The Message
Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five
This song is credited as the catalyst for the conscious Hip-Hop or political sub-genre of Hip-Hop music. It is a social narrative that details the struggles and difficulties due to living in poverty in the inner-city. In addition, it embodies the distress, anger, and sadness an individual experiences when confronting these inequalities. The description of various social and economic barriers followed by the mantra “don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge, I’m trying not to lose my head” exemplifies that it is not just the disparity in opportunity that is oppressive but also the emotional response that is debilitating. It is frequently referred to as the greatest record in hip hop history and was the first Hip-Hop record ever to be added to the United States' National Recording Registry of historic sound recordings.
As you can see from the label above, the two artists featured on the song are Melle Mel and Duke Bootee. This is because Bootee provided the music while Melle Mel rapped over it. The other members of the band, while credited on the disc, did not perform on it, nor did they want to have anything to do with it because of its political nature. However, the song proved to be the band's biggest hit and opened up a whole new world for hip-hop.
Enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Complaints, comments, questions, concerns, missing or broken links, etc?