Grandmaster Flash

Born in Bridgetown, Barbados in 1958, Joseph Saddler grew up in the Bronx, where he developed an early approach to sound shaped by his family’s record collection and training in electronics. Active in New York’s block parties in the late 1970s, Grandmaster Flash established himself in the early hip‑hop current through precise work on breakbeats, continuous mixing and the rhythmic manipulation of vinyl, at the crossroads of funk, electro and nascent rap. With Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, a central Bronx formation, he helped create a stage language based on DJing and MCing, first in clubs and venues like Disco Fever and then on record with 'Superrappin’' (1979). This was followed by 'The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel' (1981), a demonstration of collage and mixing, and 'The Message' (1982), a track associated with the group that shifted rap toward a more direct social narrative. After parting ways with the Furious Five, Grandmaster Flash continued under his own name with albums such as They Said It Couldn’t Be Done (1985), The Source (1986), Ba‑Dop‑Boom‑Bang (1987), On the Strength (1988) and The Bridge (Concept of a Culture) (2009). Grandmaster Flash remains tied to hip‑hop culture as a DJ, producer and direct witness to its original forms.