Joseph Saddler, aka Grandmaster Flash, started throwing his first regular parties in 1976 in a small club with a painted black door, quickly nicknamed The Black Door. After just a few months his parties became large enough to need bigger venues like the Audubon Ballroom, which packed a crowd of 3,000.

Joseph Saddler spent three years in his bedroom perfecting the art of DJing, and earned the name Flash for the speed with which he handled the records.