What Is Grandmaster Flash’s Net Worth?
Grandmaster Flash is an American hip-hop recording artist, DJ, and author who has a net worth of $4 million. Grandmaster Flash is considered one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing, and he created the Quick Mix Theory DJ technique and invented the slipmat that DJs place over the turntable platter.
He formed the group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five in 1978, and they released the studio albums “The Message” (1982) and “On the Strength” (1988). Their song “The Message” was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2002, and it was ranked #51 on “Rolling Stone” magazine’s 2004 list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
In 2007, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame, becoming the first rap group to receive the honor. Grandmaster Flash has also released the solo albums “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done” (1985), “The Source” (1986), “Ba-Dop-Boom-Bang” (1987), “Flash Is Back” (1998), “The Official Adventures of Grandmaster Flash” (2002), and “The Bridge – Concept of a Culture” (2009). In 2008, he published the book “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats,” which is described as “a no-holds-barred memoir from the primary architect of hip hop and one of the culture’s most revered music icons—both the tale of his life and legacy and a testament to dogged determination.”
Early Life
Grandmaster Flash was born Joseph Robert Saddler on January 1, 1958, in Bridgetown, Barbados. His family immigrated to the U.S., settling in the Bronx, New York City. Grandmaster Flash’s mother worked as a seamstress and spent time in psychiatric care, and his father, a transit worker who abused his wife and children, left the family in the mid-1960s. Grandmaster Flash’s fascination with his father’s record collection led to him becoming interested in DJing. When he was 8 years old, Grandmaster Flash and his younger sister were surrendered to foster care, staying in foster homes in the Bronx before living near Poughkeepsie, where they attended the Greer School. During his time at Greer, he DJed at a school dance. Grandmaster Flash later studied at the public vocational school Samuel Gompers High School, where he learned about repairing electronic equipment. After high school, he got involved in the New York DJ scene. Grandmaster Flash’s uncle Joseph “Sandy” Saddler was a two-time world boxing champion in the featherweight category.
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Career
Grandmaster Flash collaborated with rappers Lovebug Starski and Kurtis Blow before forming Grandmaster Flash & the 3 MCs with Melvin Glover (Melle Mel), Robert Wiggins (Cowboy/Keef Cowboy), and Nathaniel Glover (The Kidd Creole). The term “hip-hop” was created by Cowboy when he scatted the words “hip/hop/hip/hop,” mimicking the cadence of soldiers marching, while teasing his friend who had enlisted in the U.S. Army. Melle Mel was the first rapper to refer to himself as “MC.” Guy Todd Williams (Rahiem) and Eddie Morris (Scorpio) later joined, and the group became known as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. In 1978, they became regular performers at Disco Fever in the Bronx, and after signing with Enjoy Records, they released the single “Superrappin'” in 1979. The group signed with Sugar Hill Records in 1980, and they released their debut album, “The Message,” in October 1982. The album reached #53 on the “Billboard” 200 chart and #8 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and it also charted in Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. The title track reached #4 on the “Billboard” Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and was a top 10 hit on the charts in Austria, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the U.K.
The popularity of the song (which Grandmaster Flash didn’t actually appear on) led to tensions within Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and the group split up, with Grandmaster Flash, Rahiem, and The Kidd Creole signing with Elektra Records and continuing under the name Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, Cowboy, and Scorpio forming Grandmaster Melle Mel & the Furious Five. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five reunited in 1987 and released the 1988 album “On the Strength,” which reached #189 on the “Billboard” 200 chart. Grandmaster Flash has also released the albums “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done” (1985), “The Source” (1986), “Ba-Dop-Boom-Bang” (1987), “Flash Is Back” (1998), “The Official Adventures of Grandmaster Flash” (2002), and “The Bridge – Concept of a Culture” (2009), and “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done,” “The Source,” “Ba-Dop-Boom-Bang,” and “On the Strength” were certified Gold. “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done” reached #35 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and “The Source” peaked at #27 on that chart. In 2023, Grandmaster Flash competed as “Polar Bear” on the Fox series “The Masked Singer.”
Personal Life
Grandmaster Flash wed Brittany Williams in 1999, and they remained married until Williams’ death in 2015. He was then married to Brittany Silver from 2018 to 2021. A 2016 “New York Times” article said of the rapper’s life, “These are good times for Grandmaster Flash. After a long fall, during which he was addicted to cocaine, estranged from some of his six children and sleeping on his sister’s couch, he has homes in the city, on Long Island and in Atlanta, but spends most of the year on the road, D.J.ing (you can’t call it spinning records) in the United States and abroad.”
Awards
“The Message” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021. Grandmaster Flash has also received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Global Spin Awards, Recording Industry Association of America, and Urban Music Awards, and he was honored with the I Am Hip Hop Icon Award at the 2006 BET Hip Hop Awards. He won Sweden’s Polar Prize in 2019, and in 2022, he received an honorary doctorate from Buffalo State College.
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