Grandmaster Flash on “Birth of a Culture”

The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Hip-hop aficionados love to debate the state of the genre and which current stars are really more pop than rap. But there's no question, none at all, that Grandmaster Flash is a true pioneer.

He's been an innovator in the art of DJing since he was practically a child, and now, as a senior citizen, Grandmaster Flash remains as devoted to his turntable heroics as ever. He tours the globe. He spreads the gospel of hip-hop everywhere and he tells stories about the origins of a music genre that has come to dominate the airwaves and has forever influenced American culture. In a new memoir, Birth of a Culture, Grandmaster Flash takes us behind the scenes of hip-hop's earliest days, from the Bronx to the downtown discos and parties in dank basements.

I sat down this week with Grandmaster Flash, who was born Joseph Sadler in the Bronx, to talk about his new book and his beginnings. My mother always taught me to ask people what I should call them, Flash. Just Flash. Flash, yeah.

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