School of Rock
Random article All articles A–Z
2 languages

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five was formed in 1978 in the South Bronx in New York. DJ Grandmaster Flash worked with five MCs: Melle Mel, Kidd Creole, Keef Cowboy, Scorpio and Rahiem. Flash developed techniques for switching between two records faster and more precisely. The group is important because with The Message it showed that rap could be more than party music: a report on life in the city.

Music and breakthrough

Around 1980 the group signed with Sylvia Robinson's Sugar Hill Records. The first single there, Freedom (1980), reached number 19 on the R&B chart. In 1981 Flash made The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel, a record that he mixed live on several turntables, with scratching in it. The Message (1982) was written by Duke Bootee, Melle Mel, Jiggs Chase and Sylvia Robinson. The tempo is slow, the space in the arrangement is large. Melle Mel raps about poverty, noise, crime and a boy who ends up in prison. Grandmaster Flash himself does not play on it. In England The Message reached number 8, in the Dutch Top 40 number 6.

Influence

In 1983 a quarrel with Sugar Hill over royalties followed, and the group split into two camps. In 2002 The Message became the first hip hop recording to enter the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry. In 2007 the group became the first hip hop group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2012 Rolling Stone named The Message the best hip hop song of all time.

Listening

Listening tip. The Message (1982): notice how slow and bare the beat is compared with Rapper's Delight. A synthesizer line keeps returning, and in that open space every line from Melle Mel stands out.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (en): Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
  2. Wikipedia (en): The Message (Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five song
Categories: ArtistsEarly hip hop