WHEN HIP-HOP emerged from the Bronx in the late 1970s and spread throughout New York, punk and new wave musicians in the city btook notice.
One act that was impressed was Blondie, and lead singer Debbie Harry asked graffiti artist Fab Five Freddy to take her to where the music was being performed. What she saw amazed her and she paid tribute to the emerging movement on Blondie’s 1981 hit ‘Rapture’: “Fab Five Freddy told me everybody’s fly/DJ’s spinning I said ‘My my’/Flash is fast/Flash is cool”.
The Flash referred to is Grandmaster Flash one of the most innovative and important individuals in the development of DJing and hip-hop.
Inspired by hip-hop originators like DJ Kool Herc and Grand Wizzard Theodore, Grandmaster Flash studied their style and developed his own techniques, in the process creating methods that are now standard DJing techniques today such as Backspin, Punch Phrasing, and Scratching.
Such techniques were on full show in the audacious seven minute 1981 single ‘Adventures Of Flash On The Wheels Of Steel’, which features samples of Blondie’s ‘Rapture’, as well as songs by Queen and Chic, which are cut up and re-assembled into a stunning, rhythmic, sound collage.
This single was made with the group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five who created another classic with the 1982 hit ‘The Message’, which has, as Pitchfork said, “rightly been hailed as hip-hop’s first overtly political expression”.
These days, in addition to recording and performing, Grandmaster Flash owns a clothing line, G Phyre, has penned a memoir, The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats (2008 ), and hosts a weekly show on Sirius Satellite Radio.
Grandmaster Flash plays the Electric Garden and Theatre, Abbeygate Street tomorrow from 11pm. Support is from Graham Dolan and 110th Street. Tickets are €10. Early arrival is advised.
