The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats
One of the founders of rap music, Grand Master Flash more than deserves a full-blown, critical biography. This as-told-to autobio ain’t it. It is, however, replete with GMF’s views of his travails, the start of the rap scene in New York, and the career of his Furious Five, a seminal act in rap history and the first rap group elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (OK, big whoop). Born Joseph Saddler in Barbados in 1958, GMF remembers hearing James Brown at one of his parents’ late-night house parties: “I wanted to scream, wanted to jump in the middle of the action.” Eventually, he did, as an early master of “scratching,” the art of creating the instrumental component of rap by manipulating vinyl records on turntables. Though more boastful than introspective, this first book on the life and career of a rap initiator should still be considered essential for pop-music and hip-hop collections. It may even give your library an immediate uptick in street cred! --Mike Tribby