The Message

song by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

July 16, 2026

Quick Summary

"The Message" is a seminal 1982 song by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five that marked a pivotal moment in hip-hop music. Released on Sugar Hill Records, the track is celebrated for pioneering socially conscious protest rap. It vividly depicted the harsh realities of inner-city life, moving beyond earlier party-oriented themes. This song inspired subsequent artists to use rap as a vehicle for social commentary, much like folk artists such as Bob Dylan and Bob Marley did with their music.123

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

3 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
…realities of ghetto life in “The Message” (1982), they became the pioneers of socially conscious protest rap, inspiring the likes of Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Boogie Down Production’s KRS-One to create provocative social commentary in the manner of Bob Dylan and Bob Marley. The group also tackled drug abuse…
Read More
…realities of ghetto life in “The Message” (1982), they became the pioneers of socially conscious protest rap, inspiring the likes of Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Boogie Down Production’s KRS-One to create provocative social commentary in the manner of Bob Dylan and Bob Marley. The group also tackled drug abuse…
Read More

reggaeton
…that genre’s earliest hits, “The Message” (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, recounts the troubles of living in an underfunded inner-city neighbourhood. Hip-hop soon spread to Puerto Rico, where performers, notably Vico C in San Juan, began rapping in Spanish. By the 1990s both hip-hop in Spanish…
Read More
…that genre’s earliest hits, “The Message” (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, recounts the troubles of living in an underfunded inner-city neighbourhood. Hip-hop soon spread to Puerto Rico, where performers, notably Vico C in San Juan, began rapping in Spanish. By the 1990s both hip-hop in Spanish…
Read More