Grandmaster Flash (name Joseph Saddler) is credited by many popular cultural historians, as being the innovator who brought about the genres of both hip-hop and rap
music. During the latter half of the Seventies, within the epicenter of the New York City dance music scene, Grandmaster Flash was one of the first DJ's to take the sounds of the streets of New York, to influential "in crowd", that was surrounding pop art icon Andy Warhol at Studio 54. In doing so, he transformed the record turntable, from what was primarily used as only a tool for music and sound reproduction, into a musical instrument. And thus, according to Flash himself, he created an entirely new genre of popular music.
Today, with the rap and hip-hop industry earning billions of dollars in the USA alone, Grandmaster Flash is once again getting the recognition he believes his work deserves.
Flash is once again performing and has embarked upon a world tour in promotion of his new album titled, "Essential Mix: Classic Edition".
The following interview Grandmaster Flash talks about his musical achievements,
and how the sounds of hip-hop and rap music, are now a major part of international pop music.
(Q)- Many pop music historians credit you with being the first DJ to record
rap music and hip-hop music in the mid to late Seventies.
Grandmaster Flash- I am Grandmaster Flash, I am a pioneer, one of the creators of the art form.
(Q)- Rap and hip-hop has become a billion dollar yearly business and is
in many countries, the most popular and lucrative style of recorded music.
So to many, a genre of music which you were the innovator of, is now a worldwide phenomenon. What is the difference between the way you are accepted as the innovator of the rap, hip-hop genres here in the USA and as an international recording artist?
Grandmaster Flash- God has been great to me. When I wake up in the morning, I thank God for me being able to wake up. Everything else after that is gravy.
It's something extra. I'm very happy and a lot of what hip-hop and rap is about today, is due to what I did. All of these people have said to me, "Flash thank you." The way I see this is, I have a gift and the gift is not mine, it's a gift from God and I was chosen to be the vessel. There is no other DJ who can attest to being able to do what I do for so long. So this is a gift and when I look back, it's all God and His blessing plain and simple. I make the best out of today. I can look back but I can't look in front, so I make today the best I can do today. I think about the things that I've achieved but I can only thank God that's it. I cannot explain what I've done.
(Q)- Rap music and hip-hop music has come under strong criticism in the USA for becoming a negative influence on many young people. What do you have to say, when you see the criticism being leveled at the genres of music you are accredited with being the innovator of?
Grandmaster Flash- I'm even afraid to think about what I've done. Because it's bigger then me. So I know this is bigger then me and that's why I'm still here and relatively good at what I do. And, only God knows, I just take it day by day. It's quite amazing and what tickles me the most is that young people want to come out and see me and learn about me. Before I leave here, I don't want to be a myth, I don't want to be folklore. I want to be someone who the young people have seen, they've felt, they've touched and they've stood next to. So there is so much more work for me to do. Quite frankly, if God is willing, I don't have time to be sick, I don't have time to die. I don't have time to take this for granted. There are so many people who need to see me still, even after twenty-seven years. I'm happy that so many people are into hip-hop and rap. After all something that is loved by so many different people will have a different point of view. Now, my point of view might not be what everyone likes, but that is what makes the world go around. It's all quite simple. Some adults don't take the time to just listen, because today's kids have their own language, their own way of doing things. Just as we did when we were growing up. So why damn them for the same things that we wanted not so long ago? I mean ask me why hip-hop and rap music has remained so popular and I'll tell you that maybe there are recording artists who still know what the kids want. And, what is moving and shaking the world of music right now is the kids! These kids come out and they support the music that they love. They stay with it. I guess as adults we forget to play, even if you're eighty years old. You've got to remember to still take the time and play. Life just can't be that serious all of the time that you cannot go out and play some of the time. Now not all of the time, but some of the time. If going out and going dancing and shaking it up a little bit at a club is what it takes then go and do it. That's my answer.
(Q)- Your "old school" version of rap and hip-hop music is still very popular on a global scale.
Grandmaster Flash- I just did a nineteen city UK (England) tour. It was totally excellent. I had people come up to me and say, "Thank you." so often, it is a bit overwhelming for me. I had people come up to me and hold my hand and kiss the back of my hand. And, I'm said to them, "Please don't do that!" I don't want that adulation on that level. Everything was overwhelming at times for me.
I just pray to God that I maintain the strength to continue to do this.
(Q)- In your opinion, just why are the British so enamored with your work?
Grandmaster Flash- I constantly preach the universal language. So it's more of a prophetic point of view and I am sort of like a prophet. I'm a vessel of God. From a musical standpoint, I'm a vessel of God. There aren't too many places I walked into there, where I did not make a positive impression and leave with a positive energy to some degree. And, I think the British are more open minded to both new and old things where, in America, we're more sectioned in regards to new and old. And since we are sectioned and we give in to this the issue of, "This entity is only going to play this music and that entity is only going to play that music." This music is only going to be played for this younger generation and this other music is only going to be played for this older generation. Everything has become a section here.(USA) And that's sort of sad, that's sort of sad. The only positive thing about that for me in America is that I have the skill to handle all of the different sections. Like, I can be working onstage in front of a crowd of eighteen year olds and rock the all night long. Or I can DJ for an audience of the age group of thirty years and older and rock them all night long. In Britain, the British are not that way. They are more open minded. They're way ahead of the American audiences.
(Q)- Is there a central theme of the music you've chosen to comprise on your new album, titled "Essential Mix: Classic Edition"?
Grandmaster Flash- The music on this new record was extremely hard for me to come together because this is music that is from an era that is very large period of time and a very large body of work musically. So, I had to hone it down to what I call Flow. The fact that many mixes, in the experimenting of the music on this CD and this had the best feelings, the best pull or the Flow. Because if you were following the dance music of the Seventies and Eighties, then you know that there were thousands of hit singles from that time period. I have listened to every one of those songs, I know everyone of those songs, because I've been listening to everyone of those songs for the last twenty-seven years of my life. Tens of thousands of songs. For this new CD, I took out four hundred records, spread those albums out on the floor of my living room of my house and then I listened to the albums one by one, for a two month period. I'd listen to those songs and listen to them, choose the songs, make composite mixes (recordings) and then test mixes (recordings) and lived with those mixes. I'd drive around and listen to those mixes in my car, I really lived with those mixes (recordings). I lived with the music until I came up with this. So this is the first step for me and I'm very happy with this first initial step. Hip-hop from my standpoint is rock, jazz, blues, R&B and opera as well. It is a conglomeration of all of these forms of music. The music on this CD shows this, "B Boy", this Black Boy who came out of the ghetto. Looking for something different. And in looking for something different, I found a club like Studio 54. (Studio 54 was a legendary New York City disco nightclub from the Seventies.) In the club I began playing the music that eventually made me famous.
(Q)- How did that occur?
Grandmaster Flash- I was entertaining another class of people and that other class of people was anybody else who was other then black. Because before I was playing in Studio 54, I was playing records in clubs that were strictly for Black and Latino people. The particular dance music on this new, "Essential Mix: Classic Edition" CD, opened up to me that fact that white people liked funky dance music. Germans, Italians and French people all liked funky music by black recording artists. When I went to Studio 54, I realized that.
(Q)- You were the only DJ to take the electronic music of the German techno rock band Kraftwerk and invented the music which later would become today's hip-hop genre.
Grandmaster Flash- Kraftwerk was a hip-hop record for me. At the hip-hop parties, the music on the albums by Kraftwerk was a way for me to take a brief break after playing twenty records in five minutes time or even two hundred records in twenty minutes time. No one at these parties had ever even heard
of Kraftwerk or the music by Kraftwerk, so I would play the record to take a break.
(Q)- Why was that important?
Grandmaster Flash- The key was that I'd keep the crowd at those parties moving. I'd never let them be idle, I'd never let them take a break. That is how I was the innovator of hip-hop. I always wanted to keep the crowd moving on the dance floor. And that is still my point today, I don't ever want to let the people on the dance floor be idle. And there were very few records that passed that test. Kraftwerk had music that happened to be one of those records.I was the only person who they ever licensed the record to. So, that was a very important moment in history for me.
(Q)- While you were the recording artist who discovered and virtually invented rap music, you did not continue with rap. Why did you not explore the further possibilities of rhymes and rap music?
Grandmaster Flash- Because I couldn't do both. I tried it for a very short period and I was terrible. I just couldn't do both. I was so scientific into vinyl (recorded music). So scientific into how amplifiers work and electronics and electronic music. That lead me towards the DJ aspect of music. The (record) turntable, mixing (board), speakers, crossover equipment and headphones are all
electronic. I was so much better with that element and looking back, I wanted to do both good. I was better at one so I dropped the other.
(Q)- What are you looking forward to doing on you current world tour?
Grandmaster Flash- I would have to say that I am extremely interested in what young kids like and are interested in musically. I want to know what they like and I want to know and play it for them if I can. Young people are really our tomorrow. When I meet them, they are very kind to me. When they can, they ask me lots of questions and they treat me like one of them. Which is beautiful for me. I don't want to be outside of them. I want to hear about what they like and what they don't like. I want to know what they are thinking, I want to know everything they're into, the latest dance, the latest craze, the latest record that the young people are into. I want to know what they're into now and why.
Because a lot of the rap, hip-hop is a remake of what I was doing twenty years ago. So, I want to know what kind of spin do they put on it today.
End.
