"'The Message' is a Reagan record," said Newseek's Greil Marcus in 1982. Written by Sugar Hill house band percussionist Ed Fletcher aka Duke Bootee as a song for himself, "The Message" is regarded as the first rap song to inject social commentary into the relatively new genre. "The Message " is essentially a seven minute dissertation on Reaganomics and its effects on urban America. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5 "The Message" (Tie) I would just drop it in her ear: 'Sylvia can I make a cut record?' After a while we were coming off tour and she flew me and Melle Mel in and said 'Let's do this record.'" "Adventures on The Wheels of Steel" was the first time that most people outside of New York's boroughs heard scratching, creating a generation of aspiring DJs and further turning the turntable into an instrument. Sugar Hill Records founder and CEO Sylvia Robinson was instrumental in greenlighting the project, Grandmaster Flash told The Foundation. Flash's theories like phasing, the quick mix theory and the clock theories are all demonstrated on this single. It marked the first time that we actually heard "scratch mixing" on a record. In 1981, Sugar Hill Records' domination of rap music was still very much in effect and "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on The Wheels of Steel" was the most unique and innovative record of 1981. Grandmaster Flash "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on The Wheels of Steel" "The Breaks" peaked at #87 on the Billboard Hot 100.-Jay Quan Blow was the first rap artist to make an appearance of the program. Blow also performed the classic on Soul Train the Saturday morning music program that was considered the pinnacle for urban artists. "The Breaks" led to Kurtis becoming the opening act for such iconic artists as Lionel Richie and The Commodores and the legendary Bob Marley. He is the first rap artist to sign to a major label, (Mercury/Polygram), and he released Hip-Hop's first holiday hit, 1979's "Christmas Rappin.'" Blow's follow up single "The Breaks" was a chart-topping urban anthem in the summer of 1980, receiving prime time radio airplay as well as blasting out of every car, portable radio and house party that year. Kurtis Blow is revered as rap music's first solo superstar. The combination of this new talking style of music with the back drop of the summer's biggest song "Good Times" by Chic helped "Rapper's Delight" outshine the other two dozen independent rap records released in 1979.-Jay Quan Not only did "Rapper's Delight" introduce the artform of rap to those outside of New York's boroughs, it was the first commercially successful rap record, selling 20,000 copies a day at one point. "Rapper's Delight" was the first record released on Sylvia Robinson's Sugar Hill Records, the label which would monopolize recorded rap until the mid-1980s. Although The Fatback Band released "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" a few months before, "King Tim III" was a funk song, by a funk band that featured King Tim (who was an actual MC) sharing his rapped vocals with The Fatback Band's sung vocals. Big Bank Hank a former bouncer and pizza maker borrowed rhymes from Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers as well as DJ Hollywood and Eddie Cheeba. The Gang's Wonder Mike And Master Gee were members of Englewood New Jersey's Sound On Sound and Phase II crews respectively. R&B artists and DJ's had talked in rhyme on records before, but they weren't doing it over breaks and they weren't MC's. The Sugar Hill Gang's 'Rapper's Delight" served as the "Big Bang" for the rap industry.
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