NASHVILLE, Tenn. (July 23, 2007) Yamaha Corporate Artist Affairs, Inc. proudly announces the addition of hip hop DJ and Producer Grandmaster Flash to its roster of endorsed artists. A pioneer of hip-hop DJing, cutting and mixing, Grandmaster Flash mixes using the Yamaha 02R96V2 digital mixer.
"Yamaha's digital mixer is quite clean," said Flash. "I like the idea of it being able to snapshot levels and settings so that I can always go back to it, and the moving faders are really cool. No matter what knobs I move, I can hit a button and always return back to the song's original settings. That's the biggest part of replicating a mix, so that's very cool. And the gates and compressors on every channel are incredible."
Few artists can boast that they started a revolution, but since the earliest DJ scene, Flash has been leaving his stamp on the music industry. Not only is he one of the three pioneers responsible for the musical genre called hip hop, but his use of the turntables made him the first DJ to play the turntables as a musical instrument, elevating the status of the DJ to that of a virtuoso.
"We are thrilled that Flash has joined the Yamaha family of artists and entrusts our digital mixers to create his signature sound." said Chris Gero, Vice President, Yamaha Corporate Artist Affairs, Inc. "Flash's contributions to the world of hip hop are legendary, and we are honored to have him on our roster."
Flash's use of a turntable as an instrument spawned entirely new concepts including "cutting," "backspinning" and "phasing." This would become the basic vocabulary – and arsenal of techniques – that DJs continue to use to this day.
In the late 70s, Flash took his inventions to another level by recruiting emcees to rap over his music. The unity later became worldly known as "Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five." In 1982, they went Platinum with "The Message." Their first album, The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel, introduced hip-hop to a larger listening audience than it had ever known before. Flash was the first DJ ever to produce his own album. The hits kept coming throughout the 80s and into the 90s.
Today, DJ Grandmaster Flash still tours the world, creating musically and mechanically and receiving awards for his impact on hip hop. Flash has played for audiences as large as the Super Bowl and as elite as Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.
On March 12, 2007, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were the first hip hop/rap group ever inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In 2006 Flash won the BET I Am A Hip Hop Icon award.
Today, you can hear Flash mixing on the Yamaha 02R96V2 digital mixer during his weekly Sirius Satellite Radio show called "The Flash Mash Show," which airs every Saturday, 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. ET on Channel #50.
This year, Flash is finally setting his memoirs to the page, taking time to write The Message: The Grandmaster Flash Story with David Ritz, who also wrote both Marvin Gaye's and Ray Charles' memoirs. The book's publisher is Doubleday.
And, of course, Flash is still hard at work in the studio; he is set to release The Bridge on Adrenaline City Entertainment in 2008. If Flash's memoirs promise a revealing look at hip hop's past through the eyes of an icon, The Bridge will give listeners a taste of its future.
With 26-plus awards under his belt and the credit of being the first DJ to turn the turntables into a musical instrument, it's easy to see why this man is such an icon and great inspiration to many around the globe.
— Yamaha Welcomes Hip Hop DJ Grandmaster Flash —
