Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five - The Message
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Grandmaster Flash & the Furious FiveEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-04-26
Music Label: Dbk Works
Soundtracks:
- She's Fresh
- It's Nasty
- Scorpio
- It's A Shame
- Dreamin'
- You Are
- The Message
Free Music Notes for The Message
Free Music Review: Who needs Dr. Dre when we have the old school rappers?
Hit: 4 Stars
With the title track, rap was single-handedly established as a legitimate genre, combining brutally honest slice-of-life lyrics about the ghetto; a haunting synthesizer part; wonderful delivery; and the best chorus in rap history - this is my favorite song of the genre. Of course, I would be doing the rest of the album a disservice by saying it's the only good song on the album - another one is the propulsive, funky "She's Fresh", with a great slap bass line and hilarious vocals. It's more funk than rap, really, which makes sense because it was recorded before the rules for rap were laid down - as such, this is rap for people who don't think they like rap. Like me! Anyway, "It's Nasty" is also a brilliant early hip-hop gem, based on "Genius of Love", with a hilarious kazoo break and sweet synths. The overly processed "Scorpio", however, was a misstep, but it's redeemed by "It's a Shame (Mt. Airy Groove)", more social commentary, this time sampling the Spinners' "It's a Shame". The chorus lyrics are rather obvious, but the verse lyrics are awesome, as are the turntable scratches. But the slow ballad "Dreamin'" isn't really all that great and is in fact rather dull. But they're right about one thing: Stevie Wonder really is the greatest. Or one of 'em, at least. "Dreamin'", by the way, sounds more like the O'Jays than rap. This isn't a bad thing - I like the O'Jays - I'm just giving everyone a basis to work off of, you know? The other ballad, "You Are", is just vocals and piano - not very good, and not very furious either. I mean, this guy calls his group the Furious Five! You'd think they'd be furious, right? Anyway, after that comes "The Message", which I already praised to death. And if you want to hear some classic turntable work, just give yourself a listen to "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel", a marvelous deconstruction of Chic's hit "Good Times" to rival "Rapper's Delight". You're probably tired of hearing it, but old-school hip-hop is much better than the modern stuff. I mean, who's gonna be remembered in 40 years? Grandmaster Flash or Souljah Boy? Run-D.M.C. or G-Unit? Public Enemy or Snoop Dogg? Afrika Bambataa or Jay-Z? The Sugarhill Gang or Eminem? Kurtis Blowe or Nelly? Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm actually not that into a lot of rap, but I love the old-school stuff, since it's more funk-rock (or just plain funk - it helps that, unlike modern rap, this stuff actually has melody...), and I love both funk and rock. Perhaps that explains why I like Prince and Funkadelic so much, no?
The Message Poster
Hip-hop's greatest innovators transcend their party roots merging Afrocentric consciousness with b-boy production to create the all-time rap anthem The Message. Also contains It's Nasty and Scorpio, which helped propel the album to #8 on the Billboard Black and #53 on the Billboard Pop charts. First time domestic release on CD!Rap & Hip-Hop Music CDs
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