Big Bank Hank

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Big Bank Hank, born Henry Jackson in the 1950s is an old school rapper, famous for being a member of The Sugarhill Gang, the first hip hop act to have a hit single, "Rapper's Delight".

Hank was born in the Bronx. He graduated from Bronx Community College with an A.S. degree in Oceanography. While attending college, he won several championships in wrestling. After graduating from college, Hank found it very hard to attain a position in the field he specialized in, so being without work, he was given a job in a pizzeria. Strange as it may seem, a black kid making pizzas, he did so well that when the owner of the shop expanded his business to Englewood, New Jersey, he brought Hank over to head his Crispy Crust, where Hank was later discovered. Hank was 22 years old at the time when the Sugarhill Gang's self-titled album was released.

Hank is most famous for a passage from the song: His verse depicts him meeting Lois Lane and convincing her to drop her boyfriend, Superman. Says Hank: "He's a fairy, I do suppose/flying through the air in panty hose...He can't satisfy you with his little worm, but I can bust you out with my super sperm". In his three sections of the song, Hank uses his well-known chant: "Ho-tel, Mo-tel, what you gonna do today (say what)/I'm gonna get a fly girl, gonna get some spank n' drive off in a def O.J." (An O.J. is purported to be a fine car of the model advertised by Hertz in the 1970s, using O.J. Simpson as a spokesperson).

In the years following the release of Rapper's Delight, many of the pioneers of the New York Hip Hop Movement have claimed that Grandmaster Caz, a rapper under Hank's management who also went by the name of Casanova Fly, wrote the lines.

Busta Rhymes' breakout single "Woo-Hah!! Got you all in check" samples Hank's line in the 1981 hit "Eighth Wonder". "See it's up my back, it's around my neck, Woo-hah!! Got them all in check."