Grandmaster Flash Joins Al Sharpton To Revisit Hip-Hop’s Origins

Grandmaster Flash is taking the story of Hip-Hop’s first DJs to national television alongside Rev. Al Sharpton and Ari Melber.

The legendary Bronx DJ joined MS NOW’sbroadcast to discuss rap, politics and the craft behind his turntable innovations. Melber brought Flash and Sharpton together for a special edition of his recurring Fallback segment.

The exchange focused on the Quik Mix Theory, the method Flash developed to keep short musical breaks going for dancers. Using two copies of a record, a DJ could alternate the same drum passage without forcing the crowd to stop.

That skill helped create longer instrumental sections for early MCs and changed what performers could do at Bronx parties. Flash has also argued that building Hip-Hop involved many contributors, not a single inventor.

During an October interview, he described his role without taking sole credit for the culture. “This is my contributions to the culture. It’s called the quick mix theory. So for me, I’m only one part of this.”

His book Birth of a Culture examines why particular DJ techniques worked, tracing the physics and mathematics he used with turntables. Flash learned electronics as a child, taking apart household equipment before developing his own approach to playing records at Bronx neighborhood parties.

The pioneer described his musical outlook in a September conversation about his experiences with different records. “This is not a black thing or a white thing, or a wrong thing or a right thing,” he explained.

Flash described the first time his father’s record player caught his attention. “My dad is a magician! He’s the best in the world. I’m like, Holy moly, how did he do that?”

That childhood fascination eventually became a way to make dancers hear more of the music they loved, rather than just the short breaks.

The latest broadcaster reel connects that personal history to a wider conversation about Hip-Hop’s reach and cultural importance in America today.

The book arrived September 22 through Amistad, with journalist Robert “Scoop” Jackson serving as Flash’s co-author.