Check it out, I'm the c-a-s-an-the-o-v-a
And the rest is f-l-y
You see, I go by the code of the doctor of the mix
And these reasons I'll tell ya why

from Sugar Hill Gang – Rapper's Delight Lyrics on Rap Genius

Meaning

This is the introduction of emcee Big Bank Hank, who was the friend and manager of Grandmaster Caz of the legendary Cold Crush Brothers.

When Big Bank Hank took this couplet from the rhyme book of Grandmaster Caz (who was also known as Casanova Fly within his crew), Hank ignorantly and hastily blurted out that rhyme that he didn’t even bother to notice that he was using Caz’s name in what people imply to be “his” rhyme.

Grandmaster Caz talks about it in further detail here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfh2cKl1hjs

(As you can hear in the video, he is rapping along to what he rapped before decades ago… before Rapper’s Delight came out.)

This is probably the most obvious and significant snippet of evidence that Big Bank Hank was what people in hip-hop call a biter (someone who copies, follows, etc.) for this particular song.

*One of the lessons that the rap game didn’t teach you in (what is considered to be) “the song that first popularized hip-hop” is to give the other artist/emcee some respect (i.e. “Shout out to…”).

Cite Your Sources

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