More than often, I think that maybe if [some of] today’s rap stars spent less time singing about their private jets, b****es, Lamborghinis, and million-dollar houses, and more time singing about the challenges facing the most disadvantaged in society, the world might have become a better place since 1982.
However, the social and economic struggles do not take away from what a great record “The Message” was at the time. There is no blame placed on Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five that no one listened at that time. The group laid out all of the issues for people to see, in hopes that some would take action. Although, no one chose to take action, and here we are 40 years later fighting the same fight…
If only we’d listened more closely to what Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five told us 40-odd years ago, and acted on the concerns they raised at the time, the world might not be in the mess it’s in today.
The question for us all to consider now is what are we going to do differently in the next 40 years?
As a creative force, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five didn’t last much past “The Message”. Their follow-up, “White Lines” was one of the last records to be released under the group’s name. Not long after “White Lines”, the record label company, Sugar Hill Records, closed down due to a plethora of lawsuits and the record label that was widely known for bringing us one of the most important songs in music history, “The Message”, was no more…
Here’s Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five with “The Message”…