January 20, 2017
They might be Knicks fans, but all four current members of the Sugarhill Gang will be rootin’ for Philly when they perform “Rapper’s Delight” at halftime after the 76ers face-off against the Portland Trailblazers Friday night at home.
The Sixers have upped their game in recent weeks – winning five of their past six games and seven of the past nine, vaulting Philly into the rumor mill of being playoff contenders. The same could be said for their halftime shows.
During the 2015-16 season, the Coors Light Sixers Halftime Concert Series featured Montell Jordan, Naughty by Nature, Tag Team and Cupid, among others. But the group undoubtedly backed with the most history has yet to take center court with their number one single. “Rapper’s Delight” hit the airwaves in 1979 and became the first rap single to become a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 list.
During an interview yesterday with PhillyVoice, Michael “Wonder Mike” Wright said the group has performed the song countless times at countless venues, but it never gets old.
“We knew it was gonna be big. We knew it was gonna be colossal,” he said.
Guy “Master Gee” O’Brien said that lyrics from the entire 14-plus-minute album version were derived from actual events growing up in the Bronx and Harlem, New York and Englewood, N.J.
“A lot of the lyrics are actually things that we wanted people to know about us or experiences that happened to us,” he said.
“That’s how we’ve written just about every song we’ve ever done. I had no idea the song was gonna be such a success.”
Throughout the course of time, some members have come and gone, while others have been steadfast. Another popular member of the group, Henry Lee “Big Bank Hank” Jackson, died in 2014 at the age of 58 from cancer.
The remaining members, "Wonder Mike," "Master Gee," Henry “Henn Dogg” Williams and Tracy “T Dynasty” Temple, said they all fondly remember Jackson.
“Everywhere we went to eat, he could out-eat everybody,” Temple said of Jackson.
“So, if it was a drinking place, he could drink you under the table. If it was an eating establishment, he tried to eat you under the table, but he was just a great guy, altogether. We miss Big Bank.”
Asked which celebrity has more accurately performed “Rapper’s Delight,” the group quickly said, Sandra Bullock. But they’d like to see a "spin-off" between Bullock and Justin Timberlake, who can not only cut a record, but cut a rug.
