Grandmaster Flash
American DJWikipedia
90
MENTIONS
45
EPISODES
41
PODCASTS
Search complete. 90 mentions across 45 episodes found for "Grandmaster Flash".
Nov 2, 2026
Samira AhmedHOST
Hello.
Samira AhmedHOST
Tonight, Grandmaster Flash, one of the founding fathers of hip-hop, on the birth of a culture.
Samira AhmedHOST
We discuss the Indian epic, the Ramayana, as a new blockbuster Bollywood film opens ahead of the Hindu festival of Diwali.
Samira AhmedHOST
We'll hear the late Sir Patrick Stewart talk to me about his early life in Yorkshire, and we bid farewell to Doctor Who's loyal robot companion.
John LeesonSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
You're a good dog.
Samira AhmedHOST
John Leeson, the voice of canine who's died aged 83.
Samira AhmedHOST
But we start with Grandmaster Flash, one of the pioneers of hip-hop, a science geek of a boy from the Bronx who grew up fascinated by electronics and invented the science for sampling records, manually manipulating vinyl to create scratch sounds and dub, and getting friends to rap over his creations.
Samira AhmedHOST
His new book, Birth of a Culture, is part a history of hip-hop and part memoir.
TimHOST
They're going to be announcing them in the next few weeks.
TimHOST
I'm curious who that will be, but it sounds like he's going to be doing kind of an evolution of hip-hop kind of thing, which I think I mentioned recently that I had read a book by Grandmaster Flash about the early days and the rise of hip-hop culture.
TimHOST
Having just read that, I'm like,
MichelleHOST
hmm.
MattHOST
They are actually the genre pusher, the sort of world.
MattHOST
So like if they're a bard, you know, they, I don't know, they cast a spell and there's an audio component and they say, and it sounds a little bit like early period Grandmaster Flash.
MattHOST
Yes.
MattHOST
And they love breaking the world apart.
PaddyHOST
I often feel like it's a little bit like...
MattHOST
That's where we, and I've talked about this before, sorry, I know you're thinking, but that's where we editorialize as GMs, right? When we talk about how you sort of snip, snap, snip to establish what is and isn't canon.
MattHOST
Okay, no, he wasn't actually playing early period Grandmaster Flash with the deck and turntables, right? But he was playing a jaunty tune on his loot.
MattHOST
And that's how we'll remember that so we get our consistent canon and we also get our fun little beat.
Turney DuffGUEST
I'm like, should I pour in the toilet? You
Roben FarzadHOST
didn't hear Grandmaster Flash saying, don't, don't, don't, don't do it.
Turney DuffGUEST
I should have, but I didn't.
Turney DuffGUEST
I was like, I'm not doing that.
Tom SutcliffeHOST
That is all for tonight.
Tom SutcliffeHOST
On Monday's front row, one of the founding fathers of hip-hop, Grandmaster Flash, and Jonathan Bate on the history and creative inspiration of gardens.
Tom SutcliffeHOST
Join Samira at 7.15 for that.
Tom SutcliffeHOST
We just learned that Patrick Stewart has died, aged 86, so I expect we'll have something about that too.
Caro CHOST
Hello and welcome to the Sound on Sound podcast about electronic music and all things synth.
Caro CHOST
I'm Cara C and in this episode I'm talking with Flash, best known as Grandmaster Flash.
Caro CHOST
Flash is a pioneer of quick mix DJing, seamless looping, turntablism and hip hop.
Caro CHOST
He's co-written a new book called Birth of a Culture, where they unpack the science, the maths, the people and the communities that gave rise to urban black and Latino American creativity, which became a global phenomenon.
Caro CHOST
Here's a taste of some of that early seamless looping to get you in the zone.
Caro CHOST
This is an extract of The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, released on Sugarhill Records in 1982.
Melle MelSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
It's like a jungle sometimes.
Melle MelSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
It makes me wonder how I keep from going under.
DJ ChappersHOST
Social media craze.
DJ ChappersHOST
And then we got Grandmaster Flash.
DJ ChappersHOST
And The Furious Five with White Lines.
DJ ChappersHOST
Don't Don't Do It and The Halloween Connection.
DJ ChappersHOST
I don't realise Garrett's actually more like a comedy horror.
DJ ChappersHOST
It's a great song, so enjoy Lady Gaga with Bloody Mary.
DJ ChappersHOST
Then Grandmaster Flash with the White Lines.
DJ ChappersHOST
And then we'll be heading into the last two songs of today's show.
LL Cool JSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
I've never thought of that.
LL Cool JSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
So you're walking around and it's like, oh, there's Grandmaster Flash.
LL Cool JSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
It's crazy.
LL Cool JSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
DJ Kool Herc.
B-RealHOST
I mean, that's crazy legs for all the B-Boys out there and the Rocksteady crew.
B-RealHOST
That's for all the DJs like Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizard Theodore.
B-RealHOST
Cool Herc, obviously, and all those guys.
Psycho LesPANELIST
He's the one that invented the one windmill into a backspin.
C-MinusHOST
Yeah, they did.
C-MinusHOST
And he left Kaz's name in the rhyme.
B-RealHOST
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, all them, you know, like, I mean, we've been fortunate to be able to lock in with those first generation folks every now and then.
B-RealHOST
And we got to always hold them up because realistically they carved a way for us, you know, and that's, that's the realest shit.
Rolo GuitarHOST
would i lie to you the secrets of a timeless chart hit standing out from the pack charles and eddie were not hip-hop soul or new jack swing or uk dance rave these guys went back in time to the 70s soul scene marvin gaye curtis mayfield and the spinners with the dash of the vibes from grandmaster flash and the furious five All song samples are kept extremely short to avoid copyright claims.
Rolo GuitarHOST
A glint of pop.
Rolo GuitarHOST
It took me ten years to recover from being a one-hit wonder, says Eddie Chacon, the surviving member of 90s soul duo Charles and Eddie.
7 MINS LATER
Rolo GuitarHOST
It's an incredibly clever mash-up of the many different styles that were emerging at the time and entering the mainstream and of the manifold traditions they were drawing on.
Rolo GuitarHOST
Let's start with the producers doing the song in a very old-school way, sounding so much like tracks that came out in the late 60s and early 70s.
Rolo GuitarHOST
That period is acutely important contextually, because this is when funk and soul were at their height and hip-hop emerged in the wake of inventor DJ Kool Herc and innovator Grandmaster Flash beginning to take out drum breaks from records, extending them and creating the loops that became the basis for hip-hop.
Rolo GuitarHOST
All of that is contained in Would I Lie To You, but it's done in a way to make the most of Charles Pettigrew's jazz-trained, R&B-inflected voice.
Rolo GuitarHOST
It's all very smooth.
35 more episodes mention Grandmaster Flash.
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