Grandmaster Flash & the Furious 5's "The Message" was the first rap song that spoke to the conditions in the ghetto which by and large was unseen and unheard in the mainstream media during the "Reaganomics Era" where Reagan cut to social programs and increased the military budget. The song, written by Melle Mel, was unlike the party raps which preceded and showed that rap music can be a powerful medium for exposing the truth. Watch this clip from QD3's "MC: Why we do it" DVD.