GRANDMASTER FLASH - THE EDUTAINER

New York turntable legend Grandmaster Flash (aka Joseph Saddler) is still touring the world – and more relevant than ever. Indeed, with his ol’ skool ‘anything goes’ philosophy, Saddler is the original mash-up DJ. Back in the day, he’d play any music style – with one criteria. “It didn’t have no colour, it didn’t have no genre – it just had to be funky,” he states.
Saddler is said to be reluctant to grant interviews, but he’s gracious – and chatty. Journalists are warned not to refer to him as an MC – quite understandably. Grandmaster Flash belongs to that hip hop era when the DJ, not MC, reigned. Saddler has stressed in the past that hip hop was “a DJ-created artform” – and so to mistake him for an MC would be a diss. But this time journos are also instructed not to ask Saddler about last year’s album, The Bridge: Concept Of A Culture. Rare is it that a hip hopper doesn’t want to discuss a current project. The Bridge was a decent, but not innovative, LP. The turntablist even secured high-profile guests like Q-Tip, Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg. Still, he plans to yield another mid-year.
Saddler was born in Barbados but grew up in The Bronx. Inspired by Kool Herc, the electronics student developed turntablist techniques like scratching, back-spinning and phrasing. As a member of The Furious Five, Saddler was aligned with Sugarhill Records. Here, his most significant moment was the classic mash-up The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel. The posse attached their name to The Message but, confusingly, only rapper Melle Mel contributed, delivering those pertinent socio-political lyrics. Already Saddler was being marginalised by an MC. The DJ had money issues with Sugarhill, arguing that he should be compensated for the use of his handle. Regardless, in 2007 Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five were the first hip hoppers (and Saddler the first DJ) inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Saddler recently published his autobiography, The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats. 
Saddler is upbeat about today’s DJ culture (he’s immortalised in DJ Hero!). He perceives himself as an edutainer. “I think that the DJ culture is probably healthier than it’s been in a very long time,” he says. “The reason I say that is because I work more than ever now. The fans really wanna see the DJ more so now. At one point the DJ was part of a group, but now the DJ can do both – he can be part of a group, but he can also stand alone as an artist. It’s just such a resurgence for DJs. It’s really great.”
Saddler has embraced technological changes – farewelling the wheels of steel. “Me being the inventor of the whole science of actually taking a record and moving it back and forth and spinning it counter-clockwise – I was ahead of my time then. You gotta respect modern technology. You can’t stop it – it’ll just keep coming, it’ll keep coming... At this present time, I like Traktor – I think Serato is cool, too, but I like Traktor [which he’s officially promoted with Richie Hawtin].”
Saddler is intrigued about the wider world of dance music. He’s acknowledged house, techno and breaks DJs – among them Paul Oakenfold. Saddler believes that the genres are connected. But, if he DJs house, Saddler slows it down. “I like the melodic house music. I love the way Erick Morillo plays. I love the way Paul Oakenfold plays. I love the way Lisa Lashes [plays].”
Surprisingly, Saddler remixed Midnight Juggernauts’ indie-dance Into The Galaxy. “It’s a little faster than what I might play [in terms of] beats per minute, but the groove was already there. So it was a matter of me just stripping what they had and giving it a little more of a hip hop feel – It was fun.”