Which 1979 Fatback Band single is often credited as the first commercially released hip-hop record?

The 1979 Fatback Band single “King Tim III (Personality Jock)” is often credited as the first commercially released hip-hop record.

Fatback were a funk and R&B band, but the record features rapper King Tim III, whose vocal performance gives the song its hip-hop identity. Spring Records issued it in March 1979, several months before the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.”

The history is sometimes simplified because “Rapper’s Delight” became the first major hip-hop hit and introduced the style to a much larger audience. That success made it more commercially influential, but it was not the earliest hip-hop single released by a record company.

Another common mix-up concerns “first hip-hop record” itself. Earlier unissued tapes, live performances, and independently circulated recordings existed, so the claim depends on defining “commercially released.”