Grandmaster Flash

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Summary
Grandmaster Flash's "messages" were frescoes of ghetto life, fusing socio-political commentary and senseless partying. His The Adventures... on the Wheels Of Steel (1981) was one of the first singles to use samples of other people's songs (Chic, Blondie, Queen), in fact, possibly the first record ever performed by a lone musician playing only turntables and a mixer as instruments.

If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.

Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Sadler) e` una delle figure storiche della rap-music. Dal suo quartier generale del Bronx ebbe origine gran parte del fenomeno dei "deejay". Lui e Gene Livingston, in arte Mean Gene, furono fra gli organizzatori dei party storici del 1976, e nel 1977 dominavano un terzo del Bronx. I due avevano preso l'abitudine di tenere party all'aperto, collegando l'impianto di amplificazione nientemeno che ai lampioni delle strade. Il punto di incontro favorito era il parco all'angolo fra la 169esima e Boston Road. Flash doveva combattere con i denti contro la fama di Hercules, perche', lavorando all' aperto, non poteva contare sulle luci e sui bassi, i due fattori piu` importanti di una discoteca. Ando` pero` ad imparare le tecniche sofisticate dei deejay di Manhattan, che si avvalevano di una tecnologia superiore. Flash fu cosi` il primo nel Bronx a utilizzare due giradischi contemporaneamente, in modo da ripetere il break mantenendo lo stesso battito.

Altre tecniche che Saddler apprese a Manhattan furono il "cutting" (tagliare il brano esattamente sulla battuta) e il "phasing" (alterare la velocita` del giradischi). Poi invento` il collage di break, l'arte di mescolare a velocita` vertiginose i frammenti sonori tratti dai dischi piu` disparati. In breve le sue tecniche gli valsero un locale, il Black Door, sempre su Boston Road. I suoi ballerini si specializzarono nel "freak", una danza frenetica che simulava l'atto sessuale, durante la quale poteva succedere praticamente di tutto. Flash invento` infine la tecnica di "back-spinning", cioe` di ripetere frasi e cadenze da un disco facendolo ruotare velocemente all'indietro con la mano. Saddler fu pertanto il maggiore artigiano del montaggio sonoro.

(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

Grandmaster Flash was even more scientific than Campbell in developing new turntable techniques specifically aimed at the needs of b-boys. He was also instrumental in turning the hip-hop dj into a profession: first he was hired by a small night club called the Black Door (with a crime boss as his manager), and then on 2 September 1976 he performed at Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom in front of 3,000 people, a privilege never accorded before to a dj.
It took them five years to finally make a record of the music that Sadler had invented (their first singles were fairly conventional raps, such as Freedom, 1980, and Birthday Party, 1981) but when their ghetto frescoes were finally released (starting with The Message, 1982) they triggered a veritable revolution. The Adventures ... on The Wheels Of Steel (1981) was one of the first singles to use sampling (sampling Chic, Blondie and Queen). White Lines (1983) is an orgy of electronic effects.
Grandmaster Flash's "thump-music" shamelessly exploits clapping, brass fanfares, a kazoo ensemble and visceral screams. His hits are acts of schizophrenia, torn between socio-political commentary and the ultimate carefree party music. They are hypnotic and logorrheic deliria that scour the streets of the ghetto and gather populist fragments of daily banality for an infinite-length mural. The general exuberance, the tribal rhythms and the lascivious funky lines transcend into "messages": universal visions in which ghetto life was abstracted (and peppered with hilarious and surreal proverbs such as "It's like a jungle sometime/ it makes me wonder how I keep going under").
The later songs were drenched in a more alienated mood (Survival, 1983; New York New York, 1984; Gold, 1988), and were focused on the hedonistic aspect of dancing with plenty of electronic beats.
Sadler not only advanced the technique of rapping, but also turned it into a form of political art that descended from Ochs and Scott-Heron. Sadler was the "Bill Haley" of rap: he opened the doors to a genre that other, more authentic, folk heroes would transform into art. With him, the DJ became a creative actor in the musical process and the turntable a musical instrument, particularly ideal for underlining a "message" as required by all agit-prop art.
Greatest Message (SugarHill, 1984) is an anthology
The Greatest Hits (Earmark, 2004) is a 3-LP anthology.
The Bridge: Concept of a Culture (Strut, 2009), his first album in over two decades, was a mediocre work.

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