The Story of Rapper's Delight by Nile Rodgers

shot7.com
Interview from Canadian Music Week 2007. Nile Rodgers tells the story of how Chic's Good Time became the basis for the first rap hit, Rapper's Delight. Produced, shot and edited by Richard Budman and John Bortolotti

[@ALLTHINGSMUSIC9000]

Nile Rodgers, an unintentional co-founder of hiphop. Love to see it.

[@michaell8722]

Don’t forget Bernard Edwards the man who wrote the bass line / song, with Nile, that would be famous. People and Nile tend to forget him since his passing back in 1996. Sometimes I think he believes he did all the work and was Chic.

[@JamillahKareemMuslimahPoet]

Love Nile. The best producer I ever got to meet and work with. Original and hard working. Honest in the business. Peace! Glam

[@ValisX]

I definitely dont have the knowledge to properly rank Nile's place as an all time great but I have to imagine he's HIGH on the list of most important musicians of the 20th century.

[@rgordon2691]

That's a True Assessment...a Major Hitmaker

[@bossangeles745]

Then you need to get the knowledge, my friend....him and Bernard Edwards. They wrote 'We Are Family", "Freak Out", "I Want Your Love", etc. When sophisticated R&B musicianship met the street culture. Wht you're hraring is something never explained....

[@geoffreygibson5992]

Musical genius, possibly the greatest of all time in his field.

[@user-jl8yn7og7b]

If we're going purely by hits written, Nile IS the most important musician of the 20th century. Maybe Paul McCartney could lay claim to that title, but I think Nile wins because he continues to write hits even into the 2010s. The word genius is overused, but Nile absolutely is. I honestly don't think it's hyperbole to call Nile the greatest songwriter (and co-songwriter, with Bernard Edwards) in history.

[@tony671]

The Clash,Blondie and Chic WOW sounds like a great gig

[@tcasey001]

what a line up..

[@modifiedcontent]

I love this era of music, New York around 1980, everything was mixing, punk and disco, black white latino, electro and guitars, digital and analogue, avant garde and pop, etc.

[@videoguy8958]

Absolutely NEVER HAPPENED!

[@imar3248]

Chic and Earth, Wind & Fire in summer 2017 concert tour was 🔥🔥

[@djRoyalTee]

The Clash, Blondie and Chic @ Bonds w/ Fab5 freddy and Futura 2k joining it... I need a fukin time machine man!

[@WhizMitchell]

Would have loved to had seen that show!

[@khristianvinales8849]

yes sir

[@WhizMitchell]

Couldn't escape hearing the original or the rap versions of this song when I was young. Everyone in my neighborhood played them...loud!

[@insanelook]

it's always cool to hear these kind of interviews, so fresh !

[@sciacarlo]

this man is the most important black person in the history of the world

[@erbyfatal4919]

One of the most black person in world there's mlk Malcolm x Michael Jackson berry Gordy prince Frederick Douglass James brown dj. Kool her leaders of Haitian revolution Harriet Tubman lil Richard .

[@MTXSHO9732vV8SHO]

Nothing but Love and Respect for the whole Chic Family and those that have gone on before us. Their image at the height of the band's success was REALLY cool! The Best Music, The Best Clothes... What was there NOT to like?

[@HeavyJ713]

the clash blondie and chic youll never see that again

[@BrentStrathdeePehi]

+johnny olvera whatta gig!!!

[@videoguy8958]

Heavy Jay never happened. See my comments above.

[@nashvillejan]

Soooo amazing - this story, this tribute! Never before, never again!

[@PianoGesang]

"Fab Five Freddy told me everybody's fly, DJs spinnin I said my my..." Anybody remember Blondie's Rapture?

[@KingKumari]

PianoGesang hells yeah!!, rapture was dope!!, funny how Blondie never got credit for being the first white chic to rap!!

[@gregoryjones1426]

A seminal piece of music. Good times is a masterpiece!

[@Oli3TB76]

The Clash, Blondie and CHIC... a-mazing!

[@kevinclark8549]

Bonds was a great club. I used to go to Bonds back in my club days. Levitcus is another club I used to go to. It is also a great spot.

[@kotep777]

i would kill to be at that concert.....blondie clash and CHIC?!?! FCK OUTTA HERE!!!!!

[@67spankadelik]

I remember this when it happened.

[@mikemoe2006]

Great Interview!!!!! Chic is Awesome

[@Jackalski57]

The first time I heard "Rappers' Delight", I was in the ladies wing of our co-ed dorm floor & one of the girls came out of her room yelling "Come here, you have to hear this, I've never heard anything like it before, but it's the coolest!" A bunch of us white kids gathered around her radio and were just blown away with what they were doing. That was the '79 - 80 semester school year and sometimes I long for some of Rap's "Old, Good Times" compared to some of that of the last 15 years

[@Rajadada100]

AMAZING !!! THIS IS THE MUSIC OF MY LIFE !!! THANK'S THE SUGAR HILL GANG !!!

[@yolandarice1994]

Hey nile, tell your mom and your brother Robert I said hi,we all know who you are now,go head with your bad self!!!!! You are wey up there,Quincy Jones,l a ried,baby face.EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT, YOU ARE NILE RODGERS!!!! PEOPLE,HE'S THE GENIUS!!!!

[@Hypestyle]

Nile Rodgers is the man-- very underrated musician, producer-- so many acts, including pop-rock acts influenced by him-- Niles has stated queen did a re-interpretation of the "good times" riff when they came out with "Another one bites the dust".. he should collaborate with Public Enemy...

[@teejdavenport]

That story is deep to me, on so many levels always pay homage, innovation is an unstoppable force, creativity is absolute

[@luisvillar8320]

Nile is a BadAss!

[@GoldenPlaypen]

Wow never knew that I do own that 12 inch gonna have to dig it out and see Nile name on it that was a great tune can't tell you how much fun we had singing that song. Thanks for posting this.

[@SFFOOL76]

NILE RODGERS is one of the coolest people in the music industry, if not the coolest.

[@oldman1966]

Honoured to meet His Royal Nileness last Friday, (twice, lol), what an absolute gent! Can't wait to see CHIC rock London again!

[@eclectica1]

Blondie, CHIC and The Clash on the same bill. I'm just in awe of this fact.

[@BarrySlisk]

The Notorious album was great. You can clearly hear Nile's influence.

[@davidrileynyc5702]

I was in far Rockaway when I first heard good times. When I lived in Brooklyn's east new York neighborhood, that's when rapper's delight debut.

[@markscott4108]

Reading a bunch old comments. To any negative ones that you read remember that they had to add his name to the writing credit. His checks validate his story! #securethebag

[@NicChristie]

i love this freaking magical lyrical musical masterpiece

[@DERRICKHOLME]

Thanks for sharing this great 👍 video 📹

[@vdbdg]

Chic rocks, just saw them live, class act

[@INJURYCOMP]

Thank you for this post!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW I see why Blondie (Featuring Debbie Harry) got involved with the RAP Culture early on. "Rapture" was just as hot, as a dance song, back then as Rapper's Delight (and all of Chic's songs). The lyrics to "Rapture" make so much more sense now!!

[@CurragaoMattson]

Nile!

[@ralphmashats]

What a period it was - wow- life is short

[@marknorthwest93]

Catch Nile on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Thursday, November 24 performing live with the Roots!

[@patosaavedradj]

es un maestro...

[@originaldeftom]

Nile Rodgers might not be the most handsome or best looking makes, but oh boy he is one of the most musically gifted, resourceful and talented men on this planet. We owe him soooooooooooooooooooo much!

[@Polostar79]

Well your perception of his looks never stopped him from getting copious amounts of 🐱, especially in his Chic heyday.

[@sircharliesavior]

that must of been a sick concert, and pretty muscically diverse, clash , chic, and blondie, i would kill for a ticket to that show

[@susanperron2703]

❤

[@poffy8888]

Come play Melbourne again, dude! We loved ya. And play all the Chic songs nex time. Thank-you so much ! John - SPringvale.

[@stanhanley6004]

clash blondie and chich amazing

[@Swave0]

He loves it now, and does the rap, but he rightfully felt it was taken from him originally. The track interpolates Chic's "Good Times", resulting in band members Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards suing Sugar Hill Records for copyright infringement; a settlement was reached that gave the two songwriter credits.

[@eslubin]

this is a really neat, professional perspective from that time. and they played that break to death, you can hear it on all the party tapes

[@The_Bit_Player]

Legend.

[@5annent]

CHIC is very very underrated!!!] they seem to have popularized 2 phenomenon 1st was the freak dance we still like to do today dancing close front&back off their song" "la freak"] &the other=explosion of a new genre of music called rap/hip hop] which was sampled&popularized by their song"good times"]Credos CHIC!!! yea yea

[@robertstotts1209]

this man is one of my favorite guitar players ever.copyright issues are cry-ass.there is only seven notes to play so some stuff is gonna get used a lot.if rapper's delight got more famous than good times it is because "hip hop didn't invent anything,it reinvented everything!"grandmaster caz fly. i bite mad guitar approach off nile cuz this man is the real!

[@eclectica1]

12 notes, not seven.

[@omytrejo1]

MUY BUENOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@FallNorth]

The thing is, and I don't want to take anything away from Niles who is a musical genius and I'm sure he'd 100% agree, the song sampled "good times" is mostly about the bass line, by his best friend Bernard who unfortunately died. Niles is a fantastic guitarist and artist but that PARTICULAR example is more about the bass. I do wonder sometimes, the way so many geniuses die young (in Bernard's case PNEUMONIA of alll things!) - I'm not religious, but maybe god just couldn't wait to get that old Hendrix/Bernard Edwards/Kieth Moon power trio going :) OK there are better examples but you get what I mean. My sources in heaven are telling me the Mozart/Lynott/Bon Scott experience are doing pretty good :)

[@bladesaint21]

Crazy huh? Just listening him tell it makes me remember when Rapper's Delight first dropped. Here we are over 30 years later!

[@franman777]

back when rap was cool...

[@dGb_music]

A accidental Hip-Hop legend..

[@nunayobiz]

Incredibly talented man! Just read his book Le Freak. Very interesting stories in that book.

[@MoonLanta]

shit talking over one of the best basslines ever written...and it becomes a phenomenon. Only in America...

[@paulrussell]

@clh2192: The Magnificent 7 was the opening track on Sandanista, which was released in the UK on 12th dec 1980.

[@fernetpunker]

me too!

[@user-xj6gu6mr3c]

Let me share.

[@frankie07921]

COOL

[@paulrussell]

@clh2192 Niles' dates are right. The Clash's 3rd album, London Calling, came out in UK in late 1979. By 1982 they were practically dead. Blondie's debut album came out in 1976 on their own label and was re-released by Chrysalis in 1977.

[@TheBlack-my5yf]

New York radio DJ Gary Byrd was rapping on record in the early 1970s. Check Gary Byrd Soul Travelin'.

[@CLUBESANTO]

Gosto desta história :V

[@rafro007]

@rafro007 It's also what drew me to Zeppelin in the first place...The Lemon Song in particular is a really hard groove, especially the breakdown section with the bass/drums. So, I don't really know what you're talking about....

[@TheSara6510]

[@mybasshas7strings]

@flyingwayup Jon Deacon wrote "Another One Bites The Dust" right after this came out, he's stated that he essentially borrowed the bass line from Bernard Edwards

[@wendileona]

@rafro007 (9 mnths later...) Dude... 'Houses Of The Holy', 'Hots On For Nowhere', 'Carouselambra', 'Dancing Days', 'Living Loving Maid', 'The Wanton Song' and especially 'Trampled Under Foot ' and "The Crunge " are all FUNK based!

[@clh2192]

@paulrussell I must respectfully disagree. While individually, the Clash and Blondie released earlier albums when Nile talks about Futura, Fab5, Blondie together in the SAME space, that's the dwntn NYC scene that combined rap, punk and graffiti and was an early 80s phenomenon. Rapture (Blondie) and the Magnificent 7 (Clash) are 81. Rapper's Delight and Good Times came out in 79. Nile Rodgers is a New Yorker, I strongly doubt it took him two years to figure out that Sugarhill had a hit-lol

[@angelorobledo1536]

I mean I'm 8 years late but I still want to respond. Blondie was indeed hanging out around the hip hop scene with Fab Five Freddy in '78 and '79, before Rapper's Delight took it mainstream. Hip hop itself had only really been formalized by Herc/Flash/Bambaata and a bunch of high school kids in 1975, so it would totally make sense that if Nile Rodgers is spending all his time listening to Walter Gibbons at Galaxy 21 or Le Jardin until 1976, and Richie Kaczor at Studio 54 from there on after, high school kids doing weird things with records in abandoned warehouses in the Bronx is way off his radar. So it's absolutely possibly that in July 1979 Blondie shows Nile this cool thing she discovered through Fab Five Freddy. They see people cutting and scratching Good Times which came out June 1979. A few weeks later they're performing together with the Clash. Few weeks after that, on September 16th 1979, Rapper's Delight is officially released to the world beyond the Bronx. Seeing how successful it was, Blondie starts talks with Grandmaster Flash who they met through Fab Five Freddy, and the idea for Rapture is formed. The album version of Rapture is released November 1980, the single coming out January '81. It technically all checks out. I think you missed the point that it only took him a few weeks to hear Sugarhill after it was released, but he was unaware that hip hop had been brewing for sometime before that, only becoming aware of the movement through Blondie, before Rapper's Delight is released.

[@duartehh]

@flyingwayup it's no new that also queen "used" this bass line. i'm not so sure if they gave the credits to chic.

[@reesedaniel1629]

That takes balls to just take his music, use it and sell it like nobody is going to notice

[@PanekPL]

Holy fucking Jesus. CLASH, BLONDIE and CHIC in ONE FUCKING CONCERT?! How much more amazing can it get?!

[@videoguy8958]

PanekPL never happened. Pure fiction. See my previous comments.

[@Rivooo]

@@videoguy8958 I cant find your comment. How did you find out it didnt happen though?

[@videoguy8958]

@@Rivooo my comment is there. What are you asking?

[@Rivooo]

@@videoguy8958 Oh for some reason I can’t find it. The video is pretty old though too so I guess there’s just a lot of comments. And oh I was just wondering like did you find somewhere that said it didn’t happen or how’d you find it out that they all didn’t play together?

[@videoguy8958]

@@Rivooo I’m sorry it’s 4am here and I haven’t watched this video in 5 years but if I recall he seems to confuse years, venues and bands. He might have said the concert took place at The Palladium but he meant Bonds. I’m a big Clash fan and saw many of their NYC concerts and those concerts are well documented. The Clash played a series of 17 concerts at Bonds exactly 40 years ago with different opening acts each night, including rappers. However never did The Clash, Blondie & Chic ever played TOGETHER during any of those 17 (actually more since there were matinees) shows. It simply never happened. There WAS a separate benefit concert for Anya Phillips on 5/7/81 at Bonds which DID NOT include The Clash but DID include Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and Chic members. He’s combining these separate events (The Clash concerts towards the end of May and the benefit show May 7th) which occurred weeks apart into ONE CONCERT which never happened.

[@XanaduPreservation]

Dig the man! Dig his music! Don't know why John Landis (director of Blues Brothers) has a beef with him. Too bad.

[@Shahmar]

You better ask somebody.

[@tongolele12]

he looks like Whoopee Goldberg-- ha ha ha

[@rafro007]

@wendileona Ok, no worries. :)

[@wendileona]

@rafro007 Relax man. I'm agree-ing with you! Zep had the One in their music at times. Easy... sheesh.

[@clh2192]

@paulrussell HipHop was a mature art form by 79. Flowers, Herc, Infinity Machine, Bam, New Sounds, Disco Twins, Flash, El Brothers/Theodore... etc. were serious productions and had catalogs of breaks well before Good Times dropped. The way Mr. Rodgers tells it, they had one record and it was Good Times. Lol... Feeling Nile Rodger's work but again his timing is off- Go to youtube and enter "Blondie/Chic-Rapture-May 11, 1981"

[@TheDjn8]

I’ve got all the respect in the world for Rodgers and then some, but I think here he’s fallen down the same hole that so many others do by equating hip hop with _recorded_ rap on disc, whereas rappers - from Coke La Rock, Mr. Biggs, Pow Wow, even Melle Mel himself - were but sidekicks in the early days of hip hop. So he does a somersault by conflating ”Delight” (being pretty much the first commersial rap song, ok King Tim III, Last Poets, Pigmeat Markham etc notwithstanding) of seeing as ”rapping to the beat” came simultaneously as ”Good Times” was _the_ best of choice amongst hip hop DJ’s, Flash not least.

[@hthtv3440]

Now, #Nile, you told *this story* a tad differently in #LeFreak. *wink #thebirthofHipHop

[@npdtprocess]

The Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight (Short Version) (High-Quality Audio) kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXy2Ynhjp9-lnLc processed using NPDT Process #thesugarhillgang #rappersdelight #highquality #npdtprocess

[@rafro007]

@wendileona What do you want from me? Can't you read? I said in my last post "and even Led Zeppelin who were a funky rhythm section themselves. It's the groove, man, it's all about the groove." Groove = funk. Do I need to be more explicit? Bonham and Jones were both influenced by R&B back in the 60's, including (legend has it) one of our own in Portland, Mel Brown, a great drummer who I've been privileged to play with on occasion & who toured with Diana Ross in the 60's.

[@murdrum2007]

The 1st Real Rap Song-you better recognize! and he is right ppl in New York EAST COAST use to cut and scratch of this record for hours, thats when cutting and scratching was an art form-ppl had 2 and 3 turntables (technics turntables) records on top of cardboard and you better have a least 2 of everything so you could mix, break dancing all started in NEW YORK, EAST COAST- it use to be contest for who could make the best mixes of Good Times, the good old days of hip hop-WBLS IN NYC use to play so much good music dj mixes that you couldn't or cant find in stores, so you would just tape of the radio, Frank Ski in Baltimore on station WEBB the AM Station use to play all the hip hop stuff too, mixes of good times-then when rappers delight came out ppl use to say what the hell is this shit? i don't like it, they are messing up god times song, then it caught on and after that, thats all you wanted to hear and every club and wanna be DJ was playing rappers delight. Those NEW JERSEY BOYS SET IT OFF

[@coreymarks1454]

Can you say residuals?

[@gretscher]

Wonder how much money he got from royalties from "Good Times".

[@BigSingh]

Sylvia Robinson stole another sample: "Here Comes That Sound Again" by Love DeLuxe

[@casteltheghettomonk4392]

Thought is was Dave Chappelle Rick James skit haha 😂😆

[@dundeedolphin]

He's much cooler than that :-)

[@jackdos14]

Daft Punk brought me here :D

[@johnponce9776]

Wut

[@ChrisMac]

I get the whole copyright deal, but shouldn't these guys be flattered that they wrote such great music that it could be used for so many different things, like rap? Unfortunately, the sincerest form of flattery these days is a big pay cheque.

[@granthouse1046]

She rob all her her artist

[@wendileona]

Co-writer as you should be. Street music like early rap and hip hop was, as evident from Niles story, thug-founded. How could you take someone else's music and not give them credit. Even a raw drum pattern, very basic, sampled is still a composition. They would of gotten away with it too and never had the dignity, ethics, to contact Niles and say hey, we need permission or here' s your take. WTF. What a culture.

[@clh2192]

I'm a big Nile Rodgers fan. Easily one of the most influential musicians of our time, up there with Stevie, Curtis Mayfield, John Lennon...etc. But, his time and dates are ol' messed up-lol. Rapper's Delight... was like early 79. That whole, Blondie, Fab5, Futura2000, Clash, Malcolm McLaren... downtown movement was like 82, 83. C'mon Nile-ha-ha-ha

[@SixTenVisuals]

Sugar Hill Gang = Obama....timing was everything.

[@MediaBuster]

I like Nile, but boy does he embellish and romanticize his version of this... sorry they didn't play Good Times for "hours" or only played "one song.." Second there is no "early version" of Rapper's Delight. There was one version that first was released on a Sugar Hill Records, first as a red label, and then as the standard blue iconic label. Second, there are no cooperative stories to his version of the events. I HIGHLY doubt they made Rapper's Delight after this so-called performance, as Good Times was a popular break to rap to back then.

[@chipshearin6845]

Very true! Well said

[@bruh-wj9cf]

Gold95 he did not say that there was an early version. I know there were early prints that did not have Nile and Bernard as co-writers and later versions had them with co-writing credits. Nile stated that later after the concert he heard the Sugar Hill Gang. It seems plausible because Good Times was a monster hit throughout the summer of 1979 and Rapper's Delight came out in late summer early fall. Sylvia of Sugar Hill Gang capitalized on what she saw as a new art form and grabbed them and had them rap to Good Times which went on to become the biggest hit of 1979 In terms of the hip hop movement, I know that it had hit the Midwest by 1978. I was in St. Louis to be exact and the DJ's would rap over the break of songs. One that comes to mind is the break of Cheryl Lynn's, Got to Be Real and that was in 1978-1979.

[@mspinkytee]

+gold95 Listen he was there and you were not. How are you gonna tell the man what he experieinced? Just some joe blow on the internet trying to discredit the experience of a genius. He was a the club and he heard what he heard. Always someone in the side yelling foul.

[@MediaBuster]

mspinkytee How do you know where I was? You know nothing about me, besides I DO know... The facts don't lie... read my original post again.

[@casteltheghettomonk4392]

Dave Chappelle Rick James 😂😆

[@djdaisentertainment]

Sugar Hill Gang were known as biters. Actually, no one ever heard of Sugar Hill Gang until they put out that record. All of Big Bank Hank's lyrics were stolen from Grand Master Casanova Fly. The Sugar Hill label didn't get any street credit until they had real Zulus on it. I guess you can't expect authenticity when you have someone trying to make a fortune exploiting NY street culture all the way from Englewood New Jersey.

[@bossangeles745]

So again....rap ain't shit without musicians....aka...studio rats.

[@EenMagnetron]

This might be the dumbest and corniest comment ive seen this year. Congrats mate.

[@JamillahKareemMuslimahPoet]

Love Nile. The best producer I ever got to meet and work with. Original and hard working. Honest in the business. Peace! Glam

[@yolandarice1994]

Hey nile, tell your mom and your brother Robert I said hi,we all know who you are now,go head with your bad self!!!!! You are wey up there,Quincy Jones,l a ried,baby face.EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT, YOU ARE NILE RODGERS!!!! PEOPLE,HE'S THE GENIUS!!!!