Hip Hop is 50: The Legacy of Grandmaster Flowers-An Intv w/ Historian Mark Skillz

We at Hard Knock Radio continued our “Hip Hop is 50” series. We sat down to speak with author/journalist/historian Mark Skillz to talk about Hip-Hop pioneer Grandmaster Flowers, born Jonathon Cameron Flowers, who was a DJ from Brooklyn, New York. He spent more than a year writing an in-depth, definitive article on this elusive and mythological figure. The article will appear in the August issue of Wax Poetic Magazine. Skillz said that writing this article was the culmination of a 20-year journey.

In our interview, Skillz covered a lot of ground. He talked about how Flowers was one of the earliest DJs to mix records together in sequence. He detailed the story about Flowers opening up for James Brown and deejaying at Yankee Stadium in 1969. Skillz discussed how Flowers got the moniker “Grandmaster” years before Grandmaster Flash. He mentioned Flowers’ engagement with his contemporaries like Pete DJ Jones and DJ Plummer. Skillz also delved into whether or not Flowers interacted with Hip Hop pioneer Kool Herc. Furthermore, Skillz talked about the type of technical skills Flowers brought to deejaying, as he was considered a savant, the best of the best, and a flawless mixer.

Skillz reminded us that Flowers was one of the earliest pioneers of disco. Flowers was involved in the hip-hop and funk scene and had a “formative influence” on hip-hop DJs such as Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa in the mid-1970s. Skillz also mentioned how Flowers eventually linked up with the legendary group X-Clan in the 1990s shortly before he passed away. He discussed how Flowers influenced iconic DJs like Larry Levan, who used to see Flowers play in the park. The early block parties in the late ’60s and early ’70s, orchestrated by Flowers, greatly influenced the way Larry Levan approached music when he laid crucial groundwork at the famed Paradise Garage.

Although respected by those he influenced, Flowers himself never attained the heights of his successors.

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