Scorpio, best known for his work with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, recently corrected what he feels is an incorrect narrative regarding the origin of hip-hop music. Speaking with HipHopDX, Scorpio explained that Grandmaster Flash did not write the first rhyme, something that Grandwizzard Theodore had claimed.
The legendary rapper says that he took the claim as a sign of disrespect.
“It wasn’t just my reaction, it was also Melle Mel reaction,” he told the outlet in a recent interview. “And we took it as the ultimate disrespect to us, especially for Mel and Creole being the ones that wrote the first rhymes in Hip Hop, period. And Keith Cowboy [Furious Five] being Hip Hop’s original party starter. It just diminished everything that we did. It totally took away, I guess, what we brought to the table."
He continued: “There’s no way on God’s green earth Flash wrote the first rhyme, because if he wrote a rhyme, why did he stop writing rhyme? So that was definitely ludicrous for him to even say that.”
From there, Scorpio also cast doubt on Grandwizzard Theodore's reputation as the inventor of the scratch. He also said that Coke La Rock shouldn't be credited as the genre's first MC, and that the honor belongs to his Furious Five collaborator, Melle Mel.
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five are considered one of the most significant voices in the early development of hip hop music. Their 1982 track, "The Message," is widely considered one of the best rap songs of all time. The group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, making them the first hip-hop group to be inducted.
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