DAVID HINCKLEY | Opinion Here's hoping rap group makes it into Rock Hall

In a perfect world, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would soon announce that the Class of 2005 will include the Hall's first rap group, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. But this is not a perfect world, even though the group is among this year's 15 finalists.
For musical quality and importance, the Hall's two primary criteria, Flash and the Furious Five fit as smoothly as a good needle into an LP groove.
But when rap enters any rock conversation, a problem arises: Many rock fans -- and not only rock fans -- will tell you they hate rap, end of discussion. It's a beat without a melody, they'll say. Hardly even music.
Truth is, though, rap has been the biggest genre in American pop music for a decade or more, having long ago moved out of the inner city to suburbs, prep schools and gated communities. Think backwards baseball caps.
'The Message'
Turntable wizard Flash and his emcees -- Melle Mel, Scorpio, Kidd Creole, Raheim and Cowboy -- weren't the first rappers. But in 1982 they cut the first rap track the mainstream couldn't ignore, "The Message."
Written by Duke Bootee and Melle Mel and brilliantly rapped by Mel, "The Message" was a compelling and dark warning not to ignore what was happening in American cities.
"Don't push me," the chorus went, "'Cause I'm close to the edge."
"The Message" continued the Marvin Gaye "What's Going On" tradition while expanding rap's image way beyond party music that was only about itself.
Members of the group made more strong sides, including "New York, New York" and "White Lines," before imploding under the pressures of a mean industry. To this day, Flash says the group hardly saw a nickel.
But by the time they handed off the ball, rap was rolling. It's still rolling now, in forms from hard-core gangsta and party to gospel and love ballads.
Flash himself has a show on Sirius satellite radio and is forming a label that reflects how pervasive rap has become.
"It's all over the world," he says. "I've heard amazing things in Africa and Sweden. I can help these kids polish the diamond."
Little respect
For all rap's success, though, its pioneers still get relatively little respect, which is what makes the Rock Hall's impending decision particularly significant.
The Hall has inducted important artists in fields from reggae (Bob Marley) to country (Johnny Cash) to eclectic (Bobby Darin) to blues (B.B. King).
Yet even among Hall voters, the narrow image of rock 'n' roll as white guys with guitars remains strong. Getting Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five on stage at the Waldorf next March would deliver the right message.
XHinckley writes for New York Daily News.