Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message (1982) LP - €15,00

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The Message is the debut studio album of American hip hop group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, released in October 1982 by Sugar Hill Records. 

It features the influential eponymous track and hip-hop single “The Message“.

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five merged the Afrocentric consciousness expressed by such early rappers as Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets with b-boy production to create “The Message,” an all-time rap anthem. 

It was the focal point of this LP, which also included “It’s Nasty” and “Scorpio,” two other strong cuts that might have been winners on their own. 

Unfortunately, rather than a starting point, this album proved to be their ultimate peak.

Critics reviewing hailed The Message as the year’s best album and explained that while the emerging rap genre had often been criticized for confining itself to “bragging and boasting … The Message is different. 

It’s a gritty, plain-spoken, vividly cinematic portrait of black street life…social realism has rarely worked well in a pop-music context, but The Message is an utterly convincing cry of frustration and despair that cannot be ignored.

The Message was a “singles-plus filler cash-in” that proved “a fascinating time capsule of rap’s early attempts with the album format” as well as “a full-length artistic breakthrough, a rap album that earned respect on its own terms”.

Side A

A1.  She’s Fresh  (5:59)

A2.  It’s Nasty  (4:19)

A3.  Scorpio  (4:55)

A4.  It’s a Shame (Mt. Airy Groove)  (4:57)

Side B

B1.  Dreamin’  (5:47)

B2.  You Are  (4:51)

B3.  The Message  (7:12)

Sample credits

• "She's Fresh" contains samples from "It's Just Begun" by The Jimmy Castor Bunch and "The Lovomaniacs" by Boobie Knight.
• "It's Nasty" contains samples from "Genius of Love" by Tom Tom Club and the opening interpolates Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland.
• "It's a Shame" contains samples from "Mt. Airy Groove" by Pieces Of A Dream.
• "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" contains samples from "Good Times" by Chic, "Apache" by The Incredible Bongo Band, "Rapture" by Blondie, "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen, "8th Wonder" by The Sugarhill Gang, "Monster Jam" by The Sequence, "Glow of Love" by Change and "Life Story" by The Hellers.

Personnel

• Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler) – turntables, drum programming, Flashformer transform DJ device, background vocals
• The Kidd Creole (Nathaniel Glover Jr.) – lead and background vocals, writer and arranger
• Keef Cowboy (Keith Wiggins) – lead and background vocals, writer and arranger
• Grandmaster Melle Mel (Melvin Glover) – lead and background vocals, writer and arranger
• Scorpio (Eddie Morris) – lead and background vocals, writer and arranger
• Rahiem (Guy Todd Williams) – lead and background vocals, writer and arranger
• Doug Wimbish - bass
• Skip McDonald - guitar
• Reggie Griffin, Jiggs, Sylvia Robinson - Prophet Sequential
• Gary Henry, Dwain Mitchell - keyboards
• Keith LeBlanc - drums
• Ed Fletcher (Duke Bootee) - percussion, co-lead vocals on "The Message"
• Chops Horn Section - brass

Notes

Release:  1982

Format:  LP, Vinyl

Genre:  Hip Hop, Rap

Label:  Sugar Hill

Catalog#  540040

Vinyl:  Goed (VG)

Cover:  Goed (VG)

Prijs: €15,00