Big Bank Hank
Big Bank Hank | |
---|---|
old school hip hop | |
Occupation(s) | Rapper, manager |
Years active | 1973–2014 |
Labels | Sugar Hill |
Formerly of | The Sugarhill Gang |
Henry Lee Jackson (January 11, 1956 – November 11, 2014), known by his stage name Big Bank Hank, was an American
Biography
Hank was born as Henry Lee Jackson
While working at a pizzeria, Jackson did his job so well that when the owner of the shop expanded his business to Englewood, New Jersey, he brought Jackson over to head the Crispy Crust store. While managing for a local hip hop group, the Cold Crush Brothers (including Grandmaster Caz), Jackson was discovered by Sylvia Robinson. She was out trying to find an act for the new hip-hop trend she had discovered through her son and she heard Jackson rapping some of the Cold Crush Brothers's rhymes by chance when she visited Crispy Crust Pizza in Englewood. According to a 2014 New York Post article, when Robinson asked him to join the group she was forming, Jackson went to Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers for rhymes, and Caz gladly gave him his notebook, hoping to eventually get something in return.[2] However, in a 2014 interview, Caz disputes this story, saying that Jackson did not ask Caz for permission to use his rhymes until after the record had been made.[6] Jackson, now called "Big Bank Hank," was 24 years old at the time the Sugarhill Gang's self-titled album was released.
In his New York Times obituary of Hank, Jon Caramanica quotes Wonder Mike: “He was boisterous — he filled the room. Ralph Kramden-type stuff.”[7]
Death
A resident of Tenafly, New Jersey, Hank died at the age of 58 at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in nearby Englewood on November 11, 2014, from cancer.[8]
References
- Allmusic. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
- ^ a b "Writing cred for 'Rapper's Delight' sparks grudge". New York Post. January 26, 2014. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
- ^ Griggs, Brandon (November 12, 2014). "Sugarhill Gang rapper Big Bank Hank dead at 57". CNN.com. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
'Big Bank Hank,' whose real name was Henry Jackson
- ^ Caramanica, Jon (November 11, 2014). "Big Bank Hank, an Early Star of Rap, Dies at 58". The New York Times. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
- ^ It was not known, as of early December of 2014, specifically when Jackson first began to call himself "Big Bank Hank." It was known that he would be best known by that name for the rest of his life.
- ^ Grandmaster Caz Talks Big Bank Hank Stealing "Rapper's Delight", retrieved December 2, 2021
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
- The Record (Bergen County), November 11, 2015; accessed November 12, 2015.
"Trail-blazing rapper Big Bank Hank, whose 1979 hit “Rappers Delight” with the Englewood-based group the Sugar Hill Gang was considered the first commercially viable rap single to shoot up the charts, died Tuesday morning at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. He was 57 and lived in Tenafly."