Essential Cuts

Essential Cuts is a budget compilation album by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released on CD in 2005. Although titled to Grandmaster Flash alone, it does not contain any tracks from Flash's later Elektra Records albums and mainly features tracks from The Message era.

The fold-out booklet contains a brief but accurate history of the band and track-by-track commentary by Ian McCann. As is common with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five compilation releases minor mistakes have been made regarding some song titles (see notes).

Track listing

 * 1) "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" – 7:10
 * 2) "Freedom" – 5:06
 * 3) "The Message" – 3:12
 * 4) "It's Nasty" – 7:50
 * 5) "New York New York" – 7:20
 * 6) "Scorpio" – 4:44
 * 7) "White Lines (Don't Do It)" – 4:28
 * 8) "Dreamin'" – 5:47
 * 9) "The Birthday Party" – 5:46
 * 10) "She's Fresh" – 4:57
 * 11) "It's a Shame (Mt Airy Groove)" – 4:57
 * 12) "Flash to the Beat (Part 1)" – 4:23
 * 13) "You Are" – 4:51