The All Around Greatest MC of All Time
djnikoless
236 Posts
I'm doing a special on Grandmaster Mele Mel. I did a real nice and informative interview with him in december and i'm incorportating a lot of that. This is a two week special. Part one aired last week and is available to listen to online now. Part two will air this saturday. I had a couple questions, if anyone has any insight:1)I have the song "Blackman" with Mel and Scorpio on this compilation. Does anyone know where it came from? What year it was? 2)Survival: I remember reading on Jayquan's site that this song was written by Spoonie Gee to get out of his contract. Can't remember who said that but does anyone know if that is true and did he write the full song or just parts of it?3)New Music Seminar '87: It's already confusing enough with a three way tie or whatever with Caz, Mel and King Sun. However, I'm curious does anyone know why Caz would have a verse dedicated to Mele Mel as his final verse. I just thought that was odd. Did he have that already or did he prepare it that day or what Dont' know if anyone knows that but just think it's interestingAnyway, here's last weeks show:Listen here:http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/programs/redefinition_radioApril 28, 2007Mele Mel - The All Around Greatest MC Of All Time Pt 1.Playlist:GMF "The Furious Five-Superappin'" '79Instrumental: Get Up And Dance (Freedom)[With interview segments: The first rap group to keep it on beat - why they weren't the first on wax - the transition from street to studio, the freedom beef]Mele Mel "Duke Bootee - The Message" '82[With interview segment: The making of The Message]Mele Mel-Duke Bootee - New York New York '83Grandmaster Mele Mel - White Lines '83[With interview segment: On the break of the group]Instrumental: Survival (Mele Mel "Duke Bootee")Grandmaster Mele Mel - Beat Street '84Grandmaster Mele Mel "The New Furious 5 - The Truth" '84Grandmaster Mele Mel - World War III '84Instrumental: Internationally Known (The Furious Five)[With interview segment: On the first group to tour with a DJ]Grandmaster Mele Mel w/Scorpio "Cowboy-Step Off" '84Here's a lil write up I did about it for some promotions and my blog:Redefinition: The All Around Greatest Mc Of All Time!Sure you've heard that mentioned before. No doubt the sentence invokes many different names and possibilities, but I'm hear to tell anyone that if they got someone different than who I'm about to unveil then most likely they are wrong...ha. Seriously though, if you are a part of a discussion of the all-time great MCs and his name doesn't come up then I can't take you serious. If he is not in your top 10 then you are tripping. If he's not in your top 5 we are going to have to debate. If isn't your number one then....well, I guess I'll let it go....but only is he is #2 
.The man I'm talking about is GRANDMASTER MELE MEL!!! If you are still not convinced allow me to apply just a smidgen of logic, because his music and legend really can speak for itself... However, him along with his brother, Kid Creole, basically created the art form of MCing. Before them it was all catch phrases (ex: "throw your hands in the air", "Yes Yes Y'all"), call/response often regarded as "Toasting". For more on that, please reference the classic "Step Off", "Before my reign it was the same old thing, that bob-didi-bob, that street talk game....".Beyond that, have you ever heard "The Message", I certainly hope so. That song is easiest one of the single most influential songs in the History of Rap Music. It changed the tempo, it widen the scope of content, and it helped Hip Hop return to that gritty element that it was born from (that got lost a little bit in the earliest rap recordings such as "Rappers Delight").This week starts a 2 Part Dedication to the man known as Mele Mel. I interviewed him a while back so you can expect to hear bits and pieces from that interview as he speaks on things such as: "the creation of The Message", "The Break up of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five", "25 years of his name being improperly spelled", "why the sugarhill gang beat them to wax", and much more!!This first week will cover his career from 1979 with Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five thru 1984 with his own Version of The Furious Five and some classic solo works. This week every song will be a classic!!!MELE MEL-MUSCLES NEW ALBUM IN STORES NOW!!!!!http://melemel.net/www.myspace.com/grandmastermellemelwww.myspace.com/musclesmelemelwww.myspace.com/furious5Oh yeah, in doing this show I recognized that being that he developed this MC artform in 1977 that makes 2007 the official 30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the HIP HOP MC as we know it....
.The man I'm talking about is GRANDMASTER MELE MEL!!! If you are still not convinced allow me to apply just a smidgen of logic, because his music and legend really can speak for itself... However, him along with his brother, Kid Creole, basically created the art form of MCing. Before them it was all catch phrases (ex: "throw your hands in the air", "Yes Yes Y'all"), call/response often regarded as "Toasting". For more on that, please reference the classic "Step Off", "Before my reign it was the same old thing, that bob-didi-bob, that street talk game....".Beyond that, have you ever heard "The Message", I certainly hope so. That song is easiest one of the single most influential songs in the History of Rap Music. It changed the tempo, it widen the scope of content, and it helped Hip Hop return to that gritty element that it was born from (that got lost a little bit in the earliest rap recordings such as "Rappers Delight").This week starts a 2 Part Dedication to the man known as Mele Mel. I interviewed him a while back so you can expect to hear bits and pieces from that interview as he speaks on things such as: "the creation of The Message", "The Break up of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five", "25 years of his name being improperly spelled", "why the sugarhill gang beat them to wax", and much more!!This first week will cover his career from 1979 with Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five thru 1984 with his own Version of The Furious Five and some classic solo works. This week every song will be a classic!!!MELE MEL-MUSCLES NEW ALBUM IN STORES NOW!!!!!http://melemel.net/www.myspace.com/grandmastermellemelwww.myspace.com/musclesmelemelwww.myspace.com/furious5Oh yeah, in doing this show I recognized that being that he developed this MC artform in 1977 that makes 2007 the official 30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the HIP HOP MC as we know it....
Comments
you didn't know that's how his name was supossed to be spelled all of these years? you from the bronx, homeboy, you 'posed to know that
the m-e-l-e m-e-l
the man with all of that clentele
and when other mc's try to prove a point
a-mele mel, hah- is the serious joint
rrrrrrrrrrrah
There were cats before "Mele". He solidified the form.
yes sir that is why I put the "as we know it", meaning the way that mele and creole evolved it is essentially the way it is still today. There was definitely MCing/Rapping/Rhytmic Talking/Toasting before Mele...
here's a 30 second clip of Mele explaing the name thing and why he didn't bother to fix the mistake made by sugarhill for all those years....
http://www.sendspace.com/file/wd0i90