Grandmaster Flash will forever be remembered as one of hip hop’s pioneering DJs. Flash brought innovation to the art of DJing in several ways by introducing the backspin technique as well as helping perfect and popularize scratching. He was the most notable member from his crew Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and has received many honors throughout his lifetime, including being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside his crew.
Just a few days ago a mixtape which was made by Flash in 1982 surfaced on the web. The tape was apparently made for a guy called Money Mike (not the pimp in Ice Cube’s popular movie Friday After Next). It explicitly contains instructions to Mike at the beginning that the tape should not be shared with anyone else. I guess Flash would never have guessed that more than 34 years later his personal mixtape would be floating around on the Internet for anyone to download. I doubt he’ll be mad about it because during an interview with XXL a couple of years ago he said “Social media is totally important. I can easily be forgotten for what I’ve done but social media will keep people from forgetting what I do. If you come from the early beginning, people can easily forget what you’ve done.” Being forgotten is something that Flash probably doesn’t have to worry about with this mixtape floating around the net.
There are a few well-known tracks such as The Message as well as others I’m personally not familiar with but I’m sure many people might know. Interestingly the uploader, Grime and Lime, ripped the tape and split it into two files side A and side B, just like a traditional cassette tape.
To date Grandmaster Flash has released 11 studio albums and has had a career that has spanned decades. He has sold several million records throughout his career. You can visit the Grime and Lime blog to get the download links and enjoy some good old school hip hop.
