I confess, I'm unimpressed by the calculated scowls that people in this field present to cameras. Do they bear that expression all day? Seems like a lot of effort to come off as nothing more than pretentious
Having grown up in the shadows of the Boogie Down and around the corner from Sugar Hill in da 'Wood, its a shame that the Robinson's ripped off their signed artists. They ripped off many.
But this genre of muzak lives on!
But it's not the only style to fly from the Bx
Fania All Stars!
God Bless the Bronx and GMF
But this genre of muzak lives on!
But it's not the only style to fly from the Bx
Fania All Stars!
God Bless the Bronx and GMF
2
I first heard the Grandmaster in Missoula, Montana, in the early 1980's. We carried him with us on a trek through the grand canyon, "don't push me cause I'm close to the edge. . . " A different context I am sure, but very entertaining. Good to hear about Nelly Nell again.
4
Gosh, I get that she didn't necessarily treat her artists well, but doesn't Sugarhill founder Sylvia Robinson rate at least a mention here? She was the one willing to take a chance on what was at that time, a brand-new, radical and let's face it, very black music form, one that, to judge by some of the responses here, is still disdained by instrument obsessed purists
1
Like most originators with predawn ideas and moments, Grandmaster Flash and others are often misunderstood without putting them within the context of their experience--the South Bronx in the late 1970s with the clash of Disco, Rock n Roll, and the emergence of Punk, poverty, a city near ruins, bankrupt, the blackout, etc. In between all this chaos comes the birth of Hip Hop. Flash and others created something with music--they are musicians and they helped other musicians create a new form of music and expression that comes from the heart of this community, Black and Latino. This is why Hip Hop and Rap live on and have influence the music and the industry for decades now.
11
Rap and hip hop beats have spread throughout the world. I was watching the first episode of Gomorrah on Sundance TV, an Italian production, and was struck by the music--rap, Italian style--sounded great!
Great article on the Grandmaster!
Great article on the Grandmaster!
4
The Get Down is amazing - cannot wait for the next six episodes to drop - and Grandmaster Flash is as cool as he ever was. Thank you for this article - and thank you, Flash.
12
"A child is born with no state of mind, blind to the ways of mankind..."
'The Message' is beyond a powerful Rap, it truly was (is!) the Medium as McLuhan would say.
'The Message' is beyond a powerful Rap, it truly was (is!) the Medium as McLuhan would say.
7
Love the Master! Keepin' it real~
3
GMF opened for the Clash at Bonds in 1981-- two genres little known and utterly juxtaposed. The audience, leathered and pierced, was there for the headliner; the night I went, Flash couldn't quite get his sync quite right, people got impatient and basically booed their glittered top hat bling offstage. Flash left in a poof of angry smoke, and many of us didn't know what we'd just missed.
5
The show is fantastic!! Even for a non-hip-hop lover like myself. The feel of the city at the time is brought front and center. The acting is superb and the story flows so well, you may end up watching all 6 episodes in one sitting. Thanks for the terrific backstory on the real Grandmaster Flash.
3
As a life long graffiti artist, I am happy to see your got your history and dates correct. Graffiti had little or nothing to do with Hip Hop as we understand it today (Graffiti, Breaking, DJing and Rapping). Graffiti art was fully evolved by 1974 with whole cars running on the 2 & 5 lines. Early graffiti artist listened to the music of their times like Earth Wind and Fire, Black Sabbath, etc...
8
I've never wanted to download a tv series soundtrack until this show! Music is so animating I can only watch it on my feet while dancing to the beat
3
why not ask the baker indeed? i remember this guy from real early videos on mtv. yeah then he was gone. but through the years i would always hear his name. time keeps being itself and a few years later after listening to friends keep on making fun of rap i remained silent. i knew it had true promise when miles davis played with it briefly and quincey was right there too. randy newman dropped in for a brief one tune that works real well
and that's when my interest piqued. i started going back at that point and have been a fan of the genre since. i love music i am 63 and white. thank you grandmaster flash.
and that's when my interest piqued. i started going back at that point and have been a fan of the genre since. i love music i am 63 and white. thank you grandmaster flash.
19
@Irving Nusbaum; Pop music = fizz and goes flat without innovation. So many challenges and obstacles can be laid in someone's path to a conventional life, career or education, as in Grandmaster Flash's case, you have to invent with what you have available to you OR you will cease to exist...! What was your biggest challenge...?
4
This Netflix show is outstanding. It takes you to the time and place, the Bronx in the late 70's. The noises, the heat, the vibrancy, the poverty - they all come alive. Thanks to the Times for bringing more of this amazing era to us
17
Everyone reading this and watching "The Get Down" should read Tricia Rose's *Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America* (Wesleyan University Press 1994). Very happy to see, with Grandmaster's help, that Luhrman is recounting the genealogy of this important contribution to American culture. This is no fad. This is not "poetry with a beat." It is the expression of a time and place that resonates now around the world even for those who do not feel it.
22
So glad to see this pioneer is still going, and that he contextualized how the music, and related culture, came into being. Hip hop is now a global music, created and heard all over the world, but its origins are the middle, working-class and poor Afro-Caribbean, African-American and Afro-Latino communities of the humble Bronx borough of New York City (with musicians from Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island each eventually making major contributions). DJ Grandmaster Flash, the Bronx, and New York City all deserve the highest thanks and praise as a result.
22
He helped shape my son's tastes in music and pop culture.
2
Constantin Stanislavsky said, "Obstacles make the will grow stronger." Lord knows the challenges these youth faced. Now we all enjoy the art they made from their challenges. God bless America and these great AMERICANS!
18
I had the unfortunate experience of going to The Channel in Boston to see what was billed as Grand Master Flash & The Furious 5, and was instead Melle Mel & The Furious 4. They had fired Grand Master Flash the night before and then lip synced the entire set. The night before that show I saw The Beastie Boys at The Rat, who had built a reputation as a hardcore band that as a lark wrote a novelty rap song " Cookie Puss" and did a combo hardcore set and rap set. Their rap set made Melle Mel look like rank amateurs.Given the success of the Beastie Boys vs Melle Mel moving forward, it's evident how important Grand Master Flash was to the world of rap, but also how his place in rap history should be acknowledged as perhaps the seminal innovator of the genre.
23
Cookie Puss!!! "Ask Cookie Puss, he'll tell you!" Thanks for that memory!
4
I am happy he is doing well a true "national" treasure! Do not forget Dougie Fresh another Bajan!
16
He was way ahead of his time. Good to see he is doing well. His version of White Lines will always be a classic.
12
"Yes Yes Y'all: The Experience Music Project Oral History Of Hip-hop's First Decade" by Jim Fricke. Fricke did an amazing job tracking down the people that made this happen. This is the real history of Hip Hop's first years as told by the people that created it and lived it.