Grandmaster Flash

Joseph Saddler, who has an alias as Grandmaster Flash, is an American hip hop recording artist and one of the pioneers of hip-hop, Djing, cutting, and mixing. His family migrated to the United States from Barbados, in the Caribbean. He grew up in The Bronx, New York where he attended Samuel Gompers High School, a public vocational school. There he learned how to repair electronic equipment. His parents played an important role in his interest in music as he was fascinated by his father’s music collections which actually reminds me of myself. It’s amazing how the life style of a parent could go a long way in charting a child’s future. Grandmaster Flash carefully studied the styles and techniques of earlier DJs, particularly Pete Jones, Kool…

The History of Rap/Hip-Hop Rapping, also known as rhyming, spitting, and emceeing it is still referred to as rap and hip-hop. But, it seems that nobody ever talks about the story of how rap and hip-hop started. The history of rap and hip-hop was not only the start of a genre but, something new and creative. Rap and Hip-hop has an interesting origin story, has influenced by different genres of music, and created a new movement of freedom of speech. Dating back to the 60s and 70s in the South…

Rap music and Deviant Behavior in Teens Rap music is based on “African tradition of speaking rhythmically to a beat that is generally supplied by background music.” In the 80s, a rapper by the name of Grandmaster Flash would rap about “deplorable conditions of the inner cities” in order to bring attention to them. Gangsta rap is based on Grandmaster Flash’s song The Message because it raps about the conditions of poor communities. Gangsta rap are usually about police brutality towards…

In this period, the “typical, run down ghetto” fantasy theme emerges. This theme is further emphasized with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message.” In the first verse of the song, he raps, “Broken glass everywhere / People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don't care I can’t take the smell, can’t take the noise.” In these few lines, he is able to paint the picture of the typical ghetto as well as voice his discontent with living there. Identifying that Grandmaster…

Rap is becoming an increasingly popular genre of music specially with today’s youth as it is somehow considered a part of the youth culture. Today, it is featured increasingly among popular advertisements, radio and even on television shows. Rap is genre wherein you can express challenges and experiences in life in a form of a story. Although that is sometimes the case, rude and inappropriate themes are also expressed in rap. The question that I will be answering in this essay is How has the…

What is hip hop? Hip Hop is a style of popular music of United States African American and Hispanic origin, featuring rap with an electronic backing. Hip hop music in 2018 is still very popular in the United States by both men and women and diverse cultures. In the article “Fly-Girls, Bitches and Hoes” by Joan Morgan she quotes rap lyrics from the Notorious B.I.G.’s platinum album “Ready to Die”, scenarios and statistics relating to black on black crime and her mother’s words of wisdom to…

Hip hop music has helped to culturally mold an entire generation. Although it started in the late 1970s with roots in rock & roll, reggae, jazz, blues, and funk, people still feel its effects to this day. Nearing its 4th decade, its rhythmic influence has spanned nearly the entire globe. However, the spell that it has placed on the masses over the years has not always had the best of outcomes. It is true that many artists have used the platform of the genre to profess violence, among other…

The hip-hop music was a very important during this period of time, the people wanted to “escape” from the reality, have fun for some hours. For example, this is showed in the song “the Breaks” by Curtis Blow, where he mentions all kind of problems that the people in were living, but at they need to have a break. The film is notable for featuring several prominent figures from early hip hop culture such as Busy Bee Starski, Fab Five Freddy, The Cold Crush Brothers and Grandmaster Flash. Zoro…

It is our culture from dreads to cornrows to the language and even to the dances and it should not be misused. Reflecting on the meaning hip-hop holds for my family and how people can so easily take and misconstrue it made me curious to the extents of cultural appreciation and appropriation, and how they are displayed differently. When does a person stop appreciating the culture and begin to appropriate it and how is that defined? These questions and interest in cultural appropriation are more…

Hip Hop has its origins from a resistance movement during the 1970s. Rap music which is one aspect of hip hop, was mainstreamed in the late 1980s and 1990s. These genres of music have since developed as a cultural and artistic sensation affecting youth around the world (Alridge and Stewart 2005). Similarly dancehall also emerged in the late 1970s in Jamaica not only as a musical style but as the basis for a type of recreational lifestyle. Initially, all presented genres have reflected social,…