The Goo 1
Regular CONOR FARRELL A column celebrating memora
ble anniversary’s in music. THE GRAPE VINYL The Message – Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1982) In 1982 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released The Message, Hip Hops first socially conscious statement and arguably the most significant early example of the genre. But it wasn’t the first hip hop song to chart. That honour went to Rappers Delight by The Sugar Hill Gang in 1979. Rappers Delight became a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Hip Hop was already an underground scene that had been bubbling away in clubs and house parties since the early 70’s. But The Sugar Hill Gang’s consumerfriendly version of this scene opened the door to parody. Hip Hop was facing an ignominious death before it even began. For it to survive, in its purist form, it needed to go back to its roots and reclaim its gritty street credibility. Rewind back 10 years to 1972 where DJ Kool Herc threw the first Hip Hop Parties in The Bronx, New York. Herc invented one of the most important foundations of hip hop with the Breakbeat. He realised that the instrumental section or “break”, in a song, was the bit that got people dancing so he devised a way to extend the break by using 2 turntables. The next development came when Herc invited his friend Coke La Roc to be MC. This started off with La Roc giving shout-outs to his friends but quickly developed into rhythmic rhymes and ultimately what we now know as rapping! Of course, the roots of rapping can be traced back to the spoken word poetry of Gil Scott Heron and The Last Poets who often set their words to African beats at the turn of the 1970’s. Or you can go back further to the comic rhythmic monologues of variety entertainer Pigmeat Markham in the 50’s and 60’s. However far back you want to go it’s fair to say that the use of rhythmic speech PAGE 30 in the black community long proceeded La Roc’s early raps. But the combination of what Herc and La Roc were doing was revolutionary and an historically important moment in music. DON’T PUSH ME COS I’M CLOSE TO THE EDGE The young Grandmaster Flash and another kid from the Bronx called Afrika Bambatta took hip hop out of the projects to the downtown clubs. Flash, in particular, refined the techniques of mixing and scratching and advanced the art form to new sophisticated levels. With the endorsement of Blondie megastar Debbie Harry, amongst others in the downtown punk and art scene, Hip Hop was finally ready for its second real mainstream success. But Flash was acutely aware that back uptown the Bronx was still as dilapidated and impoverished as ever and so he and his Furious Five were in no mood to rap about the cliches of partying. They wanted to say something. The wanted to deliver The Message. The Message pulls no punches in describing the grime and horror of life in the ghetto with its powerful refrain “it’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under” or its stark warning “Don’t push me cos I’m close to the edge” predating the menace of gangster rap. The Message echoed the hard-hitting social lyrics of the progressive soul and funk of early 70’s artists such as James Brown, Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield or the proto political raps of Gil Scott Heron. But this was no rappers delight! Hip Hop had truly arrived, but it didn’t fall out of the sky. There were many important milestones along this Darwinian journey to the first defining moment. And make no mistake, The Message is Hip Hops first truly defining moment.