Taipei Times: Since you were there when it happened, how did this hip hop phenomenon get started?
Grandmaster Flash: Well yeah I'm part of it being born.
But first let's get a few things straight. Hip hop all started with the DJ. Then came the break dancing. Then the break-beat artist. And then the MC came later. You gotta get that sequence right, because you have to realize it all started with the DJ. My job is to get this DJ art form recognized.
It's painful when I hear people saying hip hop started in like 1982 with The Message or something. I'm always like, wait, that's from the middle. That's like 12 years after the start of hip hop, which was in 1971.
If anyone talks about rock, they know who the Stones are, who Bo Didley is. But with hip hop it's so sad that people don't know what it was about or where and how it started. It's just sad that people aren't properly informed.
So, why don't we start from the beginning? That's where I'm going to start in the show. The beginning.
TT: OK, so what triggered the process to make that first hip hop sound?
Flash: I think it started out of frustration. I just wasn't hearing what I wanted to hear. I would go through bins of records in the pop, rock, jazz, blues, R&B, funk, punk sections and on these records we had to find the parts of the record where the least musicians were performing, like maybe the drummer, and find those great breaks that were maybe only 10 seconds long. I found that very frustrating.
I didn't say to myself, "I'm gonna start this art form." I just thought to myself that there's gotta be a way to take that piece of music there and rearrange it and take that joy and extend it by manipulating the records back and forth. That was my quest.
At first, people would be like, "Man, why are you playing that break for five minutes!"
They didn't like it.
TT: But it eventually caught on, obviously. And since then, what have been some of the turning points or milestones in hip hop's history that you've been witness to?
Flash: Man, there are too many to name 'cause I've seen them all. I've seen Kurtis Blow at his best. And I've seen LL Cool J and Run DMC at their best. Then Eric B and Rakim. I've seen DMX at his best. I've sorta seen all the dynasties come to their pinnacle. I think that's going to be part of my story that I tell at the show.
TT: And when you look at how hip hop is now, how do you feel about how far it's come from the days it was invented in bedrooms and block parties in the Bronx?
Flash: It's big business now. You look at everything, from electronics to cars, to clothes and they're trying to use the essence of hip hop to sell things. It's gotten really corporate.
But I look at hip hop now, and I don't necessarily like every record that comes out, but I'm happy for the way it has exploded. If it hadn't, who knows where I'd be?
TT: So what's it like to tour the world now as a DJ and play in Asia for the first time?
Flash: Actually, people would say, "Yo Flash, you gotta get out on tour. Old school is hot man!" And I said the only way that I will perform is if I can do this shit from the very beginning. The same way that I sit down with my four-year-old daughter and read her a story before she goes to bed, I say, "Once upon a time, page one." That's where I start! I wanna instill this history in this generation of hip-hoppers. If I can do that then my mission is complete.
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