The Message

Spaltet - mit solchen Alben wurde der Synthesizer entweiht. Es steckt nur noch ein Hauch von Musik darin.

The seventh guy on this album cover is Duke Bootee.

You know him. You've always known him.

“It’s like a jungle sometimes,
it makes me wonder how I keep from going under”

And the bars

“The bill collectors, they ring my phone
And scare my wife when I’m not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Can’t take the train to the job, there’s a strike at the station.”

Give this man his flowers

Rest In Power Edward Fletcher

The Message was certainly a ride of an album. Now we get to what is probably the first hip-hop album by release date on this project, Forget Run-D.M.C., forget Duck Rock, this is the real first one and it shows as this album feels like it takes inspiration from many R&B and funk albums rather than it's non-existent contemporaries. For being an early hip-hop album, it's basic but still quite enjoyable the production and beats were fun and the lyrics were interesting with one of the tracks being a full-blown Stevie Wonder worship track (I mean, good taste, Stevie is good). It still has a lot of cheesiness but it is certainly quite enjoyable.
Best Song: The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheel of Steel
Worst Song: The Message

Very fun tracks, varied too. The Stevie Wonder tribute song is hilarious. Raps are occasionally TOO simplistic but all round a fun album!

Hip hop isn't my thing but I love funk. I get that this was early 80s and hip hop has changed a lot since then, but this is infinitely more listenable that any hip hop in the last 30 years. I know that's quite a 'get off my lawn' take, but whatever. There are some cool grooves on this album for sure, I would really call this more of a funk-adjacent album than hip hop. It's still not quite to my taste, but at least I didn't struggle to get through it. 2.5/5

I thought this just shy of fine. The Message is really good. Some of the other stuff is good, some of it is not great. I like some of the funk stuff in here, too, a little, but I won't be playing this one again anytime soon. But it's one of those albums that, while not for me, probably should be on the list.

I can't say I relate to the cheese of it all but it's an important touchstone and, giving that a pass, it's pretty fun to listen to.

Awesome album, not my favorite genre though, otherwise it'd be higher.

Last 2 tracks are all time classics. Rest of the album is a bit dated, but i’ll let it slide since it’s a foundational hip hop album

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

Going into this, I only knew the title track, so imagine my surprise when this album kicked off with a sort of Jackson 5-esque R&B/soul cut. It’s hard to classify this as a rap album, because it does feel like more of a R&B album where Grandmaster Flash & friends happen to rap on some of the tracks, some of the time. It is definitely old-school hip-hop though, and I’m very glad the album does enough to stay fresh & energetic; I really did expect this to be 35 minutes of stuff similar to “The Message”, with some rather minimal production & less of the established blending of funk & rap that would come to define the genre.

Hell, the “Genius of Love” sample on “It’s Nasty” immediately threw me for a loop – that might be one of the earliest examples of sampling in hip-hop ever, given that the original track only came out a year earlier. Super fun track, too. Scorpio is cool as shit; a bit long, sure, and a little bit of “human” presence would’ve done wonders to break up the monotony of the modulation, but it’s a remarkably unique blend of electronica and talkbox work for 1982. “It’s a Shame” has a few awkward production tricks, and the vocal intensity feels a little high compared to the lyrical content, to the point where it almost feels a little condescending, but I’ll give it a pass for 1982.

Dreamin’ is a little awkward, given that we’re not THAT far removed from “Songs in The Key of Life” at this point in time, & “Hotter Than July” had come out 2 years before. He was (& still very much is) alive, so the tribute feels a bit strange. In a way, I’m almost reminded of all the LeBron parody songs trending online right now, but this is far more earnest. Is it glazing? Yeah, probably – you don’t write the lyric “I dream about you Stevie, you make me wonder” unless you’re going for remarkably cheesy praise. I think it’s a bit long for what it is, but I adore Stevie Wonder, so I think it’s fair enough to shoot your shot on wanting to meet the guy like this. I do think though, that if you’re gonna do a Stevie Wonder tribute, you have to have a harmonica solo. Sort of criminal that there wasn’t one; felt more like an Earth, Wind & Fire cut at the end of all that.

“You Are” is painfully fine – for my ears, lots of vocal & instrumental flash instead of lyrical substance for a gospel track like that, though that opening piano is beautiful. I might be a bit hypocritical given that one track on the Christina Aguilera album we got recently, I do think it just sort of circles the platitudinal bases, with the spoken word interlude there as a sort of anchor. “The Message” solidified its place as a rap classic for me here – I’ve never fully given the lyrics their due on that track, but they’re excellent, & the skit at the end is a very direct snowball trail to get to “Fuck Tha Police” just 6 years later.

I now have a way better understanding of this album’s place as an influence on hip-hop, & there is a pretty direct throughline to get from this album to the rest of 80s rap to come. There’s also a lot of R&B standards that would come into vogue the more the genres overlapped; it wouldn’t surprise me if the usage of “Genius of Love” here inspired Mariah Carey’s usage of it on “Fantasy”. Overall, it’s a pretty good 37 minutes, and any shortcomings I have with it can be sort of wiped away by “it’s 1982” – at worst, I think this is a 3, bare minimum. It’s a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5 because I sort of admire it for what it is, and some of the cheesier stuff on this sort of won me over.

Ganz okay :-)

This album is hip-hop at its finest. It’s an incredible mix of funk and soul, with lyrics that remain just as relevant today as they were upon release. Every track has something to offer, making for a compelling and timeless listen.

I absolutely loved every song on this album—except Scorpio. Even the two unexpected soul tracks in the middle, which seem to pay tribute to Stevie Wonder, were a pleasant surprise despite their different tone compared to the rest of the album.

Favourite Songs: The Message and It’s a Shame are absolute standouts.
Least Favourite Song: Scorpio felt a bit out of place—like something from a spoof Doctor Who soundtrack.
Album Artwork: I love the cover; it perfectly captures the essence of the era.

Objectively great for it's era and such a groundbreaker.

It's OK. Like I always say about early rap albums - it's incredibly anachronistic to the point where it's almost sweet. I was into it at first, then it got a little repetitive.

Fun album, but undeniably goofy.

funky grooves but they get old quickly. i found myself waiting for end halfway through each song.

I wasn't familiar with the name of the band. But I already knew the song The Message. I don't like hip hop. But I do like funk. And this really is a pretty funky hip hop album. It was fun in parts. The album probably won't appear in my daily stream, but it was quite interesting. 3/5

Doesn't feel like it was quite a hip hop album already. She's Fresh and The Message are true rap songs and my clear favorites on the album, but the rest of the album is much more late 70's funk-like. A shame Message II is only on the extended edition of the album, because its one of my favorite songs here.

It's hard to judge this solely on its merits, as it's like a Tiktaalik just having left the water and starting to crawl, on its journey from fish to land animal.

Dreamin' and You Are seem really out of place on this album. The rest is fun, especially the title track.

Wow, I hadn't realized how many of these I already knew.