The Message (Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five album)

The Message is the debut studio album by American hip hop group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, released on October 3, 1982, by Sugar Hill Records. It features the influential title track and hip hop single "The Message".

The Message
Studio album by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Released	October 3, 1982
Studio	Sweet Mountain (Englewood, New Jersey)[1]
Genre	Old-school hip-hop
Length	36:58
Label	Sugar Hill
Producer	Jigsaw Productions Sylvia Robinson
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five chronology
The Message (1982) On the Strength (1988)
Melle Mel chronology
The Message (1982) Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five (1984)
Grandmaster Flash chronology
The Message (1982) They Said It Couldn't Be Done (1985)
Singles from The Message
"It's Nasty" Released: 1981 "Scorpio" Released: 1982 "The Message" Released: July 1, 1982

Release and reception

Retrospective professional reviews

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s	A–[3]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[4]
The New Rolling Stone Album Guide	[5]
Pitchfork	6.4/10[6]
Tom Hull – on the Web	A−[7]
Uncut	[8]

The Message was released in October 1982 by Sugar Hill Records.^[9] The album charted at number 53 in the United States and at number 77 in the United Kingdom.^[9]

Reviewing in December 1982 for The New York Times, Robert Palmer hailed The Message as the year's best album and explained that while the emerging rap genre had often been criticized for confining itself to "bragging and boasting ... The Message is different. It's a gritty, plain-spoken, vividly cinematic portrait of black street life...social realism has rarely worked well in a pop-music context, but The Message is an utterly convincing cry of frustration and despair that cannot be ignored."^[10] Robert Christgau ranked it as the 21st best album of 1982 on his list for The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll.^[11] In Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), he wrote that, although "She's Fresh" is the "only instant killer", each song's attempt to experiment and "touch a lot of bases with a broad demographic ... justifies itself".^[3]

According to music journalist Tom Breihan, The Message was a "singles-plus filler cash-in" that proved "a fascinating time capsule of rap's early attempts with the album format" as well as "a full-length artistic breakthrough, a rap album that earned respect on its own terms".^[12] In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Ron Wynn called it the "ultimate peak" for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, naming the title track as its highlight.^[2] Miles Marshall Lewis, reviewing the album's 2002 British reissue in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), cited "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" as the "clincher" and "the only prime-period example of Flash's ability to set and shatter moods, with his turntables and faders running through a collage of at least 10 records that sound like hundreds."^[5] Mark Richardson from Pitchfork said that The Message featured "two absolutely essential songs"—the title track and "Scorpio," which he dubbed "the greatest early electro track." However, he felt the rest of the songs were inferior.^[6] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.^[13]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"She's Fresh"	Milton Edwards	4:57
2.	"It's Nasty"	Tina Weymouth Christopher Frantz Steven Stanley Adrian Belew Aaron Copland	4:19
3.	"Scorpio"	Melvin Glover Nathaniel Glover Eddie Morris Keith Wiggins Guy Williams	4:55
4.	"It's a Shame (Mt. Airy Groove)"	Curtis Harmon James Lloyd Cedric Napoleon Lee Garrett Syreeta Wright Stevie Wonder	4:57
5.	"Dreamin'"	M. Glover N. Glover Wiggins Morris Williams Gary Henry	5:47
6.	"You Are"	Gary Henry	4:51
7.	"The Message"	M. Glover Edward Fletcher Sylvia Robinson Chase	7:12

1982 UK LP^[14] / 2002 European CD reissue

No.	Title	Composer(s)	Length
8.	"The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel"	Sylvia Robinson, Melvin Glover, Gabrielle Jackson, Jiggs Chase, Gwendolyn Chisolm, Cheryl Cook, Michael Wright, Guy O'Brien, John Richard Deacon, Joseph Saddler, Angela Brown	7:06

2010 expanded edition

No.	Title	Composer(s)	Length
8.	"Message II (Survival)"	Sylvia Robinson, Melvin Glover	6:46
9.	"New York, New York"	Sylvia Robinson, Edward G Fletcher, Reginald Lamar Griffin, Melvin Glover	7:19
10.	"The Adventures of Grandmaster Himself"	Unknown - see '2010 Expanded Edition' notes	5:45
11.	"The Message (Instrumental Version)"	Edward G Fletcher, Clifton Chase, Sylvia Robinson, Melvin Glover	7:11

2019 Record Store Day blue double vinyl expanded edition

No.	Title	Composer(s)	Length
8.	"The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel"	Sylvia Robinson, Melvin Glover, Gabrielle Jackson, Clifton Chase, Gwendolyn Chisolm, Cheryl Cook, Michael Wright, Guy O'Brien, John Richard Deacon, Joseph Saddler, Angela Brown	7:06
9.	"The Message (Instrumental Version)"	Edward G Fletcher, Clifton Chase, Sylvia Robinson, Melvin Glover	7:08
10.	"New York, New York"	Sylvia Robinson, Edward G Fletcher, Reginald Lamar Griffin, Melvin Glover	7:25
11.	"Message II (Survival)"	Sylvia Robinson, Melvin Glover	6:46
12.	"The Birthday Party"	Sylvia Robinson, Melvin Glover	8:19
13.	"Freedom (Instrumental Version)"	Sylvia Robinson	8:13

Sample credits

• "She's Fresh" contains samples from "It's Just Begun" by The Jimmy Castor Bunch and "The Lovomaniacs" by Boobie Knight.
• "It's Nasty" contains samples from "Genius of Love" by Tom Tom Club and the opening interpolates Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland.
• "It's a Shame" contains samples from "Mt. Airy Groove" by Pieces Of A Dream.
• "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" contains samples from "Good Times" by Chic, "Apache" by The Incredible Bongo Band, "Rapture" by Blondie, "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen, "8th Wonder" by The Sugarhill Gang, "Monster Jam" by The Sequence, "Glow of Love" by Change and "Life Story" by The Hellers.

Personnel

• Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler) – turntables, drum programming, Flashformer transform DJ device, background vocals
• The Kidd Creole (Nathaniel Glover Jr.) – lead and background vocals, writer and arranger
• Keef Cowboy (Keith Wiggins) – lead and background vocals, writer and arranger
• Grandmaster Melle Mel (Melvin Glover) – lead and background vocals, writer and arranger
• Scorpio (Eddie Morris) – lead and background vocals, writer and arranger
• Rahiem (Guy Todd Williams) – lead and background vocals, writer and arranger
• Doug Wimbish - bass
• Skip McDonald - guitar
• Reggie Griffin, Jiggs, Sylvia Robinson - Prophet Sequential
• Gary Henry, Dwain Mitchell - keyboards
• Keith LeBlanc - drums
• Ed Fletcher (Duke Bootee) - percussion, co-lead vocals on "The Message"
• Chops Horn Section - brass

Charts

Album

Chart (1982)	Peak position
New Zealand Albums (RIANZ)[15]	14
UK Albums Chart[9]	77
U.S. Billboard 200[9]	53
U.S. Top Black Albums[16]	8
Chart (1983)	Peak position
Australian (Kent Music Report)	78[17]

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions
		U.S. Hot 100 [18][19]	U.S. R&B [18][19]	U.S. Club Play	NZ [15]	UK [20][21]
1981	"It's Nasty (Genius of Love)"	—	22	—	—	—
	"Scorpio"	—	30	—	—	77 [21]
1982	"The Message"	62	4	12	2	8