Grandmaster Flash Cancels Show

London date pulled

Hip hop innovator Grandmaster Flash has been forced to cancel his upcoming show in London’s Matter venue.

Grandmaster Flash is one of the most influential musicians alive. Kool DJ Herc brought Jamaican soundsystem culture to New York, crafting an enormous set up and touring the city’s ghettos.

However Grandmaster Flash can take the credit for turning the turntables into a musical instrument in their own right. The young decks master enrolled at a sound engineering course to learn more about the machine’s, reworking the design to gain more flexibility from his kit.

Essentially inventing scratching and several other modern mixing techniques, everyone who has ever flicked on a pair of Technics owes Grandmaster Flash a huge debt. His track ‘Grandmaster Flash At The Wheels Of Steel’ had an incredible affect on emerging rap crews, dismantling the way mixes were constructed.

Signing to the legendary Sugarhill imprint the DJ was paired with rap crew Furious Five, who supplied the rhymes for legendary recordings such as ‘The Message’, a track that blends emerging electro sounds with a socially conscious message.

However it was not to last. Sugarhill’s notoriously lax legal knowledge saw the label sued by 99 Records, after the rap giants failed to clear a sample of ‘Cavern’ by Optimo. Tragically, the court case resulted in the financial death of both institutions, as the labels drowned beneath spiralling legal costs.

Returning earlier this year, the hip hop legend crafted his own solo album, more than twenty years after his last involvement with the music scene.

On the new album Flash is joined by other hip hop legends such as Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg and A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip. Q-Tip also released a new solo album earlier this year, and ClashMusic caught up with the hip hop hero for a chat.

Click HERE to read the interview with Q-Tip!

Grandmaster Flash had been due to perform at London’s Matter venue on June 12th, but this has now been cancelled. In a statement it was explained that the gig was pulled due to due to “unforseen circumstances”, although the source chose not to go further.

All tickets for the June 12th event will be refunded at the point of purchase.

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