Musician and writer David Toop penned one of the earliest books on hip hop culture, Rap Attack (now on its third edition), and went on to lend his distinctive voice to books on a series of genres, most notably ambient music. He was also once (briefly) a member of the Flying Lizards. This interview was conducted for a Grandmaster Flash sleevenote project, hence the heavy bias of questions here on Mr. Flash (as his mother unquestionably knows him).

What does Grandmaster Flash mean to you?

Charlie Ahearn was the director/producer of Wild Style, the first movie to document nascent hip hop culture, capturing performances from Flash, Jazzy Jay and D.ST. More recently, he was responsible (along with Jim Fricke) for Yes Yes Y’All, the excellent oral history of the early years of hip hop. In fact, he was working on the book when this interview was conducted.