Best Of

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Full performer name: Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five/Melle Mel.
Personnel includes: Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Scorpio, Cowboy, Kidd Creole, Raheem (vocals).
Producers include: Joey Robinson, Jr., Sylvia Inc. Productions, Jiggs Chase, E. Fletcher, Melle Mel.
Compilation producers: Joey Robinson, Jr., David McLees.
Includes liner notes by Shannita Williams.
Wherever the origin of hip-hop is discussed, three names are invoked: Herc, Flash and Bam; the trinity of Bronx DJs who pioneered the style. Kool Herc unquestionably came first (he coined the term "b-boy"), followed closely by Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. It was Flash who developed the hip-hop DJ's arsenal of techniques; sometime around 1974 he crazy-glued a light switch on to his mixing board, thereby creating the first cross-fader. The mixing techniques this innovation allowed so outdistanced the competition that Flash often caused crowds to form around the DJ booth and--to keep the party moving--had to employ mic controllers to shift the focus off himself and back to the dance-floor. This crew of emcees he assembled became the Furious Five.
MESSAGE collects 11 hip-hop anthems originally released as 12"s on the Sugar Hill label. Although "Step Off Megamix" is a poor substitute for the conspicuously absent "Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel," this is a nonetheless crucial CD collection of previously vinyl-only classics like "Freedom," "White Lines" and of course "The Message." The first rap to incorporate social consciousness, the latter also occasioned rap's MTV debut.