"The Message" Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five Quiz

Answer: Melle Mel

Songwriting credit also went to Edward G. Fletcher, known as Duke Boote, who began the song as a poem. Sylvia Robinson produced the single on the Sugar Hill label. Although the song was advertised as being by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Melle Mel and Duke Boote were the only ones performing the song.

The rest of the group joins the video toward the end, but does not rap on it.

Answer: going under

The narrator of this song, overwhelmed by the stresses of poverty and a city in decay, is at a breaking point:

"Don't push me
'Cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
Ah-huh-huh-huh
It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under."

"The Message" was recorded on Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's debut album "The Message," which was released in October of 1982. The song was also released as a single on July 1, 1982 with an instrumental version of the song on the B-side.

Answer: junkies

The song depicts urban decay, describing an apartment complex scattered with broken glass, people urinating in the stiarwells, "rats in the front room, roaches in the back" and "junkies in the alley with a baseball bat." But the song's narrator is stuck by poverty in the situation: "Got no money to move, I guess I got no choice."

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five consisted of the following members: Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Keef Cowboy, Scorpio, The Kidd Creole, and Rahiem.

Answer: The man with the tow-truck repossessed his car

"I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far
'Cause the man with the tow-truck repossessed my car."

"The Message" peaked at number four on the U.S. Billboard Hot Black Singles chart. It was also a sensation in other countries, making the top ten on singles charts in the UK, New Zealand, Austria, the Netherlands. It was 62 at its highest point on the overall U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Answer: the bill collectors

"All My Children in the daytime, Dallas, at night
Can't even see the game or the Sugar Ray fight
The bill collectors, they ring my phone
And scare my wife, when I'm not home."

Duke Boote, who co-wrote this song, earned his teaching certification after ending his music career and went on to become an educator. "The Message" was recorded in Sweet Mountain Studio in Englewood, New Jersey.

Answer: New York City

An April 1, 1980, a transit strike brought service on all the bus lines and subways in New York City to a screeching halt as approximately 33,000 members of the TWU Local 100 walked off their jobs in an effort to seek increased wages. The strike lasted twelve days before a resolution was achieved.

Answer: hijack a plane

"Neon King Kong standin' on my back
Can't stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac
A midrange migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I'm going insane
I swear I might hijack a plane."

The rhythm track of "The Message" has been sampled by Ice Cube, Puff Daddy, and Sinbad. "The Message" was released between the singles "Scorpio" in 1981 and "New York, New York" in 1983.

Answer: street sweeper

"Or dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps"

In addition to rhyme and internal rhyme, the songwriters make frequent use of the literary device of alliteration, such as in the line "smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers / Pickpockets, peddlers and even pan-handlers."

Viewers of VH1 ranked "The Message" number five on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop" list. Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" came in at number one.

Answer: The narrator is picked up by the police

The narrator, and those with him, end up being arrested at the end of the song:

"Don't nobody move nothin'
Y'all know what this is
Get 'em up, get 'em up (What?)
Oh man, we're Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
What is that, a gang?
No
Shut up
I don't wanna hear your mouth
Shut up
Officer, officer, what is the problem?
You the problem..."

"The Message" was the first hip hop recording to be added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were also the first hip-hop group to be inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Answer: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

"Vice City" is the fourth installment of the "Grand Theft Auto" video game and is set in the mid-1980s in a fictional city modeled on Miami. The game contains a total of nine hours of music and over 100 songs.