RealTalkNY got a chance to speak with a Hip Hop legend, Melle Mel. Melle Mel was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his group, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five(Watch the video HERE). The Hip Hop pioneer shared his opinions on, today’s Hip Hop, rappers beefing, Bill Cosby’s comments on Tupac, Jay-Z and his future plans.

You can check out more on Melle Mel on his site HERE.

RealTalkNY: How did Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five first get together?

Melle Mel: I first started rapping in the Bronx, with Flash, our neighborhood DJ. Me & Scar use to back up dance for Flash. Back in the days every DJ had a dance crew. He use to leave his mic to the side, he didn’t do a lot of speaking, so anybody could grab his mic.  We use to go to Kool Herc’s parties and listen to what Kool Herc and them were doing. We kind of emulated what they did and made it in long form, as far as rhyme wise. We started getting on Flash’s mic and rocking the mic a little bit. Me, my brother, Creole and Cowboy use to be on the mic and do a lot of crowded spots. When we did our first party it was, “Grandmaster Flash and the 3 MC’s.” About maybe the next year we added Mr.Ness to the crew, he later changed his name to Scorpio around the time we signed with Sugar Hill Records. Then there was a group called, “Break Out The Funky Four Plus One More,” Raheem use to rhyme with them. We got Raheem and put him down with us, and that’s how it became Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five.

RealTalkNY: What inspired songs like, “The Message,” & “White Lines”?

Melle Mel: The inspiration for, “The Message,” was Sylvia Robinson, nobody really wanted to do the song. The song was already written by the percussionist in the Sugar Hill band, named Ed Fletcher. He is the other voice on the song, he wrote the main body of the song and I wrote the last verse. The main inspiration was Sylvia Robinson, it was something she thought would work. Originally the Sugar Hill Gang was suppose to do, “The Message,” and they turned it down. Our group turned it down, but being Sylvia Robinson believed in the record, I figured I will believe in her, that’s what I told her. Then she put out the record out, and it became a huge hit. After that we started doing records with a social relevant edge. “White Lines,” became one of those records. After the success of, “The Message we figured that’s our little niche, as far as within rap. It changed what rap was about, before it was all party songs. At that time, “Planet Rock,” was the hottest song out, and, “The Message,” kind of knocked, “Planet Rock,” out because it was something totally different.

RealTalkNY: Do you think pioneers of Hip Hop, like Grand Wizard Theodore, DJ Kool Herc and etc. get enough respect?

Melle Mel: Not really, because rap has been around a while, I mean it is still a new genre of music. Modern day rappers, as the industry stands today, don’t  really understand what it took to be who we were back then. Not only do Grand Wizard and Herc not get the respect they deserve, up until the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and even now, we don’t get the respect we deserve. They try to put out the image that what we did, wasn’t really what it was meant to be. Like it was a fluke and all the real rapping is going on right now.  Which I believe is to the contrary, you figure in the first 10-15 years of rap, that’s where all the classic records were made. In the last 15 years of rap, you probably have 2-3 classics. Wherein the first 10 years ,there was 10-15 classics easy. They don’t respect us for that because they have a street corner mentality involved and they don’t really give respect where it is due. They just only acknowledge what’s going on right now and take a street corner attitude about the whole thing. Hopefully time will change, as far as the respect value of what we did, they don’t want to understand what it is or what it meant even to them.

RealTalkNY: What are your thoughts on the current state of Hip Hop?

Melle Mel: I feel it should be allowed to grow up. Hip Hop is in a position where they made it so juvenile  and so street, you only have a one way image of what Hip Hop is. They kind of cut off a majority of the market by ostracizing the true hip Hop audience, which is our audience. You have millions of people all over the world that love Hip Hop, and I hear it all over, they just can not relate,  do not understand or don’t like what is going on right now. It is just too street, too thuggish, too much violence and drugs. All of that has it’s place in society, but that’s not what it’s all about. If you were on the outside looking in, you would think all the ghetto is about is selling drugs and killing. There always been violence in the ghetto but that’s not what it is all about. People have lived great lives and had good childhoods. We had hard times and might of came from a broken home but I had some beautiful memories. We used music to get out the ghetto,  and they use it to get stuck in the ghetto. They got everybody stuck in a ghetto-fied mentality, it is not right for the music and it is not right for the people.

RealTalkNY: How do you feel about rappers beefing with each other?

Melle Mel: Their type of beef isn’t even talent related, they beefing like they the mob or something. In all there beef, nothing really  happened to anybody except for Biggie and Tupac, and then people called a truce to the whole thing. It isn’t like they all  tough like that, its more like a scam, like they playing games with each other. Back in the days if we had some beef, you got on stage and settle it and nobody got hurt. You put your talent up front, all the talk was just talk. Right now you got a beef, that’s an ongoing beef, that last a year and nothing happens to anybody, it don’t make for good business, it is not entertainment. It is just like what I said, rap being to ghetto and too thuggish, it just doesn’t make sense.

RealTalkNY: Do you listen to any current artist from the last 10 years?

Melle Mel: I listen to all the music, I mean I’m in the clubs to understand what’s going on. I just put out a new album called, “Muscles,” on my own label, Big Guns Entertainment, and I want to stay current. So I listen to music to stay current, it’s not like I listen to rap from a fan perspective. I listen to songs and don’t care who made the song. It’s not the angle I’m listening to it from, I just want to hear what is out there. Like the Ludacris record, “Runaway Love,” I like the record and I just found out today Ludacris made it. I like the record, but it never dawned on me to ask who did the record. Even my own music, I don’t really listen to rap. It’s not something, from a creative perspective and life experiences, that I can learn a lot from.

RealTalkNY: How do you feel about the media bashing Hip Hop during Black History Month?

Melle Mel: Well I mean the part of Rap, that’s the historical part, I guess they left out. The format of Hip Hop that is left is not exactly Hip Hop. It’s only Hip Hop by name and not by culture. The culture of the  music doesn’t exist to where it existed when we made it. The break dancing, the graffiti, you know the DJ-ing and the rapping doesn’t exist in the same format. It’s not Hip Hop, it’s basic commercial Rap music. What the music meant to society, just the over all negativity of it all, just made growing up in the ghetto a worse place. If they did bash it, they had a reason to bash it. There isn’t a positive spin you can really put on it, except there are guys out there making money. Past the money, it is what it is. I like to try to speak from my heart and just be truthful to myself about anything that’s going on. There is no other way to look at it, it’s just not positive music. When we did the music, we used it to get out of the ghetto. It(Today’s Rap) got everybody stuck in the ghetto mentality, kids running around not caring if they live or die past tomorrow. They want to go out like Biggie and Pac went out. Everybody wants to make big money real quick, life isn’t like that, it takes time to get things done. Kids, instead of growing up wanting to be a child, they want to get rich quick at any cost, that’s not the way society is. You have a lot of people throwing their lives away and throwing their future away by following the blueprint these cats portray. If there is a reason to be bashed, that was why. When was the last record, the caliber of, “The Message.” When was it made, it is probably a Tupac song and how long ago was that? You just don’t have the caliber of artist you had back then then that you have now. It is just a different caliber and it’s worse.

RealTalkNY: Bill Cosby recently made comments about Tupac, saying people shouldn’t look up to him because he use to sell drugs. What are your thoughts on his remarks?

Melle Mel: I think Bill Cosby and people, don’t have an understanding of exactly who Tupac was. Every time people discuss Tupac, people talk about how great of a rapper he was. Me, being a master rapper myself, I wouldn’t say he was a great rapper, more than he was a really good actor. Who played parts to such perfection, that the people, instead of listening to some of the things he said, they just looked at what he was doing. then they try to emulate it, and that is what made things more negative then what they could have been, if they actually listened to him. He was a very intelligent human being, and his body of work, to this day, will probably never be surpassed by anybody. He was a brilliant person, but he was was such a great actor, that is what captivated people the most.
As far as Bill Cosby, he’s a standup guy and a great human being in his own right. I think what it is, is he did what everybody else did. He didn’t really listen to what Tupac was saying. Bill Cosby came from a whole lot of eras back, so he don’t really understand Tupac. I’m not trying to come down on Bill, because the over all message he was trying to get out there was  definitely one that black people should hear. But they don’t want to hear the truth.

RealTalkNY: How do you feel about being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?

Melle Mel: I think it is a great accomplishment for the group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. It is actually a great accomplishment for Rap, it might give Rap finally, a chance to take it’s place with all the other great music in history. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five can take their place along the other great groups, such as The Temptations, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. We laid the foundation and was one of the most important groups in our time. 

RealTalkNY: Jay-Z is scheduled to induct your group into the Hall Of Fame, what’s are your thoughts on Jay-Z?

Melle Mel: I respect Jay-Z, every time I met him I thought he was a very respectable brother. I have the utmost respect, and I never thought anybody would get the things he has got done in business. He surpassed everyone out their, in regards to what he did in business. Personally, I would have wanted somebody that actually knows us, to induct us in. I understand what is going on, they are using Jay-Z to authenticate Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, but Jay-Z can’t authenticate Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five because we authenticated Jay-Z a long time ago. I understand the dynamics of what is going on, but I personally wanted somebody that knows the group and actually understood and was there when everything was going on. So there is a personal connection between us and that person. That is my personal feelings, everybody else in the group is all for it, so it is all good.

RealTalkNY: Can you tell us about the new album, “Muscles”?

Melle Mel: Its an album I put together, its just a great album. Once it gets promoted right, its definitely going to be one of the better albums put out this year. It has 16 cuts, and I’m trying to do it the old fashioned way, just make a good album. I don’t have any features or samples, we trying to establish a true Hip Hop icon. We are promoting it for what it is, and not relying on features. That’s how Rap got worn down, doing a lot of features. Michael Jackson nor Prince ever did an album like that. Every time somebody buys an album, they ask who is on the album, your not really establishing an artist. I’m doing some classic Melle Mel cuts, I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel. You will hear some  stuff that you would hear today, and I’m doing the type of songs that nobody will probably write for another ten years. I’m just trying to cover all bases, make the best material possible, and stand behind it. It will work because there a lot of people out there that have been waiting on a Melle Mel album, or just something new and exciting from a pioneer rapper of my caliber. The industry needs it, it’s not like a lot of these guys are putting up great numbers, compared to the money it takes to promote an album. The industry needs a Melle Mel album to show them there is a certain way to sell records. They got making money and selling records mixed up. There is only one way to sell records and that’s how they been doing it. Not how they got it now, making everything street. Now people are relying on mixtapes to sell albums, in the end of the day it doesn’t turn into sales. We are trying to establish something that will be a big seller, redefine the market and reestablish the face of Hip Hop.

RealTalkNY: Any last words for the fans out there?

Melle Mel: Check the website, it’s on Itunes, MelleMel.net. I’m trying to put a little wrestling thing together with the WWE. Just trying to take Rap in different directions and make it more entertaining. John Cena is one of the champions and he is a rapper. Where ever Hip Hop is, I try to get a foot in the door, just to reestablish what’s going on. I don’t want to be on the outside looking in, so I want to always be part of what Hip Hop is all about. To all the people out there that believe in Hip Hop, I definitely need you to support the Melle Mel album and all my endeavors. I’m trying to put a grown and more mature face on Hip Hop. I know the people will be behind me, the people have been waiting for something like this to happen. With the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, the Melle Mel album and the WWE, we are gong to make this happen and it is going to be big.