Melvin Glover grew up in the Bronx and became the lead voice of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, one of hip-hop's first great rap crews, and is often counted among the earliest performers to call himself an 'MC.' His socially conscious writing on 'The Message' (1982) — the first hip-hop record entered into the U.S. National Recording Registry — and the anti-drug single 'White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)' (1983), released under his own name, pushed rap past party rhymes and into reportage on poverty, addiction, and Reagan-era decline. He and the Furious Five became the first rap act inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.

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1983

White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)Melle Mel