Top Of The Box

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message 1982

In 1982 Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five released The Message. It was one of the first rap songs to talk about the troubles of living in the ghetto. The song was a big commercial hit and introduced a generation of black and white kids in the UK to black rap and hip hop music.

I first heard this song and watched the video on BBC2’s music programme The Whistle Test. I remember thinking I had never heard anything like this before, and how powerful the rapping was, while the beat was slower and more mechanical than disco and funk. I later read that black hip hop, rap and electro artists, the likes of Sugar Hill Gang, The Furious Five and Grandmaster Flash were influenced by Krafwerk as much as 70’s funk.