Biography of Grandmaster Flash

Grandmaster Flash (born Joseph Saddler, January 1, 1958) and the Furious Five (Cowboy, Keith Wiggins; Melle Mel, Melvin Glover; Kidd Creole, Danny Glover; Mr. Ness, Eddie Morris; and Rahiem, Guy Williams) were the most important group in the early days of rap music and, in fact, developed certain crucial aspects of the genre. Saddler was the DJ, providing the musical bed by manipulating records on turntables, scratching them, repeating particular instrumental sections, and thus creating new music out of collages of existing recordings. The most important such work was the single "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel," released in 1981.Most of the group's records, however, featured the interlocking raps of the five rappers, and the most significant of these was The Message (1982), led primarily by Melle Mel, which turned away from the party subjects of many current rap records to focus on urban social issues.The group had split by 1984, with Melle Mel going off on his own. It later re-formed in 1987. Grandmaster Flash resurfaced in the public consciousness in late 1993, thanks to interviews done in Rolling Stone and The Source and Rhino reissues featuring such legendary tracks as "White Lines" and "Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel." Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel attempted a comeback in 1997 with the album Right Now, which failed to gain much attnetion upon its spring release. ~ William Ruhlmann