NEW YORK • American rap pioneer Kidd Creole, who helped found band Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five, has been arrested by police in New York and charged with murder.

The 57-year-old, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, was nabbed for stabbing a homeless man near a shelter on Tuesday.

Police said the 55-year-old victim was found in Manhattan with multiple knife wounds in the torso, and died on the way to hospital.

Grandmaster Flash, the first rap band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, was formed in the 1970s when rap and hip-hop were still in their early stages, and was considered a pioneer of the style.

In 1982, the group had their biggest hit with The Message, which is listed at No. 51 in Rolling Stone magazine's top 500 songs of all time.

It was the first hit single to depict life in New York's dangerous ghettos in the early 1980s.

Drug addictions eventually led to the band's downfall, with Creole working as a security and maintenance worker before his arrest.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE