Grandmaster & Melle Mel was a moniker briefly used by American hip hop artist Melle Mel, notably for the 1983 single 'White Lines (Don't Do It)'.

The unique wording was the result of an ugly legal suit between Melle Mel (Melvin Glover) and Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler). When Flash was essentially pushed out of his own group, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (especially in the fact that he was a non-player on their breakthrough track 'The Message'!) Melle Mel (with the encouragement of Sugarhill Records label head Sylvia Robinson) decided that he would take Flash's place in the band and essentially take his name as well. During this time, the definitive singles 'The Message II' and 'New York, New York') were released under the name of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, even though Flash had nothing to do with these releases.

The net result of the lawsuit forced Sugar Hill and Melle Mel to cease the theft of Flash's name which resulted in the 'White Lines' singles all being pressed with the name Grandmaster & Melle Mel, with Melle Mel's name printed larger than 'Grandmaster'.

'White Lines (Don't Do It)' eventually proved to be Sugar Hill's downfall, as the famous bassline and much of other components of the song were stolen from the sub-underground (but now much more justifiably well known) track 'Cavern' by Liquid Liquid, which resulted in another lawsuit, which Sugarhill would never recover from.

Subsequent releases from Mel were released as Grandmaster Melle Mel. Mel later dropped the 'Grandmaster' and even re-united with Flash in the late 1980s. He toured with the reunited Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five in the early 1990s. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.