Is this that only Rap record that should have ever been made?
Y'know wot, its not that I dispise Rap moozique, which to some peoples addled brane, means I must be a follower of Steven Yaxley Lennon,or ,if you're American anyone in the Republican Party. It's just,beyond its monotonous habit of repeating itself over and over again on a scale that only has one solitary note on its stanza's, that on its one page annals of history,everything that it has achieved or, will ever achieve can be encapsulated in one singular track from this peculiar album released in 1982, namely, "The Message". Everything anyone needs to hear in the realms of Hip-Hop ,slash, 'Rap' is first vested,and so it should stay there, is on this rather infectious manifestation of of that dominant genre.
Of course some of the members of the Furious Five went on to make some very highly interesting and experimental work with Adrian Sherwood,and the On-U-Sound bunch, striving carefully not to exclude Public Enemy's politically charged cacophony of "Nation of Millions" as the gravestone of Rap's Zenith, but...its all in there, compressed into one infinitely dense crotchet, and the "Message" was the Big Bang,expanding exponentially across the audible universe. A lesson on how to paint yerself into an infinite corner, and everyone's invited........Not for me however. I've a;ready got "The Message", and that Public Enemy LP, so I don't wanna hear, or see the point in anything else Hippity Hoppity,
Basically its Novelty Music gone pandemically wrong innit? Get out while you still can.
That said, I like the ways these kids dressed, and like this LP record,and does feature some very unimaginative early forays into sampling,for which I think Grandmaster Flash probably had to pay millions in royalties, and was the reason we never heard from him in the same way again, save for some personal appearances and behind the Steel Wheels. Lou Reed did the same for "A Tribe Called Rip Off" (as he ironically called them), who also sampled Ian Dury classic, "What a Waste" on the same track, but Ian never sued 'em.However, talking of Rip-Offs ,Lou only paid Herbie Flowers £17 quid (Standard session Fee in 1972) for the the bassline on Walk On The Wild Side ,as in the bit that "A Tribe Called Quest" sampled for their 'Can I Kick It' top ten smash.All the money should have gone to Herbie right? Instead of 100% of it going to Lewis's's back pocket.He's even credited as the songwriter on "Can I Kick It"!?
This blatant theft, and display of corporate power,was a major part of Rap's evolution ,or lack of,there-in.It also meant that no-one needed to play an instrument no more. How Punk is that?
Tracklist:
1.She's Fresh 4:56
2.It's Nasty 4:15
3.Scorpio 5:10
4.It's A Shame (Mt. Airy Groove) 4:58
5.Dreamin' 5:45
6.You Are 4:49
7.The Message 7:11
8.The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel 7:06
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