King Tim III (Personality Jock)
| "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Single by Fatback Band | |
| from the album Fatback XII | |
| A-side | "You're My Candy Sweet" |
| Released | July 25, 1979 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 6:15 4:10 (Single edit) |
| Label | Spring Records |
| Songwriters | Fred Demery, Bill Curtis |
| Producers | Fatback Band, Jerry Thomas |
| Audio video | |
| "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" on YouTube | |
"King Tim III (Personality Jock)" is a 1979 hip hop song by the Fatback Band from the disco album Fatback XII. Engineered by Delano “Rock” McLaurin and released on July 25, 1979,[1] this song is often cited[2] as the beginning of recorded hip hop music. The title refers to vocalist Tim Washington. A few months later, "Rapper's Delight" came out, which is widely regarded as the first commercially released hip hop song.
The song was originally the B-side of the 7-inch single, with the A-side "You're My Candy Sweet" a mid-tempo disco song. However the song stalled at #67 after 4-weeks on the R&B chart and was replaced the following week with "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" on the chart. It peaked at #26 on the R&B chart and stayed on for 11 weeks.
Origins
Bill Curtis and Gerry Thomas were in the studio recording Fatback XII and Curtis didn't think the album had a hit. Curtis recalls turning to Thomas and saying
“‘We’ve got to do something different in there.’ And I had this one tune in there, which was kind of like an instrumental called ‘Catch the Beat.’ I said, ‘Jerry, let’s do a rap.’ First thing Jerry said, ‘Can’t nobody in the band rap. What do you mean, let’s do a rap?’ In the meantime one of the roadies was in the studio with me and heard me say that. He said, ‘I have a friend that lives in the projects that can rap.’ I said, ‘Yeah, bring him in tomorrow night.’ And he brought in Timothy Washington. That’s his name. He brought Timothy in and I said, ‘Go in the studio and start rapping.’ And he went in there and laid it down in two shots. Bang! Then we changed his name to King Tim III."[3]
— Bill Curtis
References
- ^ "King Tim 3d (personality jock) /Fred Demery, Bill Curtis". United States Copyright Office. Archived from the original on January 27, 2026. Retrieved January 30, 2026.
- ^ To the break of dawn, William Jelani Cobb, p44
- ^ Futch, Michael (March 7, 2020). "The first rap record didn't come from the Sugarhill Gang. It came from Fayetteville's Bill Curtis and his Fatback Band". Fayetteville Observer. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
External links
- Fatback Band official site
- Bill Curtis Music Archived 2007-03-03 at the Wayback Machine