Edward Fletcher, who, under his pen name of Duke Bootee, largely created the seminal hip-hop hit The Message, died Jan. 13 at his Savannah, Ga.
home of heart failure, according to his wife. He was 69.The Message was a huge and groundbreaking hit for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, one of the first hip-hop groups to gain mainstream attention.
The song was one of the first to examine serious issues, starting with its opening lines, “It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder How I keep from going under.”Fletcher started writing the song in 1980 while working at Sugar Hill Records as a studio musician.
The label released the early records of the Sugar Hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, becoming one of the first
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