee and Melle Mel. The record label marketed the song under the name Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were an American hip hop group formed in the South Bronx of New York City in 1978. The group's members were Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Kidd Creole (not to be confused with Kid Creole), Keef Cowboy, .... Later, he collaborated again with Melle Mel on the singles "Message II (Survival)", and " New York New York", in which the latter was credited to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. After concluding his music career in the early 1990s, Duke Bootee acquired teaching certification and became an educator. He died January 13, 2021, of end-stage congestive heart ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pleasure (American Band)
Pleasure is an American band from Portland, Oregon, United States. Blending soul, funk and jazz with a street edge, they became a cult group on the underground black music scene of the late 1970s. Their song "Glide", from the album ''Future Now'', went to #55 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #10 on the Best Selling Soul Singles chart in 1979; it was their biggest hit. The band broke up in 1982. A new version of the band re-formed in 2019 and released an album, ''Now Is the Time''. History Pleasure was formed in Portland, Oregon in 1972 as a merger of two local bands: The Franchise which included drummer Bruce Carter (December 28, 1956 — August 12, 2006), bassist Nathaniel Phillips, and guitarist Marlon McClain, and The Soul Masters, which included special private guest Brooke Sheilds after the band found out she successfully played the keyboard before she took piano lessons as well as keyboardist Michael Hepburn / Donald Hepburn. Saxophonist Dennis Springer, trombonist/guitarist ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wonder Mike
Michael Anthony Wright (born April 30, 1957), known professionally as Wonder Mike, is an American old-school rapper and former member of the Sugarhill Gang. The group was part of the African-American hip hop movement in the 1970s and 1980s. Career Wonder Mike is best known for being a member of the Sugarhill Gang, the first hip hop act to produce a record, the 1979 single " Rapper's Delight". He is known for his large stature, standing . Personal life Wright is a born-again Christian Born again, or to experience the new birth, is a phrase, particularly in evangelicalism, that refers to a "spiritual rebirth", or a regeneration of the human spirit. In contrast to one's physical birth, being "born again" is distinctly and sepa ... who enjoys painting, reading the Bible, sketching and writing poetry. He has suffered from asthma at times. On July 11, 2013, Wright's daughter Carmen Delgina auditioned for the thirteenth season of the American televised singing competitio ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Big Bank Hank
Henry Lee Jackson (January 11, 1956 – November 11, 2014), known by his stage name Big Bank Hank, was an American old school rapper and manager. Also known as Imp the Dimp, he was a member of the trio The Sugarhill Gang, the first hip hop act to have a hit with the cross-over single "Rapper's Delight" in the pop charts in 1979. He contributed to many documentaries based on the rap music industry. Lyrics to his verse from "Rapper's Delight" were plagiarized from rhymes written by Grandmaster Caz. Biography Hank was born as Henry Lee Jackson on January 11, 1956. He grew up in the Bronx, New York City, near DJ Kool Herc and Coke La Rock, as well as other rap performers. He won several championships in wrestling at Bronx Community College, where he graduated with an A.S. degree in oceanography. But unable to attain a position in oceanography, he worked the doors of a Bronx nightclub called The Sparkle, where he became a music manager for Grandmaster Caz and his group The Migh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Master Gee (musician)
Guy Anthony O'Brien is an American rapper known by the stage name Master Gee. He is a founding member of the hip hop group The Sugarhill Gang. On the band's signature song, "Rapper's Delight", he raps, "I said M-A-S, T-E-R, a G with a double E, I said I go by the unforgettable name of the man they call the Master Gee". He was 17 at the time of recording the song, alluded to by the lyric, "I guess by now you can take a hunch, and find that I am the baby of the bunch". Biography O'Brien grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, where at an early age he was exposed to a steady stream of doo wop and rhythm and blues, and established himself as an energetic emcee in the pioneering Phase 2 hip-hop crew. During the early infancy of the commercial hip-hop movement in 1979, Master Gee, Big Bank Hank and Wonder Mike were discovered by producer Sylvia Robinson and brought together to form The Sugarhill Gang. O'Brien stepped away from Sugar Hill Records in 1984, and established himself as a succes ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Doug Wimbish
Douglas Arthur Wimbish (born September 22, 1956) is an American bass player, primarily known for being a member of rock band Living Colour and funk/dub/hip hop collective Tackhead, and as a session musician with artists such as Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, Depeche Mode, James Brown, Annie Lennox, and Barrington Levy (as well as his studio work for the rap/hip hop label Sugarhill Records and the experimental dub label On-U Sound). Biography and career Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Wimbish started playing guitar at the age of 12 and switched to bass guitar at the age of 14. In 1979 he was hired together with guitarist Skip McDonald and drummer Keith LeBlanc to form the house rhythm section for Sugarhill Records. Although they did not play on the Sugarhill Gang's famous song "Rapper's Delight" (the rhythm tracks for this song were played by the group Positive Force), they did play on many other popular song t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sylvia Robinson
Sylvia Robinson (née Vanderpool; May 29, 1935 – September 29, 2011) was an American singer, record producer, and record label executive. Robinson achieved success as a performer on two R&B chart toppers: as half of Mickey & Sylvia with the 1957 single "Love Is Strange", and her solo record " Pillow Talk" in 1973. She later became known for her work as founder and CEO of the hip hop label Sugar Hill Records. Robinson is credited as the driving force behind two landmark singles in the hip hop genre: "Rapper's Delight" (1979) by the Sugarhill Gang, and " The Message" (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, both of which she produced. Several publications have dubbed her as " The Mother of Hip Hop". At the 11th Annual Rhythm and Blues Awards Gala in 2000, she received a Pioneer Award for her career in singing and for founding Sugarhill Records and in 2022, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Ahmet Ertegun Award category for being a major in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |