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Grandmaster Flash & THE FURIOUS FIVE
way more Helter Skelter.

October 1982 - 2022: 40 years of: The Message.

The Big Bang for Hip-Hop.

The Bronx in 1978, where disco-beats, rhinestones and Jheri curls rules. Yet six young rebel at heart, electrified the dance-floors with a social-conscious missive. When disco-pop morphs into street rhythmnblues with backstreet rap ...the birth of Hip-Hop. Young dancers with a punk flair and beat-street breakdown, please welcome from the ghetto, Rocknroll Hall Of Famers: Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five.

A scene-changing event: 1981's "The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel", the 7:07sec genesis of sampled beats and breakdance. This gigantic cut single-handedly provoked an exodus from traditional instruments to mixing-desks, and from the dance-floors to the back-alley boogie action. Now that scratching and loops were a thing and turn-tables were now more then a bulky home playback-device ...Flash wanted more !

Drop the bass, performed by Doug Wimbish a future LIVING COLOUR member, this high-stamina grooves with multi-vocals attacks, this song is killer, it's fresh "She's Fresh". The wheels of steel keeps rolling on "It's Nasty" with it's sick rhymes, while the slick gospel-pop "Dreamin" is dedicated to the great Stewie Wonder.

The religious classicrock piano-led "You Are" brings us closer to The One above while the authoritarian "Scorpio" is the maniacal robot that commands the lights and sounds of the hall. The epic closing-cut "The Message" is an impressive blunt innovation in this new genre. A reciting non-stop 7:12sec inner-city decay rap where Melle Mel and Duke Bootee shares the mic over a rock-solid rhythm and lays the foundation for rap music and emcee-ing.

Graffiti-stained New-York, the hotbed for the trend-setting Masters Of Ceremonies, a term that would eventually be shorten to MCs. All renegades under Sugar Hill Records, the powerhouse for hot vibes and wicked posh attitude. In a sea of VILLAGE PEOPLE, BEE GEES and ABBA ...the new school hooligans of Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five were a true rapper's delight !

Sadly, this unique urban unit was rapidly split apart by thin white lines by mid 1983 and albeit a failed 1987 reunion, the band was already part of pop-culture history-books. The path was now clear for mid 80s NYC new school: RUN DMC, BEASTIE BOYS and eventual PUBLIC ENEMY.

"It's like a jungle sometimes..."

RIP Keef Cowboy (1960-1989)

*
The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel = long-version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXNzMVLqIHg
The Message = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYMkEMCHtJ4
The Message = full LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=675AUtFJdnE&list=PL0RtOyZYVXRAD_iFXDgB7eN3NYIoktwL9
Interview on MuchMusic in 1983
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwG5YFvc6fM
Live on Soul Train in 1983
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4297PYv0fI
Grandmaster Flash schools us all
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk99DmV5uLk