From The Los Angeles Times:
His voice served as a call to action, an echo that continues today whenever a kid bellows the word “hip hop” into a microphone. It was in Henry “Big Bank Hank” Jackson’s lyrical wobble, the way he rapped through the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” the singular hit that propelled a movement when it was released in 1979.
Jackson, 57, died Tuesday morning after complications from cancer, but his influence remains.
The news was confirmed by David Mallie, the business manager for the two surviving members of the original Sugarhill Gang, Guy “Master Gee” O’Brien and “Wonder Mike” Wright.