Sugarhill Gang’s Big Bank Hank Dead at 57

Sugarhill Gang rapper Big Bank Hank, best known as “the grandmaster with 3 MCs that shock the house for the young ladies,” died this morning in New York City at the age of 57.

Hank had been suffering from cancer when he passed away in the NYC area around 2AM this morning.

Hank, who’s legal name is Henry Jackson, was instrumental in bringing rap to the mainstream. At the age of 22 he released his first album with The Sugarhill Gang titled Sugarhill Gang in 1979. The album’s lead single “Rappers Delight” would become immortalized in hip hop history when it became the first hip hop track to be picked up by mainstream radio.

“The feel of when “Rapper’s Delight” came out was really in the transformation from what everybody in the neighborhoods in New York and in New Jersey was feeling on a street level,” Master Gee said of Sugarhill Gang’s hit. “Now folks were in a situation where they not only could get their point across in the neighborhood, they could get it on a record and on the radio, then all over the world.”

Big Hank had been hit with controversy in the years prior to his death when MC Grandmaster Caz claimed he rapped Hank’s verse on the song.

“We ran into Caz on a number of occasions and we had a lot of friction with him,” Master Gee said last year. “Eventually, we had to come to terms and sit down with Caz and his people and let them know, when [“Rapper’s Delight”] came out, we didn’t know that stuff wasn’t his. Hank was coming from The Bronx, and Mike and I came from Jersey and we didn’’t know what was going on in The Bronx at that time. To say that we were down with it, or privy to it, is a falsehood.”

Now hearing of Hank’s passing, Sugarhill Gang members Wonder Mike and Master Gee released a statement saying, “So sad to hear of our brother’s passing. Rest in peace Big Bank.”