Grandmaster Flash is one of the most influential pioneers in the musical genres that have come to be known as rap and hip-hop. Flash was the first person to change the arrangements of songs by using duplicate copies of records and manually repeating the climatic part by rubbing the record back and forth. His group, The Furious Five released the first serious rap record in 1982, “The Message.”

Rap has now become a staple of mainstream American music. But it was only 20 years ago that Grandmaster Flash’s techniques of record scratching and mixing songs together were revolutionary. He elevated the DJ into a position of prominence that it had never seen before.

This hour, Grandmaster Flash looks back at the early days of rap and hip-hop and assesses where what those genres have become today.

Guests:

Grandmaster Flash, pioneer rap/ hip-hop artist