[1] Proving crucial in the development of hip hop, the track was highly influential on many DJs, including rapper Dr. Dre, and an early example of what would eventually be termed turntablism.
[3] In an accompanying feature for the magazine, Richard Grabel wrote that Flash's unique and "extraordinary" quick mix technique on turntables, which had made him and the Furious Five "the undisputed champions of the Bronx", was "remarkably captured" on the record.
It's weird, it's a surprise, with its stops and starts, its stringing together sections of different dance hits, its spin backs and crazy rumblings, all of which never miss a beat.
"[3] The New York Times writer Robert Hilburn praised the single for being "[a] preposterous but also delightful left-field entry, blending a voice-over rap, catchy disco rhythms and studio shenanigans that'll convince you that your turntable has gone awry.
He wrote: "Compared to the sunny, squeaky-clean rock popular today, rap is an aural dark alley, a seemingly anarchic collage of ghetto patois and jumbled rhythms that could easily disorient a consumer corn-fed on Styx and REO Speedwagon.
Considine of Record was critical of the exclusion of "Wheels of Steel", which he dubbed Flash's "turntable tour de force" and "the first scratch hit.
"[14] "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash" proved highly influential in the development of hip hop music,[6] and according to The Guardian's Andrew Purcell, has "inspired generations of musicians".
[2][4] MusicRadar dubbed it "the first record to feature little more than two turntables and a mixer as instruments, stitching together segments from 10 different songs to create one piece of music.
"[16] According to Angus Batey of Mojo, the track "turned received wisdom on how to make records on its head", deeming it to be "probably the only true approximation of what the original DJ-based hip hop parties sounded and felt like that was ever committed to tape.
"[17] Similarly, author Todd Souviginier describes the "dazzling sound collage" as a major achievement and "arguably the first real display of modern DJ skills on vinyl", considering it to be a radical postmodern work that was without precedent in pop music for the way it re-purposed an assortment of records.
[18] Martin Aston of Q also describes the track as "the catalyst" for DJs in the British underground, with turntablist Matt Black of Coldcut citing his discovery of Flash as a formative influence.
"[20] The manner in which the record cuts and switches between different songs proved to be an influence on further studio-produced megamixes which utilised genuine samples, an example being the 1984 electro funk track "Tommy Boy Megamix", comprising snippets of the most popular songs on hip hop label Tommy Boy Records.
"[29] Mark Dery of The New York Times considers it an "audio collage" that "stands alongside Jimi Hendrix's abstract-expressionist 'Star-Spangled Banner' as one of pop music's most dazzling moments.