Grandmaster Flash: 25 Years Of Cool

"Hip hop is the most popular music on the planet and I'm happy about that, being one of its creators."

Sitting inside the open stand of Rane Corporation in London's Earls Court Exhibition Centre, the man who helped invent hip hop is remarkably low key. Minutes before, he'd been presenting and demonstrating the electronic company's new Pro DJ mixer Empath (which Flash helped design) to a small crowd of 100 or so buyers and technology buffs, explaining the new box with a speech and short DJ set. After queueing for autographed posters, the crowd have dispersed as he sits down to chat to Skrufff's Jonty Adderley.


"I can't walk the streets in New York," he smiles. "Wherever I go I get major respect and that's because I've decided to stay visible. I talk to people, I DJ, I play sets to 18 year old people or 30 year olds, black, white, young old and I'm still here."

That's he's still here and still acclaimed as one of the world's greatest DJs is testament to both his own impressive stamina and the worldwide popularity that hip hop enjoys today. Coming out of the South Bronx alongside fellow pioneers Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaattaa, Flash not only invented mixing but put his name to some of the genre's definitive breakthrough songs (Wheels Of Steel and The Message being just two." He's also looking forward to tonight's show at the Ministry Of Sound.

"I want to thank the people who've booked me to play at Ministry (Of Sound) after 15 years; it's about time," he says. "Thank you for having me."


Skrufff (Jonty Adderley): You're best known for DJing in clubs or parties, do you enjoying playing exhibitions like this-

Grandmaster Flash: "Exhibitions like this make me nervous, but it served a purpose so that people can know that I've created this unit for performing DJs. I love playing generally."

Skrufff: The new mixer focuses on details like jack plugs and comfortable buttons, rather than high tech new fangled gadgets, how do think the art of DJing is being affected by technology-

Grandmaster Flash: "Technology's great and certainly the more DJs there are out there, the better. I'm a little afraid of devices such as Vinyl Scratch (MP3 deck simulator) because it relies on something other than you, ie it relies on a hard drive or a chip. I'm not saying I won't ever use one but right now I still feel I have to touch the vinyl and the turntables. Personally I need to feel more in control."

Skrufff: I see you've still got your marked lines across your records, are you still putting energy into learning new DJ tricks-

Grandmaster Flash: "Yeah, I still check out new tricks and equipment and regarding the lines I'm the creator of that effect. People got it from me."

Skrufff: You, Kool Herc and Afrika Bambataa all came from the Bronx, why do you think rap was born there-

Grandmaster Flash: "I don't know. Kool Herc is the Godfather- he's the original creator and it all started with him. He got me and Bam interested, so the three of us probably took the major interest in turning it into entertainment. At the time disco was the big thing, and this was a new thing that came along."

Skrufff: Were you going into Manhattan much in those early years-

Grandmaster Flash: "I didn't want to go into other areas until I mastered the turntable technique and until my MCs mastered their techniques. After doing the Bronx we slowly went to Manhattan then eventually some other parts of Brooklyn. That was years later, we stayed in the Bronx primarily."

Skrufff: The Bronx in the early 80s had a terrible reputation for crime and gangs, was that relevant to the start of the music-

Grandmaster Flash (irritated): "Why did the Bronx have a bad reputation- I don't remember that. People that weren't of colour painted this idea of the Bronx being bad, it's not true. It was a great place to be at the time. I mean; it wasn't bad for me. It was an exaggeration. The music needed to move out of the Bronx though to places like Dan Tags

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