Keynote Q&A - Grandmaster Flash
On Wednesday afternoon, the Special Keynote Q&A featured Grandmaster Flash, the only DJ inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (in 2007), as moderated by Jim Tremayne, editor of DJ Times magazine. This was a fascinating discussion into Flash's life behind the turntables. The soft-spoken pioneer gave a very candid view into his personal and professional life many people, including myself, didn't know about. (Note: Flash also discussed his new book, "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats.")
The long list of artists Flash (real name Joseph Sadler) has influenced across the music industry and beyond is not just powerful as it is illuminating. He has transcended the very fabric in which Hip-Hop (and Dance music) have evolved and will continue to pave the way for generations to come. He even said that he was finishing up his first solo album in over 20 years, to street in mid-January 2009.
I was taken aback, surprised and blown away at some of the stories Flash told. While an hour discussion was clearly not enough time to discuss the life of this true "grandmaster," just the fact that DJ Times was able to land such an iconic figure was incredible.
I never knew that Flash had nothing to do with such hits as "The Message" or "White Lines," despite having his name on the records; he didn't sing or play a lick of those songs and subsequently lost out on millions of dollars. GMF also doesn't believe in birthdays; and he wants to leave his mark like that of Einstein and Martin Luther King, Jr.
And then there was a very clever story he told that when he played in clubs, in order to combat would-be spies from checking out whatever he was playing and then trying to steal from him, Flash came up with a rather ingenious trick: He took many of his records and soaked them in a bathtub thus removing the original sticker labels.
Some have labeled GMF as one of Hip-Hop's iconic architects from the perspective of not only his music and the techniques he pioneered but his seemingly ubiquitous upbringing during the 70s in the South Bronx, NY, whereas a lanky kid with a penchant for music and electronics, lived with an abusive father, who would beat Flash to the point where he would have to be taken to the hospital just for playing his father's most prized possessions: his private record collection.
But more importantly it's his legacy and his hard-fought determination to go from obscurity to global relevance that makes his plight stand out from the crowd. It was during the mid- to latter-70's when that era's large potent slice of DJs playing in various Disco clubs wasn't enough, it took one man to discover a whole newfangled way—one of the original turntablists, to revolutionize the industry, unleashing techniques never before seen or heard, and all just utilizing the very turntables that he was using to play his records on.
The lexicon that was created was novel and is still repeated on a daily basis today. Such words as "cutting," which called for Flash to move between tracks precisely on the beat; another was "back-spinning," which meant to manually spin a record in order to repeat brief snippets of sound; and then there was "phasing," which all DJs, whether they're using turntables or digital mixers, employs today: the manipulation of [turntable] speeds.
Then there was the bridging of those various turntable elements that would spawn and subsequently become the norm today: a DJ paired up with an MC, or in what was first conceived as one DJ and five MCs that made up the infamous Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five. It was heady stuff back then with an uncertain future but this was Flash's baby and he has since become the stuff of legends.
At some point I literally had to stop taking notes because I just wasn't able to keep up with what Flash and DJ Times editor Jim Tremayne covered which was an awful lot of history. Instead, I sat back in my chair in awe and I listened intently (and of course wishing I had a digital recorder). When the discussion came to an unfortunate end and the audience gave Flash a standing ovation, he thanked everyone then ducked out the back in order to get ready to play a special DJ set down on the exhibits main floor space.
On a personal note: I was weaned on Rap & Hip-Hop and I first learned of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five courtesy of my youthful Break-dancing days. I can fondly recall buying scores of various cassette tapes and eventually CDs featuring Flash, Kraftwerk's "Tour de France," Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force, Freestyle and one of my all-time faves: Newcleus' "Jam On It."
Mind you I wasn't very good at Breakdancing and I wasn't able to gracefully learn some of the more hardcore physicality moves such as the head-spin, windmill or any hand-stands but I was able to partake in many of the other less life-threatening dance moves such as the worm, hand glide, the six-step as well as the trusty back spin to finish off a combination of moves. I even actually won an amateur competition whilst vacationing with my family during the early 80's at a Club Med on Guadeloupe.
