Grand Master Fraud? Did A Hip Hop Pioneer Fake It To Make It?

Grand Master Flash and The Furious Five are most famous for their monumental Hip Hop classic “The Message”. Despite his name being on the record, Grand Master Flash doesn’t scratch, produce or rap on the record. As for any of the classic records you will ever hear with Grand Master Flash and The Furious Five, there are no contributions from Grand Master Flash. When the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, Grand Master Flash was inducted with them. If you were in New York City in the mid 70’s you might know Grand Master Flash as a DJ, and The Furious Five as rappers, but for most of us who grew up listening to Hip Hop on the radio, or on MTV and not in the underground clubs of the Bronx, Grand Master Flash and The Furious Five are one entity. Like Kool and The Gang right? The guy rapping is Grand Master Flash right? He’s the one in the front right? Nothing is further from the truth. It sounds confusing. You have to understand at the beginning of Hip Hop the DJ played a vital role with Hip Hop being mainly in the clubs. Once Hip Hop switched over to being on wax, the focus became the rapper. Its very hard to market an album of all scratching. Its very easy to market an album with the seasoned voices of Melle Mel and Scorpio, and thats exactly what Sugar Hill Records did. The trouble is, with no internet, and very few music videos the public believed that Grand Master Flash must’ve put this all together. He must’ve made all the music, I mean his name is on the record. Records like “The Message” have allowed Grand Master Flash to be critically acclaimed and placed into the upper echelon of Hip Hop royalty. Promoters want to book Grand Master Flash, the guy who made “The Message”. He just forgot to tell you that it was never his record at all.

Yaheard.com recently spoke with Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame inductee and Furious Five original member Scorpio, who still performs with Melle Mel and keeps good relations with the rest of The Furious Five, minus Grand Master Flash. He tells a story of extortion, fraud and betrayal. He tells the story of a public eager to embrace Hip Hop and looking for Hip Hop heroes to believe in. A story of a man who knew the truth, but decided to push that to the side for money and fame. Scorpio and Melle Mel refer to Grand Master Flash as “the Milli Vanilli of rap”

Read the full article on yaheard.com.