Grandmaster Flash (+ The Furious Five): Cutting Edge
By: R.M. London
It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from goin’ under
If you don’t recognize those infamous lines then your hip hop fan pass has been permanently revoked. In the early seventies Barbados born, Joseph Saddler, better known as Grandmaster Flash, fell in love with his father’s vinyl stacks and began to scratch records at local block parties as a teenager. Learning from legends Pete Jones and Kool Herc, Flash soon developed his own techniques on the 1’s and 2’s and turned the turntables into an instrument.
It was Flash who revolutionized the art of DJing when he discovered the ‘cutting’ technique. ‘Cutting’ is when the DJ places their hand on the soul of the record, or middle portion of the LP, and moves or rubs the vinyl in a backward or forward motion in combination with their other fingers on the mixer in a left to right movement. When party goers and DJs first caught eye of this brand new technique they dubbed it “making the record dirty,” because before the Grandmaster DJs never put their hand on the body of a record.
It wasn’t until the late seventies that Grandmaster Flash formed the Furious Five. The Furious Five consisted of: Melle Mel, Kid Creole, Cowboy, Rahiem, and Scorpio. As one of the most notorious groups of their time (and of all time) Flash and the Furious Five reinvented the wheel and pioneered the form of MCing, freestyling, DJing, as well as coining many of hip hop’s most infamous phrases and call outs. Cowboy, of the Furious Five, is also said to be the person to coin the phrase ‘hip hop.’
The Furious Five began their illustrious career on Enjoy Records and released their first classic album, “Superrappin,” in 1979. In 1981 Grandmaster Flash released the renowned DJ track, “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel,” which was featured on their 1982 debut album “The Message.” The track is still a staple cut for DJs worldwide and was the first time that scratching ever appeared on a record. In 1982 the world was floored after hearing “The Message,” which is said to be the first socially conscious track ever recorded featuring lyrics about the struggles and life of living in the ghetto. Neither Grandmaster Flash nor any of the Five was actually on the track except for Melle Mel. The track went onto reach platinum status and remains one of the greatest songs ever made.
The group split ways soon after the success of “The Message,” Melle Mel and Grandmaster each taking parts of the group with them and having their own success with each. Despite their short lived relationship Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five go down in history as one of the most influential groups in hip hop culture and their legacy lives on to this very day. Just recently the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, which marks the first hip hop group to have the honor.
Kiddies, without Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five who knows where hip hop, DJing, or the art of MCing would have gone. Pay respects to the pioneers. Bow down to the legends that built the foundation of the art form we all have come to love for life.
Grandmaster Flash’s Quick Mix Theory
"The Quick Mix Theory", which encompassed the innovative technique of "cutting", is the technique of using duplicate copies of a vinyl record and scientifically and percussively rearranging the arrangement of the music and extending the break parts of songs. This technique of cuttin’ included sub techniques such as: “Front door/Back door”, which is the on-time repeat of a song with the use of duplicate copies both playing while one is one beat behind the other to give the song an echo effect. “Fake Phasin” is using duplicate copies of the record, allowing one copy to be playing and having the other copy used to insert a short musical section in momentarily. Ex: Good Times break playing on 1 turntable and throwin in or rubbin the word “Good” on top as an enhancement to the song. And, doing tricks with toes, mouth, elbows, behind the back, and 360’s are all techniques that are a part of the Quick Mix Theory of Cuttin’.
NOTE: Some of the scientific thoughts that DJ Grandmaster Flash used to create the Quick Mix Theory were the following:
(Needle shape: Conical or Elliptical, Needle type: Diamond and Sapphire, Turntable (Torque Factor): Rubber Wheel driven, Belt driven, Direct driven, Amplifier type: Vacuum Tube vs. Solid State, Resistor, Capacitor, AC vs DC, Diodes, Oscilloscopes, Signal generators, OHM meters, I=E over R, R=I*E).
