The Message

The Message was produced by Jigsaw Productions, meaning Clifton Jiggs Chase, and Sylvia Robinson, and recorded at Sweet Mountain in Englewood, New Jersey, with the recording dates not given. The tracks are "She's Fresh" (by Milton Edwards), "It's Nasty" (whose credits include Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Adrian Belew), "Scorpio", "It's a Shame (Mt. Airy Groove)", "Dreamin'", "You Are" and "The Message". Wikipedia credits Flash with turntables, drum machine programming and backing vocals, though the group page says he never appeared on their studio recordings. Additional players include Doug Wimbish on bass, Skip McDonald on guitar, Keith LeBlanc on drums and Ed Fletcher, Duke Bootee, on percussion and co-lead vocals on the title track. The 2002 reissue adds "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" (7:06).

It reached number 53 on the US Billboard 200 and eight on the Black Albums chart, 77 in the UK and 14 in New Zealand. Robert Palmer in the New York Times called it the year's best album in December 1982, Christgau gave it an A-, and AllMusic's Ron Wynn gave it four and a half stars, calling it the ultimate peak, while Pitchfork's Mark Richardson gave it 6.4, calling "The Message" and "Scorpio" two absolutely essential songs.