Hank was born as
Henry Lee Jackson on January 11, 1956. He grew up in
the Bronx,
New York City, near
DJ Kool Herc and
Coke La Rock, as well as other rap performers. He won several championships in
wrestling at
Bronx Community College, where he graduated with an A.S. degree in
oceanography. Unable to attain a position in oceanography, he
worked the doors of a Bronx nightclub called The Sparkle, where he became a music manager for
Grandmaster Caz and his group the Mighty Force MC's. While working at a
pizzeria, Jackson did his job so well that when the owner of the shop expanded his business to
Englewood,
New Jersey, he brought Jackson over to head the Crispy Crust store. While managing for a local hip hop group, the Mighty Force MC's (including Grandmaster Caz), Jackson was discovered by
Sylvia Robinson. She was out trying to find an act for the new hip-hop trend she had discovered through her son and she heard Jackson rapping some of Grandmaster Caz's rhymes by chance when she visited Crispy Crust Pizza in Englewood. According to a 2014
New York Post article, when Robinson asked him to join the group she was forming, Jackson went to Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers for rhymes, and Caz gladly gave him his notebook, hoping to eventually get something in return. Jackson, now called "Big Bank Hank," was 24 years old at the time
the Sugarhill Gang's
self-titled album was released. In his
New York Times obituary of Hank,
Jon Caramanica quotes
Wonder Mike: "He was boisterous — he filled the room.
Ralph Kramden-type stuff." ==Death==