The beats that would bloom into American hip hop began emanating from New York City in the mid-1970s. The streets of the Bronx, along with house and basement parties, were tinged with funky new rhythms and a lyrical style incubated by musical grandfathers of the art form like Grandmaster Flash, Busy Bee Starski, DJ Hollywood, and the founder of the Zulu Nation in New York, DJ Afrika Bambaataa. All four are credited with helping to coin the phrase "hip hop."
Street parties and performances centered around two distinct talents; DJs spun records, manipulating and "scratching" the vinyl to produce an altered sound and beat, while MCs battled each other with lyrical rhymes. The two developing art forms combined for a unique sound that slowly inched its way from the street and into dance clubs where it found an even wider audience. DJs and MCs often supported themselves by selling "mix tapes" of their work to fans.
Sylvia Robinson was a singer, producer and entrepreneur who had experienced moderate success on the R&B and pop charts the previous two decades. "According to hip-hop legend, it was the summer of 1979 when Sylvia Robinson's son, Joey Jr., persuaded her to accompany him on a talent hunt in, of all places, a New Jersey pizzeria," writes S. Craig Watkins in his book "Hip Hop Matters." The maternal Robinson had already formed a record label, Sugar Hill Records, and laid down the beats for a song that needed performers to record it. According to Watkins, the mother and son were intent on recruiting a local rapper, Henry "Big Bank Hank" Jackson.
The smash hit "Rapper's Delight" from The Sugarhill Gang in 1979 ushered in the rap and hip hop era--at least to an audience that had never experienced the music before. While auditioning Jackson, the Robinson's also happened across Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien and Michael "Wonder Mike" Wright. By the end of the evening, a deal had been struck and Robinson christened the trio "The Sugarhill Gang." Three days later, "Rapper's Delight" was recorded in Robinson's studio at a cost of $750. By the end of that year, it had become rap's first commercial hit.
The success of "Rapper's Delight" cleared the way for other artists to profit from this new form of music. "It was 'discovered' by the music industry, the film industry, and the print media. Artists such as Run DMC, Whodini and the Fat Boys helped what seemed like a fleeting phenomenon persist in changing popular culture," says Dr. Renford Reese, a political science professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Later, in the 1980s, Run DMC paired with a rock band, Aerosmith, for a hip hop remake of that group's classic hit "Walk This Way." The success of this record on mainstream radio increased hip hop airplay on both radio and MTV, helping to establish the new sound as a mainstream, cross-cultural force.