The Message

This album opens with an amazing funky banger with a bass so insanely good you just can't sit still. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a false promise for the album.

Its Nasty is also still a decent song, but then comes Scorpio, one of the low points of this album. And it doesn't really get better after that.

Side B starts dramatically awful with 2 ballads where the enamel jumps off your teeth. Everything hip-hop on this album is suddenly gone.

Luckily we still have "The Message" as the last song. The famed HipHop hit on the record and most likely THE song Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five have ever released. That makes up for a very weak middle half of the album and a reason not to discard this album straight away.

Ok this is genetically engineered to make me like it. If you love your mother break in She's Fresh is hysterical. Scorpio I don't love as much. Its cool mix of humor, funk, proto hip hop, RNB.

This is an especially wild album to listen through, with the hindsight of 40 years of hip-hop and rap progression in mind.

It goes without saying that this album was revolutionary for its role in popularizing a sound and bringing at least a couple different genres into the mainstream. What I find especially interesting is how refined this album is compared to so much of the hip-hop and rap music since.

I dig that many of the samples are supplemented with live instrumental accompaniments. When I see other hip-hop/rap performances on Tiny Desk, or I hear tracks produced by folks like Pharrel, I hear the influences of this album running through.

The performances are tight and playful. I can appreciate tracks that are hard to keep up with because the artist is performing at a blistering speed, but I have no patience for all of the slurring and mumbling that has become especially popular in genres like trap.

What really stands out is that the whole group, throughout the entire album refers to women as "ladies" and "girls" instead of derogatory terms. One of the members of the crew even has verses in 'It's Nasty' about how content he is in a monogamous relationship. I'm not trying to say that all music needs to be clean and pristine, but I do think there is a value to finding a better middle ground and I appreciate artists like Tribe Called Quest and Tobe Nwigwe that are deliberate about it.

The album maintains this standard even while telling the story of a darker and harder reality in tracks like 'It's a Shame', 'The Message' and 'Message II'.

Classic, still (sadly) relevant, and insightful.
Really interesting to hear from the start of rap and hip-hop, and an album that was an inspiration to so many throughout the years since.

Like the more hiphop/rap songs. The song that sampled Tom Tom Club was my favorite, and the Message is always a classic. That being said, the rest of the album was largely disappointing and not worth noting. 2.5/5

A couple of tracks here are an absolute blast but slower songs are borderline unlistenable

"Dreamin'" is so, so bad. But "The Message" is so, so good.

FUNK VERDADEIRO

This is an album I can appreciate for what it is, but I don't know that I would go out of my way to listen again. I know these guys were rap pioneers and much of the album seems to bridge the gap between 70s funk/R&B and 80s rap. I enjoyed the bass on this album (Doug Wimbish, who later joined Living Colour), particularly on She's Fresh and It's a Shame (especially the last minute of the track). I also liked the Tom Tom Club backing track for It's Nasty. Favorite track was The Message. As soon as I heard the "ah-huh-huh-huh" and "it makes me wonder how I keep from going under" my immediate reaction was, "hey, they did that in Hamilton" (with the line "it makes me wonder why I even bring the thunder" and the laughing when they're singing "you don't have the votes"). I'm not a big rap fan, so I think I missed out on a lot of callbacks in Hamilton...I feel like I'm getting schooled in rap history during the 1001 albums journey and I'm enjoying it more than I expected I would. Calling it a 3 primarily because the album just didn't blow me away but I definitely enjoyed it.

Always thought early 80’s hip hop was a bit cheesy, this does sound a bit dated now, but enjoyed it much more than I expected. Can see the influence it had and the lyrics are still relevant in 2021. Scorpio great track reminds me of daft punk.

I hadn't listened to the album before. The title track is great. As an album as a whole, it felt all over the place, and dated. I couldn't tell if the mid-tracks like "Dreamin'" and "You Are" were taking the piss or not?