#258: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message (1982)

Zack: I’ve been thinking a lot about the legacy of rappers lately, partially because I think it’s an interesting topic and partially because it affords me an opportunity to stop thinking about other, real-life stuff. What brought me to this topic was the release of Eminem’s latest album, Marshall Mathers LP 2. Beyond just the title, the album is often a blatant reflection on his legacy as an artist and where he’s matured and where (more often) he’s just the same as he was back when the Slim Shady and Marshall Mathers LP were both being denied to prepubescent children across the land by parents who didn’t find being regaled by tales of stapling English teachers nuts to stacks of paper as obviously fantastic as they clearly are. MMLP2 is, overall, a pretty good album that has a handful of absolutely brilliant moments. More importantly, it’s my second favorite rap album of the 2013. Now obviously I can’t listen to everything and this could certainly change if Atmosphere somehow set a date for their “late 2013” release. Still, considering this was Eminem’s eighth studio album and his best since his fourth (The Eminem Show – also the first one I was actually allowed to get), it’s a pretty impressive accomplishment. Also impressive is the two rappers on either side of his. Kanye West’s Yeezus (his seventh solo album) and Jay-Z’s Magna Carta…Holy Grail (his eleventh solo album) take the pole position and a distant third, respectively. Staying power is actually achievable for modern hip-hop artists. Meanwhile, there’s Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. On the strength of just one song, they’ve had some of their material preserved in the Library of Congress and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One. Song. That’s incredible. And that’s not to say that all of The Message (the album) isn’t fantastic – it is. But it’s that one song, that seven minutes right at the end, that cemented a legacy. After that, well there’s White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It) that I guess add to Melle Mel’s status as one of the top socially conscious guys to ever bless the mic, but even them I’ve always just rolled my eyes at that song as just another example of 80s cheesiness. Like any copies of the record sold should come with a sticker of the Gipper with a perm giving a thumbs up. That’s pretty much it, but that was more than enough to book time at the Grammy’s for a reunion more than 25 years later. And the early years of hip-hop are littered with similar stories (see: Blow, Curtis). But now? The rap world – the one created by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five – is one where artists can actually achieve consistent commercial and critical success. The genre has progressed wildly since the final seven minutes of The Message came out, but I don’t think any of that change would be possible if the annals of rap were short those seven minutes.

Favorite Tracks: The Message; She’s Fresh; You Nasty

Emily: What I didn't realize about Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five before today is that The Message is essentially their only album. They broke up soon after, reunited in '88 with most of the the full lineup, and then disbanded entirely save for the reunion at the Grammy's a few years back. I thought they were significantly more prolific than that - they are certainly well-known and well-respected, enough to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame no less. But no, The Message is their one and only success, and its title track their long-lasting legacy. Every hip-hop group in the '80s seems to be like that, except for Run-DMC, and perhaps others that have slipped my mind. But each one has become so influential because they shaped the genre that has become one of the most popular, prolific, and critically acclaimed 30+ years later. I see that with The Message, as an album but more specifically with the song. It draws from funk and other sounds of the era, bringing the beats together with rhymes and tongue twisting lyrics - some silly, some serious, but all fitting together to help shape what hip-hop was, is, and will become.

Favorite Tracks: The Message; She's Fresh; Dreamin'