Grandmaster Flash's Political Message in Hip-Hop

Introduction: Music, Politics, and the Rise of Hip-Hop

Music is one of the most powerful forms of communication. It utilizes different types of information networks to cut across linguistic and social boundaries. On many occasions, music has the potential to intersect with politics and power. From the songs of sorrow sung by slaves in the South, to the revolutionary nature of jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues (R&B) during the activist days of the Civil Rights Movement, music has been an important part of many social and political changes. In the recent past, the power of music has been amplified by increasingly globalized communications such as social media. Now more rapidly than ever, music links and influences people from all over the world (Malone and Martinez).

Hip-hop is considered by some to be one of the most important genres of music. It originated in the Bronx, New York, in the early 1970s and has grown rapidly beyond the confines of music to become a cultural movement. It is based on poetry, dance, visual art, and the cultural and political heritage of African-American, Latino, Caribbean, and African communities in the United States. It started as an independent expression of music and culture with no commercial interests — no one ever imagined that hip-hop would make money; it was more about having fun (Independent Lens).

Compared to all other modern music genres, hip-hop has profited from the use of cultural artifacts to become one of the most significant artistic forces in the world. From its humble beginnings expressing urban struggles in the Bronx, hip-hop has grown to become a global phenomenon. However, despite its global reach, hip-hop remains what some refer to as the "organic stabilizer" — meaning that, despite worldwide popularity, it remains a grassroots occurrence. Hip-hop features a natural space that allows for the expression of social and political matters at a community level. At the same time, its global reach offers fascinating possibilities that go beyond geographical and cultural barriers (Malone and Martinez).

Frequently, the word "rap" has been used as a synonym for hip-hop. However, "rap" more fittingly describes hip-hop tracks or albums that are released, played, and sold on websites and commercial radio stations by large record labels. Many artists do agree that the word "rap" appropriately describes the act of delivering hip-hop lyrics. It can have several sub-genres — for instance, alternative, mainstream, or underground — while "hip-hop" is the broader descriptor for the actual music genre under which rap falls (Independent Lens).

A defining moment in the origin of hip-hop occurred in 1973 when Kool Herc, a disc jockey from Jamaica, brought a new sound to a house party in the Bronx. He mixed the vocal delivery found in reggae tracks with the contemporary American music of that time. The audience responded positively when he spoke over the heavy beats of popular soul, funk, and R&B records. This approach made songs longer and maintained high energy throughout the party. A DJ associate of Herc's, Grandmaster Flash, quickly adopted this technique and expanded upon it by making the combinations of lyrics and beats more audible and playful through a highly entertaining, performance-centered approach (Independent Lens).

This paper examines the influence of hip-hop artist Grandmaster Flash (GMF) on the genre, the phases of his artistic growth, the impact his music had on audiences, his style, the political undertones in his lyrics, and various dimensions of hip-hop culture.

Stages of Hip-Hop Development and Grandmaster Flash's Musical Climb

The growth of hip-hop over the last four decades in the United States involves three unique phases.

The inherent power of this genre is based on its capacity to express culture, daily struggles, and lived experiences, giving rise to new and interesting forms of music. Hip-hop originated during the post-civil rights era in New York's inner-city neighborhoods as political and economic transformations brought racial and social tensions to the forefront. In terms of its origins, the genre was an artistic and cultural expression of ghetto life in both its positive and negative aspects. The strong summer heat drew people out of their homes and closer to one another. Poor social amenities and limited economic opportunities forced individuals to rely on community support as well as their own creativity.

Hip-hop has been influenced since its inception by American jazz, R&B, soul, and funk artists; writers such as Iceberg Slim; and community heroes like Muhammad Ali. The R&B artist Gil Scott-Heron was one of the most important early influences on the genre. The African-American church, unlikely a source as it may seem, had one of the deepest influences on hip-hop. African-American clergymen employed a mix of parables and personal experience in an interactive way, ensuring that congregations remained engaged throughout the sermon. One of their primary instruments for this purpose was call and response — whereby the preacher delivers a phrase and the congregation replies — creating a dynamic link between speaker and audience (Codrington).

Hip-hop therefore developed at the grassroots level through people and groups influenced by a shared environment, utilizing nothing more than the limited resources available to them. Through the five elements of hip-hop — DJing, MCing, graffiti, breakdancing, and knowledge — young people found ways to critique their environment, brighten up dull neighborhoods, celebrate community heroes, and empower their communities (Malone and Martinez).

The music of artists like Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa formed major segments of the poetic and musical heritage that combined into hip-hop. The rich culture of African-Americans and other immigrant communities, the combination of oratorical devices and storytelling traditions, and the fluidity with which DJs blended different genres created a fresh form of expression for the youth of 1970s New York. This wide variety of influences has given hip-hop a diversity that is not always recognized by its critics but is well-known and appreciated by its fans (Codrington).

In recent years, hip-hop has transformed from music with political undertones to music that tackles political issues overtly. The political messages conveyed seek to influence electoral outcomes in the United States through voter registration drives and calls for high voter turnout. Some leaders in the hip-hop world have also nominated and backed candidates for elected positions. As community-based hip-hop groups throughout the United States concentrated on matters affecting their neighborhoods during the early 1990s, the economic power the genre had acquired over the previous two decades made political platforms possible at both national and local levels (Malone and Martinez).

In the United States, issues such as police brutality against African-Americans, gang violence, economic disparities, and persistent racism have led rappers such as Public Enemy, Kendrick Lamar, The Game, and Paris to address these subjects in their music. In recent years, politically conscious hip-hop has been thriving not only ideologically but also commercially. According to scholar Charise Cheney, this represents a golden era of rap nationalism. Other critics have asserted that in the late 1980s it was hip-hop artists and groups — rather than black churches and civil rights movements — that had a more direct relationship with disenfranchised black youth (Malone and Martinez).

The political nature of hip-hop has gone beyond expressing the struggles of black youth in song to become a vehicle for rallying young people into civic activism. Campaigns such as the 2000 presidential election effort led by rap mogul Russell Simmons, Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, and "Rock the Vote" used hip-hop to register thousands of young voters. This "get out the vote" effort, whose slogan was "Register. Vote. Represent," demonstrates the cultural power of hip-hop (Kitwana).

Around 1985, hip-hop had already expanded beyond its original core audience of Black and Latino communities. Rap artists such as LL Cool J and Run DMC helped turn hip-hop into a mainstream genre enjoyed even by white American audiences. White rap groups such as the Beastie Boys, based in New York, signaled that hip-hop could be experienced and promoted by those outside the Black communities in which it originated (Malone and Martinez).

One of the other communities that has had a significant influence on hip-hop is the Puerto Rican community in New York. Puerto Ricans have been major players in propagating the different elements of hip-hop — including DJing, MCing, graffiti, and breakdancing — from its very inception. Many Puerto Ricans consider hip-hop part of their own culture; renowned journalist Edward Sunez Rodriguez goes even further, asserting that hip-hop holds as much cultural importance in their community as salsa or the legacy of colonialism (Rivera). Previous campaigns by Rock the Vote had also attempted to register Black and Latino youth (Kitwana).

Grandmaster Flash's Music and Its Effect on People

According to researcher Matthias Mauch, the dominance of hip-hop has been the most significant occurrence to transform the musical composition of the American charts in the last five decades. Mauch's team goes further to assert that the Beatles' impact is overhyped, while Grandmaster Flash's influence is most probably underrated (Jacobs). There are many who would disagree, of course — musical taste is always a personal matter — but when music becomes part of the social fabric, its impact is far greater than chart statistics alone can measure.

In 1981, Grandmaster Flash released "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel," introducing audiences to a new form of mixing technique that incorporated samples from Queen, Blondie, and Chic. Grandmaster Flash, now performing with the Furious Five, released "The Message" in 1982, which set the precedent for both the braggadocious posturing and the social critique that are now central to hip-hop (Bey). Earlier, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five had released their debut single "Freedom" in the 1980s under the Sugar Hill Records label. The song reached the top 20 on the R&B charts and sold over 50,000 copies. The follow-up single, "Birthday Party," was also a hit.

The group went on to produce many other charting singles and albums, and they greatly influenced subsequent hip-hop acts such as Run DMC, Eminem, Busta Rhymes, Wu-Tang Clan, Salt-N-Pepa, the Beastie Boys, Tupac Shakur, and KRS-One, among many others. Hip-hop artist Ice Cube, also influenced by the group, released a remix of his song "Check Yo Self" featuring Das EFX that sampled Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message" (Allmusic.com).

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. The group was also honored at the 2005 VH1 Hip Hop Honors. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. houses in its collection the records and turntables owned and used by Grandmaster Flash during the early years of his career.

Conclusion

Rap is considered by most fans to be a part of the hip-hop movement — a wider phenomenon that encompasses DJing, MCing, graffiti, breakdancing, and knowledge. Rap music can be described as the acoustic dimension of hip-hop, while breakdancing and graffiti represent its kinetic and visual dimensions, respectively (Rivera).

Hip-hop is one of the few cultural forces that has successfully helped unite Black youth irrespective of geographic region. It has played a major role in shaping the vocabulary and identity of young Black Americans across the country (Kitwana).

Grandmaster Flash was undoubtedly among the most influential creators of hip-hop, and he pioneered several key elements of the genre. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were, as a group, essential to the development of rap music (Tate). Hip-hop will forever bear the influence of the elements introduced by Grandmaster Flash and his group, particularly with regard to social commentary and political critique.

This paper concludes that fame and fortune did not alter Grandmaster Flash's message. If anything, commercial success only served to provide him with a wider audience. This conclusion is supported by the various stages of development undergone by GMF and his music. In the initial stages, GMF was focused on party and entertainment songs such as "Birthday Party." As he matured as an artist, his music matured as well — a development clearly evident in songs such as "The Message" and "White Lines."

While some attribute this change to fame and fortune, that explanation does not hold up under scrutiny. The shift is a result of artistic development and the drive to offer something different and meaningful to a growing audience. Grandmaster Flash achieved exactly that, which is why he is remembered as one of the greatest pioneers of hip-hop music.