Scorpio of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five recently reflected on the 40th anniversary of their hit single, “The Message,” which is widely regarded as one of the greatest hip hop songs of all time. Speaking with HipHopDX, Scorpio admitted that they initially "hated" the song.
“The Message” was released in 1982 as the title track for the group's debut studio album.
“I think one of the important things about that song is it just have us trusting in things that we didn’t trust in sometimes,” he told the outlet. “Like with music, you gotta get out of your own ego. Because realistically, we hated that song. We couldn’t stand that song. We didn’t think that it had no reality to us, but thank God Ms. Robinson had the better vision."
He continued: “Thinking, because we was coming from the Bronx, that it’ll match better versus putting it with somebody else, or whatever the case may be. So just trusting in other people was the biggest lesson. We don’t have all of the answers. No artists have all of the answers.”
"The Message" went on to become the first hip hop song chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. It is often cited as one of the first rap songs with serious political and social commentary.
As for why they hated the song, Scorpio added: “I think we was really scared of change. Because we was like the biggest ghetto superstars before records. And everything that got us to that point was real braggadocious, talking about girls, parties and this and that. And to hear a record like that with that slower tempo and everything, maybe it was just too real for us, like, ‘Yo, y’all got to grow up now.’ Maybe we still wanted to be kids and sing about partying, those type songs versus being in reality. We like, ‘Oh wait, broken glass everywhere? Hey, you talking about where we live.’ Hey, hey, we know rats in the front room, roaches in the back. We know that. We live that. Maybe it was something that hit too hard for us.”
He went on to remark that the lyrics in the track sadly remain relevant today.
Revisit Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message" below.
[Via]