By 1983, there was a lull in rap music. The glory days of legendary live performances at clubs like Harlem World, T - Connection and The Black Door were suddenly in our rear view. Though "Planet Rock" by The Soul Sonic Force and "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5; two of rap music's most influential recordings had dropped the year before, the genre was screaming for something new. Rap records were still recorded by bands, and the records contained full orchestration and felt like the disco records that inspired them. "Planet Rock" and "The Message" both deviated from the "disco" sound bed, and that deviation was in large part responsible for the international success and influence of both songs.
Because the aforementioned groups were opening for rock acts like The Clash and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts as well as funk acts like Parliament Funkadelic and Cameo, their onstage style of dress was more like a costume than the gear that B Boys and Girls were sporting on the streets of New York. "We dressed like that because we wanted to create high entertainment value," Grandmaster Melle Mel explained to Hip-Hop Historian JayQuan. "In those days, you couldn't come on stage looking like the crowd."