BackgroundIt was 1990 and music on the radio was jammin': R&B and true-school hip-hop along with other forms of urban and popular music. Anyone who wanted to hear what was going on loved tuning in to a deejay named Funkmaster Flex who was playing on WBLS in New York. The best place to listen of course was in the car. My girls and I would ride around Manhattan picking each other up, listening to Flex's late night mix before hitting the clubs. By the time we rolled up we would be ready to party! You could also catch Flex live playing at Red Zone, one of the hot hang-outs at the time. In 1991 he moved to Kiss FM and his audience followed, just as they did later when he joined Hot 97 in 1992. He's been with the station since then. With his charisma and on-air personality combined with unstoppable mix shows, he continues to add to his popularity. And by focusing on his craft of deejaying he has established himself in the music community while his prescient musical sense and a shrewd ability to build momentum for anything he thinks important to promote has made him a formidable figure on the business side. I still listen to Flex all the time, and so does the rest of the world. From Japan, to the UK, around the globe and back, he is one of the most powerful arbiters of taste.
He had the blocks on lock at Manhattan's legendary nightclub, The Tunnel, on Sunday nights. The whole neighborhood was shut down because folks would drive from outside the Tri-State area en masse to take part. Everyone would go down into the wee hours of the morning; and the biggest, brightest stars performed at the Tunnel hoping to win over the most influential and critical audience on the planet. Clearly, then and now, it takes incredible determination, creativity and industry to stay alive in the world of hip-hop. Many people do not understand the tremendous force it takes to do what Flex has done. Now that he's reached this level of influence he is making sure New York remains the center of hip-hop culture (whether insider talking heads care to admit it or not). Some begrudge the kind of success that Flex enjoys, but those who are blessed with his support recognize. And rightly so. If it weren't for people like Flex who spread the word, where would the music be?
The Entrepreneur (Music)A savvy businessman, Funkmaster Flex is the founder and head of Big Dawg, the groundbreaking record pool where the best of New York's deejays and beyond get their music as well as set the barometer for upcoming hits. The Big Dawg record pool NYC deejay roster is clearly composed of the tastemakers of hip-hop, the most powerful musical movement of this generation. In addition to that, Flex is the new host of Direct Efx on MTV, and the CEO of Franchise Records, a production deal with Loud Records (which is the home of superstar artists such as Xzibit, Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep and others). As a gold recording artist for Loud Records with several chart topping releases under his belt, Flex has a brand new release on the way that hits the stores in January: "Funkmaster Flex-The Mix Tape, Volume 5". This fifth mix tape in an ongoing series with Loud Records is in hot demand, though it won't even hit the streets until sometime in January (I'm writing this in October). All of Flex's Mix Tapes on Loud Records continue to sell like collectible gems, especially in Europe and Japan, where the following for both Flex and Loud Records is maniacal, practically cult-ish.
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