July 1, 1982 –
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five release the early rap classic The Message, on this date. It’s the first hip-hop hit with lyrics about struggle in the inner city.
Unlike many early hip-hop hits, like Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight or Kurtis Blow’s The Breaks, which turned on thumping, up-tempo disco tracks, composers Ed “Duke Bootee” Fletcher and MC Melle Mel based The Message on a slow groove and a reverberated synthesizer hook. Fletcher admitted later, he’d been moved to write something in the spirit of Zapp’s More Bounce To The Ounce or Tom Tom Club’s Genius Of Love, both of which utilized synthesizer hooks over an amped-up funk bass.
The Haus of Dcaligari 