Yesterday, I listened to 50 Cent’s debut album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'", arguably the low point of the 1001 Albums Challenge. Today, I moved on to a true rap classic: "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. When the title track was released as a single, it was revolutionary because, yes, there had already been “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang, but this was the real catalyst for rap music’s commercial breakthrough. The music was groovy and absolutely danceable, and the lyrics were critical, political and socially conscious. For a moment, it seemed as though rap was the ideal medium for criticising the dire state of political injustice in the world. But, as we all know, the music has since developed in a completely different direction. When I listen to the album "The Message" today, I’m struck by how inconsistent it is. On the one hand, there are critical, highly political tracks such as "The Message" and, in the Expanded Edition released much later, the non album single "New York, New York". On the other hand, the album contains a lot of filler tracks and the catchy electro track "Scorpio". There are a plenty of scratch and mixing and sampling sounds from Grandmaster Flash, as well as a somewhat bizarrely banal R&B tribute to Stevie Wonder. In short, the singles are the absolute highlights of the album; unfortunately, the rest is rather dated pop that bands like Kool & the Gang were doing better back then. Grandmaster Flash and rapper Melle Mel are undoubtedly historically significant, but this album is neither consistent nor consistently convincing. A rating averaging between ★★☆☆☆ and ★★★★★ amounts to no more than ★★⯪☆☆.