The Birth of Hip Hop and why Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five were seen as genre-defining

The era is the 1970’s and economic depression is hitting the poorest of communities in the United States. One area, the South Bronx was particularly badly hit and was occupied by some of the poorest African American and Hispanic citizens. Between 1960 and 1975 the property market in the South Bronx had become decimated and many of the large tenements were being occupied by drug dealers and squatters. The tenement owners having few options for either rental income or sale, began burning down their properties in the hope of an insurance claim, to try to recoup some of their properties value. This was named the ‘Burning of the Bronx’ and saw the area drop even further into economic hardship. From the ashes of the burning buildings, came a new style of music called Hip Hop and with it a number of DJ’s who would go on to become essential influences within the poorest communities of the United States and beyond.

Melle Mel was one of the first DJs to come out of the depression of the Bronx. He was originally a member of one of the drug and street gangs of the Bronx, when he decided to try to change things. He started using record decks and old speakers on the streets to bring gangs together to compete against each other but rather than with guns, they began fighting for recognition as the best dancers. The new dance style which came out with the Hip Hop music was break dancing, which saw young, mainly men, twisting and turning almost acrobatically on their hands and even sometimes on their heads.  Along with other influential DJs of the time, a particular young man named Joseph Sadler created a new musical style of “cutting” and “scratching” (pushing the record back and forth on the turntable), “phasing” (manipulating turntable speeds), and repeating the drum beat or climatic part of a record, called the “break.” He developed a way to move between records without missing a beat, using a mixer. This effectively brought two records together to produce a very different sound. He later became known as Grandmaster Flash due to the speed at which he could switch between records and later added other member to his group including Melle Mel, eventually creating the Furious Five.

 Hip Hop is made up of three parts, the music, the dance and the artwork (graffiti). Each of these parts has an important role to play in the Hip Hop movement and genre.

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica break dancing “is meant to convey the rough world of the city streets from which it is said to have sprung. It is also associated with a particular style of dress that includes baggy pants or sweat suits, baseball caps worn sideways or backward, and sneakers (required because of the dangerous nature of many of the moves).”

The name break dancing comes from the Hip Hop term the ‘break’. It gained more widespread popularity when in the 1980’s Michael Jackson adopted the move ‘moonwalk’ and producers began to realise the potential of the dance. At this point the media started to call it break dancing. It continued it's rise in popularity and in 2004 break dance artists were asked to perform at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II. Finally, the ultimate recognition came when in 2020, the Olympic committee agreed to include breaking as a sport from 2024 onwards.  The street art of Graffiti was more prominent in the South Bronx in the late 70’s with artists using cable cars and subways to express their discontent at the poverty and lifestyles they were subjected to. They used this form of art to try to show to the world how life was in the suburbs of New York.

According to Dorian Lynskey (2016) writing in the Guardian, the first recognised Hip Hop track was by James Brown, ‘Give It Up Or Turnit Loose’ in 1969. Nearly 13 years later one of most important Hip Hop tracks to be released was ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. The song was first written by Duke Bootee (who started writing it in his mother’s basement in 1980) along with Melle Mel and was finally released by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five on Sugar Hill Records on 1st July 1982. Cairns, D., (2008) wrote in the Sunday Times “Where it was unarguably innovative was in slowing the beat right down and opening up space in the instrumentation - the music isn't so much hip-hop as noirish, nightmarish slow-funk, stifling and claustrophobic, with electro, dub and disco also jostling for room in the genre mix”. This describes the way the sound and melody almost stops before re-engaging with the listener, which may be compared to the idea of the ‘Break’ where only the drum beat is audible.

The track uses mainly base and synthesised sounds to create the melody. A particularly unusual style was the two-hook idea which is seen with the first hook being “Don’t push me, coz I’m close to the edge” and the second hook being “It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from goin under”. Edward G. Fletcher and Sylvia Robinson were the producers of ‘The Welcome’ and Fletcher also collaborated on the lyrics. He is quoted in an article by the Guardian in 2013 as saying “Shit, if I'd known what it was going to do, I'd have kept it for myself."

Surprisingly, Grandmaster Flash and the members of the Furious Five with exception to Melle Mel, didn’t want anything to do with the song, they even laughed about it saying it would come to nothing. In the end Duke Bootee and Melle Mel rapped on the track and eventually close to the completion of the production, Grandmaster Flash requested that he and the other members performed on it, the producer Sylvia Robinson point blank refused.

The music video was shot in the South Bronx, the rapping was mimed by Grandmaster Flash as the vocals were Melle Mel and Duke Bootee. The track spoke to the poor communities of the United States and specifically The South Bronx which was where the members of the group grew up and addressed the feeling of being trapped within the confines of this life, with no way out. The lyrics depict the lives of the migrants who lived in the South Bronx and the desperation felt on the streets. The first verse sets quite a tragic scene, as do the following verses

“Broken glass everywhere

People pissing on the stage, you know they just don't care

I can't take the smell, can't take the noise

Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice

Rats in the front room, broke dudes in the back

Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat

I tried to get away but I couldn't get far

'Cause the man with the judge repossessed my car”

Grandmaster flash was known for his technical tricks, mixing records behind his back or under tables, and manipulating mixing faders with his feet.  He was recognised as one of the founding members of Hip Hop.

One of the most influential rapper/hip hop artists today, who stands out for his lyrical style is Kendrick Lama. According to the YouGov listings he ranks as 115 in the contemporary musical artists list. His debut album Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City was released in 2012 to critical acclaim and reflects his life growing up in Compton, California, describing the dangers of street gangs, drugs and racial injustices. Grandmaster Flash ‘The Message’ definitely paved the way for artists like Kendrick Lama to put forward their fears and the feelings of an African American growing up in the poorest neighbourhoods of the United States.