I am Grandmaster Flash
From Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum · 2024
Summary
Brad feels like his kind of creativity isn't taken seriously until the gang meets a young Grandmaster Flash — the hip-hop pioneer who invented turntabling and showed the world that DJing is a genuine art form requiring skill, creativity, and discipline. The episode celebrates music as culture and self-expression as a form of leadership.
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Discussion
Grandmaster Flash helped invent hip-hop by turning DJing into a new art form.
- What is DJing? What did Grandmaster Flash do that no one had done before?
- Why do you think some people didn't think DJing counted as 'real music'? Were they right?
- What does it mean to create something totally new?
- What kind of music or art do you make or enjoy that others might not understand?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: turntable, DJ, hip-hop, remix, Bronx.
Try it: Listen to one minute of music (any genre). Write three words that describe how it makes you feel. Then write one word about what instrument or sound you notice most.