Grand Master Flash And ... - The Message

The artist of the song "The Message" is officially billed on the record labels as "Grand Master Flash And The Furious Five" in big letters. Grand and Master are two separate words. The labels in some countries, including the US, also feature "Feat. Melle Mel And Duke Bootee" in little letters below. It's more common to see "Grandmaster" as one word, which is how it's billed on the LP - that's how I list it in my own library.

Discogs shows 34 different configurations for the releases, and I didn't check all of them.

There are three basic releases for the song.

The 12 inch single and LP version

In the US, the 12" has a printed time of 7:11, and an actual run within a few seconds of 7:11. This is also the album version, but you're far more likely to encounter the 12" single than the album.

The matrix number of the 12" is VID-235-A-19. I bring this up only because there was also a US promo 12" that bleeped out the word "pissin'" and was otherwise the same as the commercial 12". That promo 12" also has a printed time of 7:11, has "For Radio Play Only" printed on the label, and has a matrix number VID-235-A-XXX-19. The bleeped 12" doesn't appear on CD.

I myself have the 7:11 version on four discs, and I'm sure there are many more.

It first appeared on Priority's Rapmasters 8 (1989). The soundstage is a little weird, as if the left and right tracks are a sample or two out of sync. If you mono it out, the high end disappears, including most of the hi-hat. While it may be fixable, I didn't bother.

It next appeared on Rhino's Hip Hop Greats (1990). It runs 7:09 here, runs at 101.0 BPM throughout, and sounds very nice. This CD my pick for the 12" version. The same analog transfer is used for Time-Life's Rolling Stone 1977-1982 (1993), but that disc includes two false start beats before the first downbeat. Weird.

I also have the 12" version on Rhino's Kurtis Blow Presents The History Of Rap Vol. 2 (1997), but it's mastered way too loud.

The US 7 inch single

I know I own a copy of the 7", but it's buried and I can't remember if it's a promo copy or a commercial copy. I can confirm that the promo 7" exists, with a printed time of 4:30, and a matrix VID 585-A 19. I can't confirm that a US commercial 7" exists, though.

The US 7" bleeps out "pissin'". Otherwise, you can edit this down from the 12". I went through the editing exercise about 10 years ago, but I don't remember where the edit points were. My reconstruction (with "pissin'" intact) ran about 4:43. No need to reconstruct, because the US 45 version exists on CD.

I like the version on Rhino's Best Of Sugar Hill Records (1998). It's a little loud, and clips quite a bit, but it's got a nice crisp high end. On this CD, it runs 4:43, runs at 100.2 BPM at the start and drifts up to 100.3 at the end, and has edit points (visible in the waveform) at 0:09, 0:24, 0:31, 2:25, and 3:15. (You can make what you will of the visible edit points; you probably can't hear them.)

The version on Rhino's Millennium New Hip-Hop Party (2000) sounds OK, with a little less high end than Best Of Sugar Hill Records. It's clearly not from the same analog transfer as that disc, though, and my concern is that on Millennium it's taken from vinyl. There are at least two tracks on a different disc in the series, Millennium Hip-Hop Party (1999), that are from vinyl. Not good.

Both of the above discs bleep the word "pissin'", as it is on the actual US 7".

Foreign 7 inch singles

I didn't check every country, but the German 7" has a printed time of 3:35, and the Spanish 12" has a printed time of 3:33. This was also the UK 7" as well.

This is a different edit of the 12" version, and omits the verse that has the word "pissin'", so there no bleep necessary.

The best-sounding version of this 3:35 edit that I found is on a cheapie 2-CD set from Disky called Best Of 1982-1983 (2003). It runs 3:10, and about 100.7 BPM throughout. I didn't hear any evidence of noise reduction. I think all the printed times are off on this one, and that it really does run around 3:10.

The same version, running about the same length, appears on Connoisseur Collection's 5-CD box 100 Dance Hits Of The '80s (1990) and EMI's 2-CD Now The Millennium Series 1982 (1999). Both of these have enormous amounts of noise reduction; I can excuse the early Connoisseur Collection release, since it was probably taken from vinyl, but there's no excuse for a big label like EMI to use such heavy NR on a 1999 release. On both of the NR'd CDs, listen to the break from about 0:25 to 0:30 - it sounds totally lifeless.

Other versions running between 6 and 7 minutes

These didn't exist in 1982. Some are early fades, some are the result of tracking into the next selection on the CD. Avoid.

One of these is on Rhino's Street Jams Hip-Hop From The Top Part 1 (1992), running about 6:33. Avoid.

Edited by crapfromthepast

CFTP, did you ever find that promo 7"?

Aaron has helped me get a version that will be perfect for airplay, but I'd love to compare it to any original version released to radio in the day.

Edited by NightAire