Sugar Hill Gang

There’s nothing worse than attending a concert knowing you’ll have to endure an evening of mediocre music and posturing just to hear a group’s one and only hit. You could always arrive late, but odds are good that the band will drag the night out, holding the audience at bay until the very end, lest they hear the song too soon and leave. Or maybe the hit will come early, setting the stage for an upbeat night of revelry. Considering that we’re talking about one-hit wonders the Sugar Hill Gang, showing up late might not be too risky. Although the New Jersey trio — Wonder Mike, Big Bank Hank and Master Gee — is incorrectly credited with the founding of hip-hop, the group’s “Rapper’s Delight” was instrumental in kick-starting the rap movement — and the idea of copyright-infringement lawsuits for use of sampled riffs after their blatant use of the bass line from Chic’s “Good Times” cost them half their royalties. These days, Big Bank Hank is gone, replaced by Hendogg, yet the Gang continues to tour on the strength of that single hit.