Before hip hop, Brooklyn’s Grandmaster Flowers was the premiere deejay of his era, hailed by many for his creativity and extraordinary turntable skills he is widely regarded as the city’s first mix master. According to legend he was the opening act for James Brown one hot night at Yankee Stadium in 1968…

It was a star-studded night at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre, it was the location for the 2004 BET Awards. The winners that night Jay Z, Missy Elliot, Outkast and Usher were at the height of their popularity. Long-time hip-hop fans felt victorious when the Sugar Hill Gang, the Furious 5, Doug E Fresh, Slick Rick, MC Lyte and Public Enemy took to the stage for a tribute to the pioneers of rap music. It had been the first time in decades that any of those acts had been on a major broadcast television event.

Right after their segment, Denzel Washington was given the Actor of the Year award for his role in the film Out of Time. But before he gave his acceptance speech, he “had to acknowledge the previous segment.” The native New Yorker reminisced about nights he spent in clubs with names like Superstar 33 and Jimmy’s watching “the man that started it all, the original grandmaster, Grandmaster Flowers.”

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