(C) 2013 by Rych McCain, All Rights Reserved. No part of this column may
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Wonder Mike & Master Gee - Music
By Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist
Wonder Mike & Master
Gee
Pushing Past The Sugar
Hill Gang!
In 1979, rap as we know it today did not
exist. However, when one looks over the course of history, what is now known as
rap has origins that go way back to Black Mother Afrika past the 13th
century and even further. Today’s modern form of rap can easily be traced back
to the Black West Afrikan Griots who told stories chemically over drums. Those
traditions followed the slaves who used verbal beat boxes and what ever devices
they could find or make to talk over with music. Jazz scatting popularized by
the great Ella Fitzgerald in the 40’s and 50’s was a form of vocal phrasing
using the human voice as a soloing instrument over music. During the early
60’s, rap was a way of romantically wooing the ladies. If a brotha’s “rap” was
week, he didn’t have game. During this period musically, Isaac Hayes and Barry
White were considered rappers because they talked to the ladies seductively
over slow music. The 60’s also saw rap as a revolutionary way of talking and
communicating. 60’s militant civil rights icon Hubert G. Brown was so affluent
with rapping speech wise that he changed his name to H. “Rap” Brown. Then the
spoken word movement of the late 60’s – early 70’s with poetry being spoken
over music via “The Last Poets,” “Sons Of
Watts,” “Gil Scott-Heron” and “Nikki Giovanni” to name was ushered in
and opened the door for what became hip hop.
The bottom line point here is that most
rhythmic creative vocal techniques are originally Black Afrikan and any form of
it comes from that source. Black youth especially need to have this knowledge
driven into their heads and stop thinking that the music that they are into is
exclusively theirs and created by them. Wrong! They are just a link in a
historically long chain. Getting back to our opening statement; Hip Hop/rap was
not known mainstream until a group called “The
Sugar Hill Gang” release the smash hit single “Rapper’s Delight” in 1979. It is considered the first rap record
to introduce hip hop/rap to the world. The single peaked at #4 on the R&B
charts and #36 on the pop
charts.
In Canada and Holland it topped the charts at #1. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked
“Rapper’s Delight” at #251 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Despite the massive success of that first
single, the two main members of the original group Wonder Mike and Master Gee
were betrayed by their record label and became outcasts. They were out of money
and work and had to claw their way back into the game. The guys have a new DVD
out titled “I Want My Name Back” that
chronicles their story so their fans will know the truth. Their journey through
fraud, lawsuits, lies and backstabbing makes this project a must see for any
young person. Especially the one’s with aspirations to get into the rap game.
One of the myths that Wonder Mike and
Master Gee cleared up is that “Rappers
Delight” was not sampled. A house band actually played the riffs from
Chic’s “Good Times.” The late Sylvia Robinson is credited with being the mother
of hip hop sampling but according to Gee and Mike, nothing at Sugar Hill was
sampled because they had a house band at their studios in Inglewood New Jersey
like Motown and other labels. The guys did add however that Sylvia had a great
ear for hits and was an excellent producer.
So how did they get involved with Sylvia
(“Pillow Talk”) and her husband Joe Robinson who owned Sugar Hill Records who
would later turn on them? The guys said, “It was a real hurry, hurry, rush,
rush kind of thing. It was a lot of impatience and at the same time excitement
going on and they capitalized on our naivety. The late Sylvia Robinson attached
her name to all of the writing credits that she didn’t write thus cashing in on
the publishing. What was up with that? The guys again responded, “That was an
old record business trick where if you came in and did anything to the song;
change a word or two, you got your name on it. So they all knew about the whole
publishing world and that was part of the reason why her name was on
everything.”
Sylvia and her husband Joe have both
passed on. Did she ever reach out to the guys before her death in 2011? The
guys said, “Toward the end of her life, we really weren’t communicating with
her. Sometimes things go on for so long that any reconciliation kind of fades
into the background of the chaos of daily living and you just don’t get around
to it.” The group, now The MG Squad has been back the last several years with a new third
member "Big Hank", a hit in 2009, doing world tours and new product coming out soon so the
ride continues!
Next week, July 30th to be exact, I’ll be 11 years
old. So I’ve been reminiscing about the past decade. How one
little comment may have changed my life. I was 4 years old swimming in my
first swim Meet at Jesse Owens pool. It was the deep side. I
was nervous. My Dad said, “Swim fast, kick hard and, just don’t stop.” I
was going to be swimming against 8 year olds. I was the smallest, all the other
girls were much bigger. The starting buzzer went off and I plopped in and
began swimming freestyle in my first race. I got to the opposite wall
turned around pushed off and began swimming back to the opposite side.
When I got to the wall one of the timers were yelling at me to stop. I
was tired but I ignored her turned around pushed off and kept swimming.
There was a lot of yelling and screaming but I just kept swimming. I
reached the wall on my third lap exhausted but I pushed off again and kept
swimming.
While swimming my 4th lap the lifeguard grabbed my
arm in the middle of the pool and told me to stop. I said, “No.” I
pushed him away and kept swimming. When I reached the wall my Mom and Dad
were there. The spectators were laughing hysterically as well as my
parents and they bent down reaching into the water and said, “… it’s okay
Leroya you can stop now”. As I got out I asked, “Where are all the
other swimmers? Did I win?” My Dad giggled and said, “Yes you
did. You out swam them all!” See, I was only supposed to do one
lap, (25 yards) but I swam 4 Laps (100 yards). At the time I didn’t
realize that I lost the race because I remember feeling was like I won a gold
medal. We are all in a race of some sort. My advice, just don’t
stop. The race is never over until you decide it is. Perhaps because
of my hearing all of the laughter and applause as I was being pulled out of the
water, I subconsciously began to love the idea of entertaining others.
Remember, every minute spent angry is 60 seconds of happiness wasted.
See Leroya performance on ABC-TVs "The View." www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf7y9joqIJI
Leroya on Twitter: leroyaonline2
Leroya on Facebook: www.facebook.com/leroya.sanford
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2013 Rych McCain Media/Syndication tm
(You
DID Hear It From Me!)
Twitter@rychmccain and Facebook
