DJ Grandmaster Flash is one of hip hop's founding fathers. And even though he is in the fourth decade of a career that is legendary by any industry standards, 2007 promises to be a banner year for Flash: he is finally setting his memoirs to the page—and releasing a new album on his own label, Adrenaline Entertainment.

The Grandmaster Flash Story will be penned by David Ritz, who wrote both Marvin Gaye's and Ray Charles' memoirs, as well. Although Flash has been asked to write his memoirs many times over the past few decades, he has finally felt he has found the right editor in Janet Hill at Doubleday.

However, Flash is doing anything but sitting back contentedly. He is still hard at work in the studio and he is set to release The Bridge on Adrenaline Entertainment in 2008.

Flash's memoirs promise a revealing look  at Flash's life, loves, struggles, and triumphs, as well as hip hop's past.

DJ Grandmaster Flash was the first to use the turntable as a musical instrument. He was first DJ to physically lay his hands on the vinyl, when most DJs simply handled the record by the edges, put down the tone arm, and let it play. Those DJs let the tone arm guide their music, but Flash marked up the body of the vin yl with crayon, fluorescent pen, and grease pencil—and those markings became his compass.

He invented the Quick Mix Theory, which included techniques such as the double-back, back-door, back-spin, and phasing. This allowed a DJ to make music by touching the record and gauging its revolutions to make his own beat and his own music.

Flash's template grew to include cuttin', which, in turn, spawned scratching, transforming, and the Clock Theory. He laid the groundwork for everything a hip hop DJ can do with a record today, other than just letting it play. What we call a DJ today is a role that Flash invented.

He gained even greater fame with his electrifying live performances throughout the 70s and with his group, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. In 1982, they went Platinum with "The Message." Meanwhile, The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel introduced hip hop DJing to a larger listening audience than it had ever known before. Flash was the first DJ ever to produce his own album.