It was released as a single by Sugar Hill Records on July 1, 1982, and was later featured on the group's debut studio album of the same name.

[3] "The Message" took rap music from the house parties of its origin to the social platforms later developed by groups like Public Enemy and KRS-One.

[5] Melle Mel said in an interview with NPR: "Our group, like Flash and the Furious Five, we didn't actually want to do 'The Message' because we was used to doing party raps and boasting how good we are and all that.

Dan Cairns of The Sunday Times has described "The Message"'s musical innovation: "Where it was inarguably innovative, was in slowing the beat right down, and opening up space in the instrumentation—the music isn't so much hip-hop as noirish, nightmarish slow-funk, stifling and claustrophobic, with electro, dub and disco also jostling for room in the genre mix—and thereby letting the lyrics speak loud and clear".

Not only does the song utilize an ingenious mix of musical genres to great effect, but it also allows the slow and pulsating beat to take a backseat to the stark and haunting lyrical content.

[15] Writing in The Boston Phoenix, Sally Cragin said that the "ominous descending bassline echoes the mood—detached, preoccupied, persistent—and Flash's refrain pinpoints his perilous, repressed rage.

"[16] In addition to being widely regarded as an all-time rap anthem, "The Message" has been credited by many critics as the song that catapulted emcees from the background to the forefront of hip hop.

In September 2017, street art-based advertising agency Apparition Media painted over it with a mural promoting the film Mother!, featuring a giant portrait of Jennifer Lawrence and the caption "#mothermovie.

2007 was also the year that Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five became the first hip-hop act ever to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.