King Tim III (Personality Jock)

• 1. Introduction

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  "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" arrived on the 25th of March 1979, and nothing in recorded music would quite look the same afterward. A largely unknown MC named Timothy Washington, performing under the stage name King Tim III, rapped over an instrumental track for a funk band from Queens. The result would later be cited as the first recorded hip hop song released to the mass market.

  How did a B-side on a disco album get there first? Who was King Tim III, and why does his name sit in the shadow of a song that came out a few months after his? And what made a percussionist leading a funk band decide, mid-session, that an album needed a rapper on it?

• 2. Hip Hop Before the Record

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  Hip hop music originated in the Bronx, with its traditional birthdate set at an the 11th of August 1973 party thrown by DJ Kool Herc. For the six years that followed, the only recordings of hip hop that existed were cassette tapes of live performances. Those tapes were bought and sold locally, never pressed for a mass market.

  Musicians who were asked to change that largely said no. Grandmaster Flash was among those approached about making a proper hip hop record. He and others turned down the idea for reasons that ranged from doubting the music would sell to worrying that a record would make their live party performances obsolete. The culture had thrived without the industry, and many of its performers were not eager to change that arrangement.

• 3. The Fatback Band's Path

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  The Fatback Band formed in Queens around 1970 as a funk and jazz outfit. By the end of the decade they were splitting their time equally between those roots and disco. Songs like "Street Dance" in 1973, "(Do the) Spanish Hustle" in 1976, and "I Like Girls" in 1978 had all cracked the top 30 on the Billboard R&B chart, giving the band a track record of commercial reliability.

  Bandleader and percussionist Bill Curtis had kept his ear trained on what was moving through Black music. The band performed around New York regularly, and along the way they heard hip hop cassette tapes circulating and watched DJ Hollywood perform at the Apollo Theater. Curtis was described by researcher Joseph C. Edwoozie as someone who was always listening for innovations in Black musical traditions.

• 4. The Decision to Rap

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  While the Fatback Band was finishing their 1979 album Fatback XII, Curtis felt something was missing. The album, as it stood, lacked a potential hit. One track on the record was a mostly instrumental piece called "Catch the Beat", and Curtis came up with the idea to lay rapping over it.

  To do that, the band needed a rapper. Timothy Washington, a little-known MC and DJ who performed as King Tim III, was brought in for the job. Washington reportedly had a connection to the band through Anthony Bee, one of Fatback's roadies. Keyboardist Gerry Thomas, Curtis's creative partner, had also been impressed after hearing a cassette of Washington rapping over "Running Away" by Roy Ayers. The song was engineered by Delano "Rock" McLaurin.

• 5. B-Side Politics

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  After Washington's vocals were added, the track was renamed from "Catch the Beat" to "King Tim III (Personality Jock)". Curtis chose that subtitle because he heard a link between the new hip hop style of rapping and the long tradition of Black radio DJs who also "rapped" on air. He cited Jocko Henderson as a specific example of that tradition.

  When the single went to Spring Records for release, Curtis pushed for "King Tim III" to be the A-side. The label refused. Spring worried that radio DJs would be offended by the song and decline to play it. Curtis found an extra layer of irony in the outcome: the A-side they chose instead, "You're My Candy Sweet", featured his own vocals, even though he admitted he "can't even carry a tune in a bucket."

  Spring's caution turned out to be wrong. "King Tim III" drew more airplay and listener attention than the A-side, and the label eventually reissued the single with the sides flipped. The rap song climbed to number 26 on the Billboard R&B chart and stayed there for 11 weeks. "You're My Candy Sweet" stalled at number 67 after just four weeks.

• 6. The Question of First

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  "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang arrived a few months after "King Tim III" in 1979 and is widely regarded as the first commercially successful hip hop song. The distinction matters, and it has kept "King Tim III" in an awkward position ever since: historically significant but rarely named in the conversation most people know.

  The argument for "King Tim III" rests on its release date. It reached the market before "Rapper's Delight", making it the earlier recorded and commercially released hip hop track. What "Rapper's Delight" achieved was a scale of commercial attention that "King Tim III" never reached. Both claims carry weight, and scholars continue to debate which framing is most accurate. Timothy Washington, the man at the center of the first claim, remained a little-known figure despite rapping on a record that opened a door every subsequent hip hop artist would walk through.