The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel

I've been watching "The Get Down" recently so I've had Grandmaster Flash and early hip hop in my head.

"The Adventures..." features Grandmaster Flash at his best. Sugarhill released a lot of records with his name on them. But in the early 1980s it was way too risky to put out a record that contained someone else's music, even in small bits. Sampling was a dream. Literally, since such samplers as existed were extremely expensive curiosities rather than mainstream devices. Flash did it old school, mixing records with two turntables (a technique which he invented).

On records then, "Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five" was mostly the Furious Five with studio musicians. Flash was well-known to Sugarhill's customers from live performances, so they were happy to boost sales by mentioning him. I'm not sure how "The Adventures..." eventually got released, but it's a rare and amazing glimpse of Flash's technique.

Among many records making an appearance, Flash features Blondie's "Rapture", in which Blondie name-checks Flash. Flash is fast, Flash is cool. Take a listen.