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Subject: "Grandmaster Flash Is Hip Hop's Milli Vanilli (swipe)" Previous topic | Next topic
boombapdame
Member since Apr 22nd 2015
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Wed May-20-15 10:36 AM

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"Grandmaster Flash Is Hip Hop's Milli Vanilli (swipe)"


          

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.33896/title.the-furious-fives-scorpio-blasts-grandmaster-flash-calls-him-hip-hops-milli-vanilli

“The Furious Five has always wanted to work together,” Scorpio says. “It’s Grandmaster Flash that has a problem with working with The Furious Five because he wants to keep all of the legacy and the money to himself.”

During a newly published interview with YaHeard.com, The Furious Five’s Scorpio blasted deejay and frontman Grandmaster Flash, claiming that he never contributed to any of the group’s music, including their 1982 hit record, “The Message.” Scorpio also called Grandmaster Flash “Hip Hop’s Milli Vanilli,” referencing the German-born pop duo who were stripped of their Grammy Award after it was revealed that the vocals on their music were not those of the group’s singers.

“From ‘Super Rappin’,’ from ‘Freedom’ to ‘It’s Nasty’ to ‘Beat Street’ to every record we ever made,” Scorpio says. “‘The Message’ was the most critically acclaimed record but it’s been everything. He’s not on any of them, that’s why we came with the Milli Vanilli thing.”

Scorpio states that Grandmaster Flash had nothing to do with putting The Furious Five together.

“Of course we are upset. This dude is running away with — not saying he’s not entitled to nothing but if you know that most of your fame came from being with us and you didn’t cut on any of the records, you didn’t produce on any of the records, you didn’t rap or sing on any of the records, come on, you have to show the cats more respect than that. You can’t look at them like you’re the master plan. You’re going around telling the earth you put The Furious Five together, making it seem like he had a formula. It wasn’t no formula. Flash had nothing to do with putting our group together. When I came in the group he definitely wasn’t the one to say. It was all up to Duke, Mell, Creole and Cowboy. Then we got Rahiem in the group. He’s got the world thinking he put this together. ‘I got Melle Mell for his lyrics, I got Scorpio because he was the fly dude.’ Not the truth. Flash had a lot of records out on his own after us none of them did well… So much money comes to the table too. If he can’t take it and manipulate it for himself, he deads it.

Continuing, Scorpio offered an example of where Grandmaster Flash has shutdown potential moneymaking deals for the group.

“Here’s a true story. Do you remember when Rakim had that big campaign with Hennessy? Where they had the posters the billboards all around the country? They wanted to do us, the original Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,” he says. “And all that was, was just taking a picture for all the print adds and they were going to give us a half million dollars, just for the picture just to do the campaign. They didn’t know us personally but they knew Chubb Rock. Chubb Rock says he will get in contact with us. So the day Chubb finds out, Flash happens to walk into the club that day. Chubb sees Flash like ‘Yo, such and such is looking for you’ and told him about it and Flash calls and tries to get the shit for himself. , ‘Right now I’m not doing nothing with the fellas,’ you know, trying to get the shit for him. Deads the whole deal just like that. Got hundreds of those stories.

“No, no ,” Scorpio continues. “They wanted all of us, he didn’t want none of us to have it so he deaded the whole deal. I got hundreds of deals like that. This ain’t about us hating. It’s just most of the whole planet really thinks that he was the marquee through this. It was really Mel’s voice and his hook. He’s doing like 300 shows a year and they’re thinking we’re the Pips. There’s a new radio station going across the country, ‘Boom,’ they do different things. One of their ads is this, ‘Is the station where you can hear Kurtis Blow, where you can hear Grandmaster Flash?’ Do you think they are saying hear him cut? They’re talking about our music and our records. I’ve been trying to keep peace with this dude for years. Every year just hoping we can all get together and he just deads it. He says, ‘I don’t see myself playing behind any emcees anymore.’ So we do a show now and we stand behind you while we perform now? Well okay let’s do it then, but if he were to do it now he wants us to get up there and stand behind him. He told me that. So now, The Furious Five we have some shows coming up in June in Texas and we were just advertising Grand Masters Furious Five because if we don’t attach that it’s just a harder sell, but then you get 'The Message’ playing in the background you say, ‘Okay, now I know who you’re talking about.' He called the radio station and threatened to sue them. He called the headliner and tried to get us kicked off of the tour, and this is just a month ago.”

Later in the conversation, Scorpio highlighted that Grandmaster Flash refuses to mention The Furious Five during interviews and when speaking publicly.

“If you look at every interview that he does he won’t even say our name,” Scorpio says. “The first thing he will do is say, ‘I won’t say nothing about old school. I’m not talking about The Furious Five.’ When he got the Lifetime Achievement Award for BET, me and Melle Mel were going to go to the show just to go to the show and sit in the audience and this and that. I called and said we want to come to the show and he calls and says, ‘I don’t want them in the building.’ We couldn’t even get a ticket, and then the other year when they honored Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Flash, Bam, even though he wasn’t rocking with Soul Sonic Force at the time, he said, ‘I’d like to thank my emcees.’ Flash gets up there he doesn’t mention one thing about any of us, not Mel, the late great Cowboy. Like in his head he’s thinking he really did this shit.”

"If one forces the process, it comes out fake. And to me there's nothing worse than being fake." - Heavy D

  

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Topic Outline
Subject Author Message Date ID
Wow, Flash sounds like an asshole in this.
May 20th 2015
1
RE: Wow, Flash sounds like an asshole in this.
May 20th 2015
2
Devil's advocate: group was called Grandmaster Flash & the Furious 5
May 20th 2015
3
I think that Mel and Duke performed on The Message
May 20th 2015
5
nothing new i always heard that about him
May 20th 2015
4
and Harold Melvin is not the lead singer in Harold Melvin & the Blue Not...
May 20th 2015
6
RE: and Harold Melvin is not the lead singer in Harold Melvin & the ...
May 22nd 2015
8
      RE: and Harold Melvin is not the lead singer in Harold Melvin & the ...
May 22nd 2015
9
      it would be weird for them to use the name GMF & TF5 w/o GMF.
May 22nd 2015
10
           Grandmaster Flash is the name everybody knows
May 22nd 2015
11
                *shrugs*
May 22nd 2015
12
                     RE: *shrugs*
May 23rd 2015
13
And now, some context courtesy of Stetsasonic's Daddy-O (LINK)
May 22nd 2015
7

Errol Walton Barrow
Member since Jul 02nd 2002
6186 posts
Wed May-20-15 12:05 PM

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1. "Wow, Flash sounds like an asshole in this."
In response to Reply # 0


  

          

I wonder how much of this is true, and how much is embellished by Scorpio. It'd be a shame if dude was mostly right.

-------
http://adevotedappraisal.tumblr.com - Essays, reviews, short stories and free writes on music, film and life around us.

  

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boombapdame
Member since Apr 22nd 2015
118 posts
Wed May-20-15 12:32 PM

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2. "RE: Wow, Flash sounds like an asshole in this."
In response to Reply # 1


          

>I wonder how much of this is true, and how much is
>embellished by Scorpio. It'd be a shame if dude was mostly
>right.

I'm wondering this and it reminds me that the Old School was and is no more or less self centered than the current generation of artists hence why the hyperemphasis on ego ain't disappearing from Hip Hop any time soon.

"If one forces the process, it comes out fake. And to me there's nothing worse than being fake." - Heavy D

  

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j.
Member since Feb 24th 2009
3819 posts
Wed May-20-15 01:24 PM

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3. "Devil's advocate: group was called Grandmaster Flash & the Furious 5"
In response to Reply # 0


  

          

emphasis on AND. Meaning Flash was getting top billing and the rest were the ensemble. Scorpio even references the Pips, who were in the same boat: Gladys Knight AND the Pips. Their biggest hit features only Mel rapping. Bottom line: they agreed to this. It wasn't a problem when Flash was getting shouted out by Blondie and they were touring the world.

That's the devil's advocate side. On the other hand, it could very well be true and Flash is just another one of a long line of assholes who want everything for themselves. I want to hear Flash's side of the story.

  

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Sleepy
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Wed May-20-15 03:01 PM

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5. "I think that Mel and Duke performed on The Message"
In response to Reply # 3


  

          

I don't really remember who did the second verse tbh though.

You're such pests...now, what is it you want? In your depths of your ignorance, what is it you want? Well, whatever it is you want, I can't deliver because I just don't see it. - Orson Welles


Never Tired, Always Sleepy

  

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mistermaxxx08
Member since Dec 31st 2010
16076 posts
Wed May-20-15 02:30 PM

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4. "nothing new i always heard that about him"
In response to Reply # 0


          

and he was the face of the group. most folks see him and leave it at that sad to say.

mistermaxxx R.Kelly, Michael Jackson,Stevie wonder,Rick James,Marvin Gaye,El Debarge, Barry WHite Lionel RIchie,Isleys EWF,Lady T.,Kid creole and coconuts,the crusaders,kc sunshine band,bee gees,jW,sd,NE,JB

Miami Heat, New York Yankees,buffalo bills

  

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SoWhat
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Wed May-20-15 07:18 PM

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6. "and Harold Melvin is not the lead singer in Harold Melvin & the Blue Not..."
In response to Reply # 0
Wed May-20-15 07:19 PM by SoWhat

  

          

so what's this about?

fuck you.

  

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murph71
Member since Sep 15th 2005
23113 posts
Fri May-22-15 12:03 PM

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8. "RE: and Harold Melvin is not the lead singer in Harold Melvin & the ..."
In response to Reply # 6
Fri May-22-15 12:04 PM by murph71

          

>so what's this about?

Artist trying to make a living off of touring money....

Flash is blocking Mel and them from using the Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5 moniker....Mel points out that he cool with the fact that Flash doesn't want to be a part of the group anymore. But since concert promoters can only really book the group with the title Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5 AND Flash does not appear on any of the signature hits, Mel and them are calling bullshit....

The real kicker? Flash allegedly has been trying to cut the rest of the group out of commercial money AND tried to do a BET tribute to "The Message" with different high profile rappers, leaving out Mel, Scorpio, ect...This doesn't sit well with the rest of the guys considering they did the heavy lifting on those records and Flash was MIA....

If all of this is true, that shit is foul....

GOAT of his era......long live Prince.....God is alive....

  

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Nick Has a Problem...Seriously
Member since Dec 25th 2010
16580 posts
Fri May-22-15 12:06 PM

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9. "RE: and Harold Melvin is not the lead singer in Harold Melvin & the ..."
In response to Reply # 8


  

          

>>so what's this about?
>
>Artist trying to make a living off of touring money....
>
>Flash is blocking Mel and them from using the Grandmaster
>Flash & The Furious 5 moniker....Mel points out that he cool
>with the fact that Flash doesn't want to be a part of the
>group anymore. But since concert promoters can only really
>book the group with the title Grandmaster Flash & The Furious
>5 AND Flash does not appear on any of the signature hits, Mel
>and them are calling bullshit....
>
>The real kicker? Flash allegedly has been trying to cut the
>rest of the group out of commercial money AND tried to do a
>BET tribute to "The Message" with different high profile
>rappers, leaving out Mel, Scorpio, ect...This doesn't sit well
>with the rest of the guys considering they did the heavy
>lifting on those records and Flash was MIA....
>
>If all of this is true, that shit is foul....

Foul as a muthafucka if true

******************************************
Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Hawks

Geto Boys, Poison Clan, UGK, Eightball & MJG, OutKast, Goodie Mob

  

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SoWhat
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Fri May-22-15 12:15 PM

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10. "it would be weird for them to use the name GMF & TF5 w/o GMF."
In response to Reply # 8


  

          

i'm not sure why they can't just perform as TF5 though.

i dunno who owns that name.

this sounds like common stuff - multiple folks in a given group wanna perform using the group name and they're fighting over who has the rights to it.

fuck you.

  

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Nick Has a Problem...Seriously
Member since Dec 25th 2010
16580 posts
Fri May-22-15 12:19 PM

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11. "Grandmaster Flash is the name everybody knows "
In response to Reply # 10


  

          

Promoters aren't booking shows for just The Furious 5. That's not gonna bring the people in.

******************************************
Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Hawks

Geto Boys, Poison Clan, UGK, Eightball & MJG, OutKast, Goodie Mob

  

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SoWhat
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Fri May-22-15 12:29 PM

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12. "*shrugs*"
In response to Reply # 11


  

          

see also: The Blue Notes

fuck you.

  

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murph71
Member since Sep 15th 2005
23113 posts
Sat May-23-15 06:49 AM

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13. "RE: *shrugs*"
In response to Reply # 12
Sat May-23-15 06:56 AM by murph71

          

>see also: The Blue Notes


It's fucked up all the way around though, What....

Flash is essentially trying to have it both ways....He doesn't want the group to use the Grand Master Flash & The Furious Five name (which one could say, 'OK....I can see you point of view on that...A LIL BIT...'). But then turns around and attempts to cut the rest of the guys out of commercial money (a HUGE Hennessey campaign was on deck. The company reached out to Flash and said they wanted the ENTIRE group to reform for over half a million....Flash tried to cut the rest of the guys out of the money by not even telling them....lol

Nah dog....Flash, who doesn't even appear on those big records and who was given royalties by the rest of the Furious Five because of crew love (Mel says they made it a point not to cut dude out because they were a real Bronx FAM), is now stopping Mel and them from eating...

Pretty foul...


GOAT of his era......long live Prince.....God is alive....

  

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mrhood75
Member since Dec 06th 2004
44713 posts
Fri May-22-15 11:15 AM

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7. "And now, some context courtesy of Stetsasonic's Daddy-O (LINK)"
In response to Reply # 0
Fri May-22-15 12:23 PM by mrhood75

  

          

http://www.waxpoetics.com/news/stetsasonics-daddy-o-adds-needed-context-to-the-grandmaster-flash-vs-scorpio-and-melle-mel-debate/

Long and short of it: Back when a lot of their "hits" were recorded, engineers didn't know how to "engineer" turntables, so DJs were never in the studio for the early Sugar Hill/Enjoy records. Also, back in the early '80s, it used to be wack to even consider recording hip-hip tracks in a studio, since hip-hop was still heavily views as a live performance medium.

-----------------

www.albumism.com

Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

https://www.mixcloud.com/returntozero/

  

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