Grandmaster Flash jedan je od ključnih pionira hip-hopa i jedan od umjetnika koji su DJ-ing pretvorili u zasebnu kreativnu disciplinu. Još u najranijim danima žanra razvio je vlastitu Quick Mix Theory, usavršio beat looping i među prvima koristio gramofon kao pravi glazbeni instrument. Njegove su tehnike snažno utjecale na generacije DJ-eva, producenata i hip-hop izvođača, a The New York Times nazvao ga je prvim virtuozom hip-hopa.

Kao član Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, 2007. postao je dio prve hip-hop grupe primljene u Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Dobitnik je Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awarda iz 2021. i Polar Music Prizea iz 2019., a njegov utjecaj daleko nadilazi vlastitu diskografiju. Radio je i kao pridruženi producent na Netflixovoj seriji The Get Down, posvećenoj nastanku hip-hopa u Bronxu sedamdesetih. Njegovi današnji nastupi vraćaju se upravo tom formativnom razdoblju hip-hopa, kojem je ii sam pomogao dati oblik.

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Grandmaster Flash is one of hip-hop’s key pioneers and one of the artists who helped turn DJing into a creative discipline in its own right. In the genre’s earliest days, he developed his own Quick Mix Theory, perfected beat looping, and was among the first to use the turntable as a true musical instrument. His techniques have had a profound influence on generations of DJs, producers and hip-hop artists, while The New York Times has called him hip-hop’s first virtuoso. With Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, he became part of the first hip-hop group inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021 and the Polar Music Prize in 2019, and his influence extends far beyond his own discography. He also worked as an associate producer on Netflix’s The Get Down, a series about the birth of hip-hop in the Bronx in the 1970s. His live shows today return to that formative era of hip-hop — a culture he himself helped shape.