With the new Netflix show, The Get Down, people’s attention is focused on hip hop’s early originators. Not since it began hitting the airwaves in the early ’80s has hip hop taken up so much of the mainstream interest.
For those who might have claimed that hip hop is just a passing phase, like disco … well, it hasn’t quite turned out that way. Hip hop has roots in protest and advocacy, and the need for that platform hasn’t gone away. If anything, it’s become even more important.
Grandmaster Flash emerged out of that scene. Growing up in the ’70s in a particularly hard hit South Bronx neighborhood of New York City with its rampant gangs and drugs. It was a time and place full of people needing to express their frustrations and desperate to hold on to their hopes and dreams.
Beneath all that are the techniques that have since become part of the DJ toolbox. Scratching, beat matching, sampling, and lots of other common techniques can be traced directly back to Grandmaster Flash.
See how his story is also the story of hip hop here.
