Infinity Lesson Two

THE HISTORY OF AFRIKA BAMBAATAA

THE GODFATHER OF HIP HOP LAST MILLENNIUM

THE AMEN RA OF UNIVERSAL HIP HOP CULTURE THIS

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 Culture as well as The

Father of The Electro Funk Sound. 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 next Millennium 2000.

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 Electro Funk, beginning with his piece "Planet Rock,"

helped fuel the development of other musical genres such as Freestyle or Latin Freestyle,

Miami Bass, Electronica, 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, Sosa,

Salsa Reggae, Rock, Jazz, Funk 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 and hundreds

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 Dee and Kool DJ Herc. Kool DJ Dee 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

As the Black Spades gang began to die out toward 1973, 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 took them under his wing and made them members of his Zulu

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, and the 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 Tex DJ

Hollywood. 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

Influenced by James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, 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 ~1980, 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

Bam's parties had now spread to places like the Audubon Ballroom and the TConnection.

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-KISSFM 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, The Jefferson, Negril, Danceteria, and

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 Carva" 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 "Electro Funk,, 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 into the next millennium 2000 and still sells today with the

many remixes. Planet Rock is the most sample record ever in Hip Hop.

In the autumn of 1982 Bam and other members of the Zulu Nation (which included

Grand mixer D.ST, Fab 5 Freddy, Phase 2, 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" which was

the first time ever that Hip Hop was mix with Rock predating RunDmc's duet with Areosmith

"Walk This Way". 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 and numerous others. During

1988 Bam recorded another landmark piece as Afrika Bambaataa and Family. The work

featured Nona 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

In 1990 Bam made 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 (Free 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

"Lost Generations". 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 which Bam changed the shows

name to True School at noon. Bam has release other records throughout the world from many

different countries as well as always stayed on top of his deejaying throughout the world from

the 90's, straight through the next millennium 2000. He is truly one of the hardest working men in Hip Hop.

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