Jospeh Saddler AKA Grandmaster Flash had helped usher in the hip-hop era with his pioneering scratch skills nearly a decade before his appearance on May 9, 1987 at the Starr Palace.
By 1987, Flash was working separate from the Furious Five which had cemented its place in American music history with “The Message” in 1982. Flash along with Furious Five veterans Kidd Creole and Rahiem split from that group to record a series of three albums with Flash. “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done” (1985) and “The Source” (1986) were already out by the time the Flash and his group got to Youngstown in 1987.
The album “Ba-Dop-Boom-Bang” followed in September 1987 but the poorly received album helped push along a Furious Five reunion on Dec. 13, 1987 during a Homeless Children’s Benefit at Madison Square Garden. One more Furious Five album was released in 1988 and the group permanently disbanded shortly thereafter.
In 2007, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Steel Strings 