0487. Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five
The Message

I got to admit I was a little bit too old when I realized the angry guy rapping lead on The Message wasn't Grandmaster Flash, but Melle Mel, but anyway:
The song The Message is one of the first socially conscious hip hop tracks and definitely the one with the most impact. There's not a single one of you out there who haven't heard it (unless you're, you know, severely hearing impaired or without any access to modern music) or it's derivatives (in the form of references, paraphrases, samples and more).
The album of the same name is of course not as much of an insight into the realities of project life, but how could it be?

The old-school and electro beats are great and most of the songs are pretty cool. But, yep, there's a but here, while the Stevie Wonder tribute Dreamin' might be the first and last time anyone professed their love for another man so intensely on a hiphop album. But beautiful as the intent might be I'm just not feeling it, cause just like the next track, the devotional You Are, it's some sort of soul/gospel-thing that's, well, that's just not very good. But it's forgiven when the title-track starts, cause it's hiphop from the break between the seventies and eighties, and it's the cream of the crop.

It's of course on the want-list of everyone who's the least bit interested in hiphop history or the impact of socially concious songs, and while it's not a GotToGet for everyone it's no wonder these guys were the first hiphop act to get inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame.