Grandmaster Flash, The Bridge: Concept of a Culture

Joseph Saddler was an elementary particle in the 1970s Big Bang of hip-hop. Now, three decades later, he's surveying the dramatic expansion of the culture that he, as producer and turntable pioneer Grandmaster Flash, helped set in motion. The Bridge, the 51-year-old's first notable studio album since 1987, registers the development of the genre, from party jams to futuristic Timbalandesque cuts, and celebrates, via the awkward chorus of "We Speak Hip Hop", its spread beyond language barriers. It's a worthy project executed with energy and good humour but, in spite of contributions from KRS One and Big Daddy Kane, The Bridge merely echoes past greatness.