Afrika Bambaataa is one of the three main originators of break-beat deejaying, and is respectfully known as the "grandfather" and "godfather" of hip hop. Through his co-opting of the street gang the Black Spades into the music and culture-oriented Zulu nation, he is responsible for spreading rap and hip-hop culture throughout the world. He has consistently made records nationally and internationally, every one to two years, spanning the 1980's into the 1990's
Due to his early use of drum machines and computer sounds, Bam (as he is affectionately known) was instrumental in changing the way R&B and other forms of black music were recorded. His creation of electrofunk, beginning with his piece "Planet Rock," helped fuel the development of other musical genres such as freestyle or Latin freestyle, Miami bass, house, hip house, and early techno.
Bam is responsible for initiating many careers in the music industry, and his early association with Tom Silverman of Tommy Boy Records helped propel the label to its success. Bam was instrumental in launching the R&B group New Edition, Maurice Starr and the Jonzun Crew, Tashan, and Bernard Fowler of the Peech Boys, to name a few. Bam is also recognized as a humanitarian and a man of peace, who has applied elements of Afrocentric, spiritual, and health-conscious teachings to his philosophy. He is also a historian on hip-hop roots, who traces the culture back to the times of the African griots.
At a time when DJs-hip hop or otherwise-were recognized for the distinctive records they played, Bam was called the "Master of Records," and was acclaimed for the wide variety of music and break records he presented to the hip-hop crowd, which included go-go, soca, reggae, and African music. He is responsible for premiering the following records and songs to hip hoppers, which are now staples in rap and hip-hop culture: "Jam on the Groove" and "Calypso Breakdown" by Ralph McDonald; "Dance to the Drummer's Beat" by Herman Kelly; "Champ" by the Mohawks; themes from The andy Griffith Show and The Pink Panther, and "Trans-Europe Express, by Kraftwerk.
Bam joined the Bronx River Projects division of the Black Spades street gang in the southeast Bronx in Act, where he soon became warlord. Always a music enthusiast (taking up trumpet and piano for a short time at Adlai E. Stevenson High School), Bam was also a serious record collector, who collected everything from R&B to rock. By 1970 he was already deejaying at house parties. Bam became even more interested in deejaying around 1973, when he heard Bronx DJs Kool DJ D and Kool DJ Herc. Kool DJ D had one of the first coffins (a rectangular case that contains two turntables and a mixer) in the Bronx area circa 1972. West Bronx DJ Kool DJ Herc was playing funk records by James Brown, and later just playing the instrumental breaks of those records. noticing that he had many of the same records Herc was playing, Bam began to play them, but expanded his repertoire to include other types of music as well.
As the Black Spades gang began to die out
toward 73, Bam began
forming a Performing group at Stevenson High School, first
calling it the Bronx River organization, then Later the
Organization. Bam had deejayed with his own sound system at the
Bronx River Community Center, with Mr. Biggs, Queen Kenya, and
Cowboy, who accompanied him in performances in the community.
Because of his prior status in the Black Spades, Bam already had
an established party crowd drawn from former members of the gang.
About a year later he reformed a group, calling it the Zulu
nation (inspired by his wide studies on African history at the
time). Five b-boys (break dancers) joined him who he called the
Shaka ZULU Kings, a.k.a. ZULU Kings; there were also the Shaka
Zulu Queens. As Bam continued deejaying, more DJs, rappers, break
dancers, graffiti writers, and artists followed his parties, and
he look them under his wing and made them members of his Zulu
nation.
By 1976, because of the proliferation of DJs, many sound system
battles would occur to determine which DJ had the best music and
sound. Although the amount of people gathered around a DJ was
supposed to be the deciding factor, the best DJ was mostly
determined by whose system was the loudest. Held in parks and
community centers, DJs would set up their gear on opposite sides,
playing their records at the same time at maximum volume.
However, Bam decided that all challenges to him would follow an
hour-by-hour rule, where he would play for an hour, andthe
opposing DJ would play for an hour.
Bam's first official battle was against Disco King Mario at
Junior High School 123 (a.k.a. the Funky 3). A few other
important battles Bam had later on were against Grandmaster Caz
(known as Casanova Fly at that time and who later was one of the
Cold Crush Brothers) at the P.A.L. (Police Athletic League) circa
1978, and a team battle against Grandmaster Flash and an army of
sound systems, with Bam teaming systems with Disco King Mario and
DJ Tex. Bam formed additional systems for battling as well, like
the Earthquake Systems with DJ Superman and DJ Jazzy Jay. There
were also many MC battles, where rappers from Bam's Zulu nation
would go against other outside rappers. Later, Bam also jointly
promoted Shows with Kool Herc under the name nubian Productions.
Many cassette tapes were made of Bam's parties and MC battles,
which were sometimes
sold for $20 to $40 apiece. During long music segments when Bam
was deejaying, he would
sometimes mix in recorded speeches from Malcolm X, Martin Luther
King, Jr., and, later, Louis
Farrakhan.
Influenced by George Clinton, and the many separate-but-same
Groups that he created,
Bam formed the Soul Sonic Force, which in its original makeup
consisted of approximately
twenty Zulu nation members. The personnel for the Soul Sonic
Force were groups within
groups that Bam would perform and make records with,
including:
Soul Sonic Force ($1)-Mr. Biggs, Queen Kenya, DJ Cowboy Soul
Sonic Force (#2)-Mr. Biggs, Pow Wow, G.L.0.B.E. (creator of the
"MC popping" rap
style), DJ Jazzy Jay
Cosmic Force-Queen Lisa Lee, Prince Ikey C, Ice Ice (#1),
Chubby Chub; Jazzy Five-DJ Jazzy Jay, Mr. Freeze, Master D.E.E.,
Kool DJ Red Alert, Sundance, Ice Ice (#2), CharlieChew, Master
Bee; Busy Bee Starski, Akbar (Lil, Starski), Raheim.
Around ~180, Bam and his groups made their first recordings with
Paul Winley Records,
who recorded Bam's "Death Mix" piece. Winley also
released Cosmic Forcers "ZULU nation
Throwdown," after which Bam (disappointed with the results)
left the company.
Bam's parties had now spread to places like the Audubon
Ballroom and the T-Connection.
In the early 1980s, news about Bam and other DJs', parties-and
the type of music Bam
played-started traveling to the downtown sections of Manhattan.
Tom Silverman visited
Bam at one of his parties and did an article on him and the Zulu
nation for his own Dance
Music Report magazine. The two became friends, and Silverman
later recorded Bam and his
Soul Sonic Force with a group of female singers called Cotton
Candy. The first song Silverman
recorded around 1981 with both groups (without Bam's name listed)
was a work titled "Let's
Vote," after which a second song was recorded and released,
titled "Having Fun."
Thereafter, Silverman met producer Arthur Baker, and together
with then-KISS-FM
radio mastermix DJ Shep Pettibone, Silverman recorded Bam and the
Jazzy Fives "Jazzy
Sensation" on Silverman's own Tommy Boy Records label. The
record had three mixes, one
with Bam and the Jazzy Five, and the other with a group called
the Kryptic Krew. The third
mix was an instrumental. The record was a hit with hip hoppers.
Around 1982 hip-hop artist Fab 5 Freddy was Putting together
music packages in the
largely white downtown Manhattan new-wave clubs, and invited Bam
to perform at one of
them, called the Mudd Club. It was the first time Bam had
performed before a predominantly
white crowd, making it the first time hip hop fused with white
culture. Attendance for Bam's
parties downtown became so large that he had to move to larger
venues, first to the Ritz,
with Malcolm McLaren's group, Bow Wow Wow (and where the Rock
Steady Crew b-boys
became part of the Zulu nation), then to the Peppermint Lounge,
negril, Danceteria, and
the Roxy.
In 1982 Bam had an idea for a record revolving around Kraftwerk's
piece "Trans-Europe
Express." Bam brought the idea to Silverman and both tried
working on it in Silverman's
apartment. Bam soon met John Robie, who brought Bam a techno-pop
oriented record titled
"Vena Carved" that he was trying to release. Bam then
introduced Robie to Arthur Baker,
and the three of them, along with Silverman and the Soul Sonic
Force (#2), worked on the
"Trans-Europe Express" idea, resulting in the piece
"Planet Rock"-one of the most influential
records in music. Bam called the sound of the record
"electrofunk,, or the "electro-sound,"
and he cited James Brown, Parliament, and Sly and the Family
Stone as the building blocks of
its composition. By September of that year "Planet
Rock" went gold, and it continued to sell
internationally throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s.
In the autumn of 1982 Bam and other members of the Zulu nation
(which included Grand
mixer D.ST, Fab 5 Freddy, Phase 11, Mr. Freeze, Dondi, Futura
2000, and Crazy Legs, to name a few) made one of their first of
many trips to Europe. Visiting Le Batclan theater in Paris, Bam
and the other hip hoppers made a considerable impression on the
young people there, something that would continue throughout his
travels as he began to spread hip-hop culture told around the
world.
Bam's second release around 1983 was "Looking for the
Perfect Beat," then later, "Renegades of Funk,"
both with the same Soul Sonic Force. Bam began working with
producer Bill Laswell at Jean Karakos's Celluloid Records, where
he developed and placed two groups on the label Time Zone and
Shango. He did "Wildstyle" with Time Zone, and in 1984
he did a duet with punk-rocker John Lydon and Time Zone, titled
"World Destruction." Shango's album Shango Funk
Theology was also released by the label in 1984. That same
year Bam and other hip-hop celebrities appeared in the movie Beat
Street. Bam also made a landmark recording with James Brown,
titled "Unity." It was admirably billed in music
industry circles as "the Godfather of Soul meets the
Godfather of Hip Hop."
Around October 1985 Bam and other music stars worked on the
antiapartheid album Sun City with Little Steven Van Zandt,
Run-D.M.C., and Lou Reed. During 1988 Bam recorded another
landmark pieceas Afrika Bamboatea and Family. The work featured
none Hendryx, UB40, Boy George, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins,
and yellowman, and it was titled The Light. Bam had
recorded a few other works with Family three years earlier, one
titled "Funk you" in 85, and the other titled Beware
(The Funk Is Everywhere) in 1986.
In 1990 Bam mad Life magazine's "Most Important
Americans of the 20th Century" issue. He was also involved
in the antiapartheid work "Hip Hop Artists Against
Apartheid" for Warlock Records. He teamed with the Jungle
Brothers to record the album Return to Planet Rock (The Second
Coming).
Around this same period, Greenstreet Records, John Baker, and
Bam organized a concert at Wembley Stadium in London for the
A.n.c. (African national Congress), in honor of nelson Mandela's
release from prison. The concert brought together performances by
British and American rappers, and also introduced both nelson and
Winnie Mandela and the A.n.c. to hip-hop audiences. In relation
to the event, the recording ndodemnyama South africa helped
raise approximately $30,000 for the A.n.c. Bam also helped to
raise funds for the organization in Italy.
In 1991 Bam received some notice for his remix work on the
group EMF's goldsingle "Unbelievable." He also did an
album for the Italian label DFC (Dance Floor Corporation), titled
1990-2000:The Decade of Darkness.
By 1992 Bam had his own Planet Rock Records label, releasing
Time Zone's Thy Will "By" Funk LP. In 1993 Bam's
Time Zone recorded the single "what's the name of this
nation? . . . Zulu!" for Profile Records. Toward 1994 Bam
regrouped his Soul Sonic Force for the album ominous Isthumus.
In that same year he began deejaying on radio station Hot 97
FM in new York City on Fridays, hosting the show Old School at
noon.
Sewed singles: "Planet Rock" by Afrika
Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force (1982,
Tommg Boy); "Looking for the Perfect Beat,"
"Renegades of Funk" (1983, Tommy Boy).
Selected albums/CDs: World Destruction by Time
Zone (Iraq; reissued 1992, Metrotone 72661); TheLight (1985, Capitol
90157); Planet Rock (1986, Tommy Boy 1007); I99O-2000:
The Decade Of Darkness by Afrika Bambaataa (1991, DFC/EMI
1062); Thy Will "B" Funk by Afrika Bambaetsa
Presents Time Zone (1992, Planet Rock).
The
Coming Of The Next Millennium 2000
The New Age
By: Afrika
Bambaataa
3 more years to the next millennium 2000 and still in this century, there is still, racism, killing, wars, ethnic cleansing, hate, love, music of all sorts, religions, Satanism, witchcraft, protests, struggles, mind games, governments, secret governments, extraterrestrial, UFO's, IFO's and the list goes on.
Technology is at an all time high. But with all this high Technology that's is out there in this 20th century, I am talking about Technology that can send rocket ships to outer space or to Mars, Venus, the Moon, spy around Jupiter, put a satellite in space, which can see all over earth down to a corner or block and could invade the most secrecy of privacy or even the Hubba scope that can see beyond the stars and tell us that there is more than 9 planets in our solar system, which now science books will have to be done over with real truth in our so called new discoveries, which in fact is really old ancient studies or his-our story.
With Technology that can produce natural sounds with computers to make up all sorts of music, its a damn shame that, all this heavy Technology, we can't still stop drugs coming into any countries, can't stop man made diseases like A.l.D.S, can't educate the masses of the human family or maybe there is a plot to keep people blind, death and dumb.
Even in the music industry, there are those who work at these record companies who love and get paid on the agony and suffering of the people. Black on Black crime, White on Black, Brown, Yellow, Red crime. East coast versus West coast. Hip 'Hop versus Techno or House music. Jungle music should stay underground. This is pop, R&B, Soul, Reggae, Soca, Go Go, Funk, Jazz, Acid Jazz, or Rock, Classical, whatever all clashing against each other.
Radio stations against radio on. Program directors,
programming more filth to play on the air giving no conscious
music no airplay why is that? They should be programming both at
50 percent each at least you will be fare playing negative and
positive instead of one over the other even though in this
present day and time its no more time for foolishness.
It seem that the only time music directors or record companies heads want to do something positive is when something negative happens like our brother Tupac Shukur, has happen to be killed and the Black on Latino or any Human Beings activist and the people jump on and at your asses, then they act like they are so concem. What a bunch of hypocrites.
Also, there are to many Black, Latino Brother and sisters in Hip Hop who are selling their souls to the Devil (money) and not talking nothing to wake Black, Latino or Human Beings to get out of proverty, negative vibrations, or to even uplift themselves.
It always take some jail incident to happen or someone has to die for you or others to see the light or find God or religion. Then you have these religious teaching that go to sleep slavery type of religion and not that spiritual wake up, revolutionary like the prophets get up knowledge, wisdom, understanding of self and other, for you can over stand and do for self and others type of religion.
Yes 3 more years to millennium 2000 and just look at us bringing all the lies, had truths, racism, and bullshit to the next century. We need all the master teachers to teach truth, like you never taught before and stand on the side of truth and God, Allah, Jah, Jehovah, The Eloheem which ever name you call the Supreme One, and yes earthlings UF0's are real - man made and alien, the truth is out there, but also here on so called earth.
Peace And Respect
Your Brother In Music And Faith Afrika
Bambaataa Godfather Of Hip Hop
Fans All Around The World Honor Afrika Bambaataa! Check out these other sites and find out all about Afrika Bambaataa and his fans feel about him!
Afrika Bambaataa Presents Time Zone, Warlocks and Witches, Computer Chips and You
Interview With Afrika Bambaataa
Africa Bambaataa in London at The Blue Note
An unofficial Afrika Bambaataa Page
Afrika Bambaataa honored in Germany
For more site search yahoo for afrika Bambaataa