Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five

Joseph Saddler, born January 1, 1958, in Bridgetown, Barbados, is renowned as Grandmaster Flash, an American hip-hop musician and DJ. He stands as one of the foundational figures in hip-hop DJing, celebrated for his innovations in cutting and mixing. In 2007, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five achieved a landmark recognition, becoming the first hip-hop group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Saddler's family relocated to the United States from the West Indies, and he was raised in the Bronx. His immersion into the nascent New York DJ scene began with attending parties hosted by early hip-hop luminaries. Learning from pioneers like Pete Jones and Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash refined the technique of using duplicate records and two turntables. He distinguished himself by adding a precise manual edit with a mixer to extend and manipulate the "break" – the percussive section of a song. This allowed him to repeat breaks by skillfully switching between turntables, a technique that laid the groundwork for scratching, later developed by Grand Wizard Theodore.