Although it has Grandmaster Flash's name on the sleeve, neither Flash or most of his furious five had that much to do with what became one of their biggest hits. "The Message" was created by Duke Bootee and Melle Mel, although the whole group did perform the skit at the end of the song. At the time rap music really only served to soundtrack house parties and downtown nightclubs in New York, so when the rest of the group heard the song they thought the downtempo beat lacked energy, and more importantly, that people went to parties to forget about the subjects Mel rapped about in the song. However, "The Message" changed all that, transforming the genre into a vehicle for social change, providing an outlet and a voice to those who were previously voiceless. Which resulted in moving the MC to the centre of it all, the success of "The Message" meant that it was no longer enough just to speak, now you had to say something, allowing musicians the opportunity to energise crowds with their words as well as their beats. It was only the fifth rap single to become a gold record and its influence is ubiquitous, not just in hip hop, but across American popular culture.