Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

continued tradition of black consciousness shows no signs of slowing down. Again, hip hop music boasts an exhaustive list of conscious lyric riddled songs, even creating its own recognized sub genre, but perhaps the most recognized and celebrated song is Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s 1982 hit “The Message”. This song is a recount of cultural struggles present in “the jungle” of New York City. This was the first song of its kind in the hip hop community, straying away from the hip hop party scene and delivering lyrics meant to cause the listener to reflect on their own everyday struggles. Yet, this song almost never came to be according to the song’s main MC Melle Mel, “Our group didn’t actually want to do ‘The Message’ because we were used to doing party raps” (Gross). Melle Mel decided to go through with the song despite fearing it flopping due to it’s slower rhythm and serious lyrics. Today, the song which peaked at number four on Billboard’s R&B singles chart, is critically acclaimed, earning the title of “Greatest Hip-Hop Song of All Time” from popular music publication Rolling Stone and being recognized as the spark which started conscious rap (Rolling Stone). With this song’s release, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five would continue the black consciousness lyrical agenda that resonated so strongly in the funk era of the seventies. This song pushes the consciousness message by seemingly telling the stories of the black struggle in NYC, and in particular the…

In My City: Denver, CO & Top Flite Empire After reviewing the documentary at the HipHopDX.com offices, we discovered that we wanted the film to flow a bit differently. Because Kelly Nikole of HipHopDX.com is a very important participant in the In My City storyline, we would like the majority of the narration to be in a 1st person perspective. Here are our suggestions. After the In My City introduction, we’d like Kelly to explain how & where she met Top Flite Empire: • What were your initial…

Joseph Saddler, who has an alias as Grandmaster Flash, is an American hip hop recording artist and one of the pioneers of hip-hop, Djing, cutting, and mixing. His family migrated to the United States from Barbados, in the Caribbean. He grew up in The Bronx, New York where he attended Samuel Gompers High School, a public vocational school. There he learned how to repair electronic equipment. His parents played an important role in his interest in music as he was fascinated by his father’s music…

He was not only an artist but a Dj as well. He began djing as teen “in his bedroom, eventually developing and mastering three innovations that are still considered standard Djing techniques today” (Wikipedia). The three techniques are Scratching, Punch Phrasing, and Backspin Technique which are still used today. Flash earned a name for himself as a Dj with his group referred as Furious Five. Furious five included Cowboy, Melle Mel, and Kid Creole. They were impeccably very good which led them…

In this period, the “typical, run down ghetto” fantasy theme emerges. This theme is further emphasized with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message.” In the first verse of the song, he raps, “Broken glass everywhere / People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don't care I can’t take the smell, can’t take the noise.” In these few lines, he is able to paint the picture of the typical ghetto as well as voice his discontent with living there. Identifying that Grandmaster…

As seen with these examples, most of the notable early Hip Hop records have featured samples of rock songs or elements of rock. The effect was achieved vice versa. In 1980, the Clash, inspired by the Sugarhill Gang, recorded a rap song of their own: “The Magnificent Seven”. That same year, the Blondie song “Rapture” became the first song with rapping in it to top the U.S. charts. This was a direct result of Debbie Harry’s fascination with Hip Hop culture—in the song, she name-checks Fab 5 Freddy…

The cover of the Mo’meta blues book indicates a shadow dark face, and a lot of color question marks. Shadow dark face identifies Hip hop funeral that took place in may 1995 in addition it shows that Hip hop is something old. Color question marks point out that QuestLove has a lot of different questions in his mind and he will create something new Hip hop songs by answering them. Also QuestLove’s name starts with the word Q which has a circle shape QuestLove has reborned Hiphop, and put that into…

Rap music has gone through many changes since its start in 1979, and has been a big influence on music as a whole, and in its beginning, was presented to be positive. But with the development of gangster rap, people have come to believe that rap music is no longer positive, but instead has become a bad influence on children and society as a whole. Gangster rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that began to emerge in the late 1980’s and early 90’s which lyrics emphasized the so call “thug life”.…

have derided this as hypocritical and harmful, enabling white racists to use the word and confusing the issue over nigger. is now heard routinely in comedy routines by African Americans. The growing use of the term is often attributed to its ubiquity in modern American hip hop music. Examples include: Niggaz Wit Attitudes A Tribe Called Quest's "Sucka Nigga" Notorious B.I.G.'s "The Realest Niggaz" Jay-Z's "Jigga That Nigga" and "Nigga What, Nigga Who " Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Niggas in Paris"…

genre of music. Hip hop in the 1900s was developed by black and Latino youth in the Bronx. Many types of dancing were produced due to hip hop, for example, break dancing and breaking. Hip hop was very popular amongst the youth of the 1900s. "Three individuals most associated with the music's early development were Bronx residents Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash"(Hip Hop). Herc was famous for his own adaptation of bass and volume, Afrika Bambaataa created rap music, and…