Grandmaster Flash’s career was built upon a love for vinyl. As a disco and break-beat enthusiast, the DJ pioneered hip-hop in a new direction with his group, the Furious Five, releasing the ground-breaking single ‘The Message’ in 1982.
Unfortunately for Flash, real name Joseph Saddler, hundreds of those records, some of which were used during his early DJ career, have gone missing.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4, the hip-hop pioneer said that three crates of irreplaceable vintage vinyl had been lost after a valet mistakenly gave Flash’s car to the wrong person.
He said: "Records that I collected 40 years ago, some of my old breakbeats. How do you replace that? I've had to hire an attorney, who says we are going to have to go after the garage."
According to Flash, he had returned to pick up his Dodge Charger from a Manhattan garage but the valet had handed the keys to someone they believed to be him.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: "I came back and I proceeded to have the same guy who gave me the same ticket two hours ago and his eyes went as big as saucers and he says to me, 'I've given your car to the wrong person. He looked like you!'”
Highest earning hip-hop artists
The attendant, who has reportedly now been fired, allegedly told the rapper that he handed over the keys to a man identical to him except for his shoes.
“If he knew that much of kicks WHY did he give the car up — dude had no ID,” he wrote on Instagram.
There haven’t been any sightings of the car but police are treating the incident as theft.
