The Sugarhill Gang on music Walk Of Fame honour: It is a mind-blowing experience

Hip-hop pioneers The Sugarhill Gang, best known for track Rapper’s Delight, have described being inducted into the Music Walk Of Fame in Camden as a “mind-blowing experience”.

The US-based group are among 11 artists who are having a stone laid on the Camden-based trail from September 4 to 9 in celebration of their contribution to the world of music.

The Sugarhill Gang join UB40 star Ali Campbell, Gordon “Mac” McNamee, the founder of Kiss FM, and late singer-songwriter Janis Joplin in recognition of their achievements – and also to celebrate 50 years of hip-hop.

One of the group’s founding members rapper Master Gee, real name Guy O’Brien, told the PA news agency: “I feel like I don’t believe that it is happening, it is still not really normal to think that when I cut this record at 17 that my life would be this way.

“I did this in a little town called Englewood, New Jersey, in the US and now I’m in Camden Town in London, and the whole city is here honouring what we’ve done, so this is a little bit much for me, but I appreciate it.”

Henry Williams, known as Hendogg, told PA: “It’s beautiful to be able to receive your flowers while you’re still above ground.”

On Wednesday, The Sugarhill Gang members Master Gee, Hendogg, DJ T Dynasty and Ethiopian King stood on stage and gave a speech, praising “the late great Sylvia Robinson” who took the music they made and condensed it into a record, and also saluted as the queen of hip-hop.

Master Gee later added on stage: “This is a mind-blowing experience for us, there was no way when Ms (Sylvia) Robinson came to us and told us about what she wanted to do that this was going to be the result of it.

“I literally thought, because I was 17 (in) junior year going to senior year, we’d cut the record, it’d be big in the New York Metropolitan area, I would go to 12th grade and try and figure out what I was going to do with my life.

“I was sadly mistaken and totally wrong because we’re in another part of the world doing something I used to do in people’s basements.”

The group’s 1980s hit track Rapper’s Delight became the first rap song to chart in the UK and has since enjoyed more than four decades of success – even on the BBC in 2020 when comedian Bill Bailey lifted the Strictly Come Dancing trophy after his couple’s choice dance to the classic track.

Before welcoming The Sugarhill Gang to the stage on Wednesday, fellow hip-hop pioneer Melle Mel, of Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five, said: “Hip-hop was very competitive by nature.

“So, when the song first came out and when we first went over to Sugar Hill Records, The Sugarhill Gang was like our mortal enemies.

“But time and talent definitely has a way of turning a situation into a totally different situation.

“To this day, I would walk through a wall for Master Gee because he showed himself to be a real man as well as a great musician.

“As time goes by, 10, 20, 30 or 40 years, the one song that I know from hip-hop that you could put on at any time and get the same reaction that you got the first time you heard the song was the one and only Rapper’s Delight.”

Launched in 2019, the Music Walk Of Fame features award stones in the Camden square mile which come to life with augmented reality technology.