He began his career in the mid-'70s spinning records at local block parties and dance clubs around the Bronx. But Joseph Saddler — aka Grandmaster Flash — wasn't just some teenager with two turntables and a microphone. Manipulating the discs with a free hand, the young DJ devised a method for “performing” the mixes, adding an original rhythmic flair to the nonstop stream of dance grooves. By the end of the decade, Flash's show included a team of poetic MCs dubbed the Furious Five (including soon-to-be rap icons Melle Mel and Kid Creole) whose ability to swap verses at will became an immediate sensation in the dance clubs of New York. By then, Flash's influential turntable techniques had spawned a whole new musical culture — and rap as a genre was born.

Sugar Hill Records, a small independent label, sensed the hip-hop wave building and signed Flash and crew in 1980, the same year colleague Kurtis Blow moved a million copies of the “The Breaks.” Flash, however, had bigger game in his sights, and in 1982 he issued The Message, a point-blank indictment of life on the mean streets featuring a searing rap from Melle Mel. Other socially conscious cuts followed, including the antidrug track “White Lines” in 1983. Flash never quite recovered from an acrimonious split with Melle Mel and spent most of the '90s laying low while succeeding generations took rap in a decidedly more nihilistic direction.

Fortunately, Flash's old-school sound never lost its appeal — and earlier this year, Flash himself made a long-awaited return with a pair of releases, The Official Adventures of Grandmaster Flash and Essential Mix: Classic Edition, featuring a melange of new and reworked mixes and interviews. Today, the man who helped make rap critically and commercially relevant still believes he has room to grow.

“I want to please people,” said the DJ in a recent interview. “I want to be able to go into any room, look at the crowd, and figure out where they want to go. I'm not at that point yet.”

We'd love to hear your suggestions regarding which artists and bands to profile in “Lost and Found.” If you're wondering what happened to a favorite act from the past, drop us a line at onstageeditorial@primediabusiness.com.