Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message (Official Video)

COUNTY SINGER JASON ALDEAN DOES A SONG ABOUT CRIME IN THE INNER CITY IN 2023 AND THE LEFT GOES BONKERS BUT AN AFRICAN AMERICAN LEGEND AMERICAN GRANDMASTER FLASH DOES A COMMENTARY IN 1982 AND IT IS ONE OF THE BEST HIP HOP SONGS OF ALL TIME.

I had bought this record as well as the 12-inch single White Lines. This rapper/musician did excellent music!
"The Message" is a song by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. It was released as a single by Sugar Hill Records on July 1, 1982, and was later featured on the group's debut studio album of the same name.

"The Message" was an early prominent hip-hop song to provide social commentary. The song's lyrics describe the stress of inner-city poverty. In the final verses a child born in the ghetto without prospects in life is lured away into a life of crime, for which he is jailed until he commits suicide in his cell.[3] The song ends with a brief skit in which the band members are arrested for no clear reason.[4]

"The Message" took rap music from the house parties of its origin to the social platforms later developed by groups like Public Enemy and KRS-One.[5] Melle Mel said in an interview with NPR: "Our group, like Flash and the Furious Five, we didn't actually want to do 'The Message' because we was used to doing party raps and boasting how good we are and all that."[6]

The song was first written in 1980 by Duke Bootee and Melle Mel, in response to the 1980 New York City transit strike, which is mentioned in the song's lyrics.[4] The line "A child is born with no state of mind, blind to the ways of mankind" was taken from the early Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five track "Superrappin'" from 1979 on the Enjoy label.

Reception
Accolades and usage in media
The song was ranked as number 1 "Track of the Year" for 1982 by NME.[7]

Rolling Stone ranked "The Message" #51 in its List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, (9 December 2004). It had the highest position for any 1980s release and was the highest ranking hip-hop song on the list. In 2012 it was named the greatest hip-hop song of all time.[8]

It was voted #3 on About.com's Top 100 Rap Songs, after Common's "I Used to Love H.E.R." and The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight".[9]

In 2002, its first year of archival, it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry,[10] the first hip hop recording ever to receive this honor.

"The Message" was number 5 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.

"The Message" is number 1 on HipHopGoldenAge's Top 100 Hip Hop Songs of the 1980s".[11]