Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Birthday party
2. Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel
3. Steel
4. Showdown
5. It's Nasty (Genius Of Love)
6. Flash To The Beats Parts 1 And 2
7. Message
8. Scorpio
9. Message II (Survival)
10. New York New York
11. Rhymes And Dope
12. White Lines (Don't Do It)
13. Jesse
14. Beat Street
15. We Don't Work For Free
16. Step Off
17. Pump Me Up
18. Mega Melle Mix
19. King Of The Streets
20. Vice
21. Street Walker
22. Supper Rappin' No 1
23. Trinidad Spot
24. She's Fresh
25. It's A Shame
26. Internationally Known
27. Hustlers Convention
28. Truth
29. World War 3
30. New Adventures Of Grandmaster
31. Freestyle
32. Black Man
33. Drug Wars
34. Kick The Knowledge
35. Gangster Movies
36. Ghetto Life
37. DC Cab

Disc 2:

1. Jesse
2. Grandmaster Melle Mel
3. Cowboy Beat Street
4. We Don't Work For Free
5. Step Off
6. Pump Me Up
7. Mega Melle Mix
8. King Of The Streets
9. Vice
10. Street Walker
11. Super Rappin' No 1
12. White Lines (Don't Do It)
13. Jesse
14. Beat Street
15. We Don't Work For Free
16. Step Off
17. Pump Me Up
18. Mega Melle Mix
19. King Of The Streets
20. Vice
21. Street Walker
22. Supper Rappin' No 1
23. Trinidad Spot
24. She's Fresh
25. It's A Shame
26. Internationally Known
27. Hustlers Convention
28. Truth
29. World War 3
30. New Adventures Of Grandmaster
31. Freestyle
32. Black Man
33. Drug Wars
34. Kick The Knowledge
35. Gangster Movies
36. Ghetto Life
37. DC Cab

Disc 3:

1. She's Fresh
2. It's A Shame
3. Internationally Known
4. Hustlers Convention
5. Truth
6. World War 3
7. New Adventures Of Grandmaster
8. Freestyle
9. Black Man
10. Drug Wars
11. Kick The Knowledge
12. DC Cab

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #199828 in Music
• Released on: 2006-03-20
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Box set

Amazon.co.uk Review
Kool Herc was the first hip-hop DJ, and Afrika Bambaataa had a better record collection but Grandmaster Flash was the first turntablist--the first DJ to play the wheels of steel like an instrument. Working with the first MC supergroup--the Furious Five, the Wu-Tang Clan of their day--Flash charted the course of hip-hop for years to come. This collection charts Flash's many highs, from "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" to "Scorpio", "White Lines" to "The Message"; but at 37 tracks, there's plenty of room for Flash's lesser-known works, only some of which are of more than archival interest. Though Flash's hits can be found on any number of packages, Back to the Old School puts them in a context that makes them all the more impressive. --Randy Silver

Customer Reviews

Adventures on the Wheels of Steel
For anyone wanting to get Grandmaster Flash and the FF's tracks, this collection is the one to buy. First of all, because it doesn't miss any of the essential ones out; secondly (very important) because each track here is FULL LENGTH, not an edit; and thirdly because you get a number of interesting tracks as well as the great ones; and fourthly because it's cheap. (One-CD compilations often have edited versions, though these are sometimes interesting -- e.g. the version of "White Lines" on "The Greatest Rap Album of All Time" which has a long build up and then cuts to the late verse "Athletes reject it ...".)

This would be worth buying for "White Lines (Don't Do It)" alone. There's also the famous "The Message". And of course the first DJ edit track, "Adventures ..." The first Furious Five release "Super Rappin' No. 1" is excellent also: one of the old-skool 12-minute monsters -- the beat and disco-bassline going on and on till the break of dawn. (The rapping on this is almost more impressive than on any other track.) The other two early releases are as good -- "Freedom" and "The Birthday Party". As is "New York New York".

So that's 7 great tracks, including two or three that announced something that had never been heard on record before. The rest of the set never scales the heights of "Super Rappin", "The Message", "Adventures..." or "White Lines", but then, what does? There are lots of other good pieces, with plenty of get-down moments -- the battle with the Sugarhill Gang "Showdown", the synth hook of "It's Nasty", the Furious-Five-only pieces "Jesse", "Beat Street", "Step Off", "King of the Streets", the electro-vocal of “Scorpio”, and the ending of "Mega-Mel Mix".

Then there's the wack stuff, including Flash on a manually-operated drum machine in "Flash to the Beat" (it'd be good to sample, though), the limp Melle Mel collaboration "Vice", the "New Adventures...", which isn't by Flash but does include a squelch used as a drum (so the Prodigy weren't so original in using breaking glass as a beat!)

But those “historical” tracks are forgotten when you listen to the real block-rocking tracks. Short of hearing the tapes of the block parties this is as close as we can get. (There are teeny snippets from block parties on Grandmaster Flash’s 2002 album “The Official Adventures ...”) Hearing some of the early tracks you get the sense of hip hop being born -- Flash choosing the right beats, and perfecting/inventing the methods to mix them, and the Furious Five perfecting the rhymes and tag-team style of rapping that would overlay them. If you’ve liked any old skool track you’ve heard, buy this.

Flash and his furious5 take you back to the old skool.
Back in the day, 1981, hip hop burst onto the scene and provided a whole new window for young black people to express themselves and get up out of the ghetto. Flash is argubly the man who started Hip-Hop when at the age of 12 he soldered his first set of decks together and started to mix and scratch records. Take this and add five young enthusiastic black guys and you have a lethal combination bound to create something fresh and special. The album is a tribute to everything black in the 80s and the songs prove this with a concoction of party, hard-hitting, and tell-it-like-it-is tracks. You can't but enjoy the way Flash drops 1 vicious tune after another whilst the boys rap about everything from what its really like in the ghetto to how pretty they are. Everything thats Hip-Hop has spawned from these very tracks, so get up and pay attention - its history your listening to.

Some good classics but some not so good tracks as well
Although having some of the classic Grandmaster Flash songs it does have some of the less enjoyable songs. The first CD really takes your breath away as you sit back and listen to Adventures on the Wheels of Steel. However, as you scroll through the other tracks you can't help feeling that some have only been put there for padding. Still a good CD set for fans of Old School Hip-hop.