AFRIKA BAMBAATA TALKS ABOUT NEW MUSIC, HIS RECENT TOUR WITH JAMIROQUAI, DEVELOPMENTS IN HIP-HOP, THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ZULU NATION AS WELL AS MUCH MORE
Afrika Bambaaataa is one of the key figures in modern music as we know it. His influential role is as the inventor of hip-hop – one of the most popular music genres nowadays as well as a cultural movement that also includes things such as graffiti, break-dancing, a recognizable street style and technically advanced way of DJing.
As the inventor and godfather of hip-hop, Afrika Bambaaataa is responsible for its birth as a cultural movement, as well as being the one who stands behind its ideological base. Being a warlord of the cruel Bronx street gang, Black Spades, in the early 1970s, he radically changed his lifestyle after a trip to Africa and doing some research into African history. After coming back to New York, Afrika Bambaaataa decided to part ways with the criminal life and to start to promote a new way of thinking for the black people’s community, which he called –Universal Zulu Nation. Universal Zulu Nation became the philosophy and way of living which gave birth to the early True School hip-hop. The backbone of its ideas was to stop bloodsheds on the streets and to start sorting all conflicts via DJ, rap, graffiti and break-dance battles. The new style and music, which was then called hip-hop, was borne in the bowels of these battles. Many former street gang members said that hip-hop saved their lives.
After becoming a respected and well-known figure in New York’s cultural scene for throwing parties in the Bronx where he was DJing, organizing different kinds of art battles and promoting Universal Zulu Nations ideas, at the beginning of the 80’s Afrika Bambaataa began a successful career as a recording artist. His first release “Planet Rock” became a superhit which stormed the charts worldwide. The melody from Kraftwerks song “Trans-Europe Express” which was used in ”Planet Rock” also made Afrika Bambaaataa famous as one of the first sampling pioneers. Releases that followed shortly after – “Looking for a Perfect Beat” and “Renegades of Funk” helped him to achieve international fame and he gained the status of a forward-thinking artist that brought new concepts into modern music.
He began to spread the influence of hip-hop culture and Zulu Nations worldwide and after his trip to France, he inspired the founder of French hip-hop scene Mc Solaar to start to make music too.
During his musical career, Afrika Bambaataa has made a bunch of successful albums and singles and has had many opportunities to collaborate with great artists from different musical scenes, such as George Clinton, James Brown, Nina Hagen, Westbam, Bootsy Collins, and Gary Numan. Nowadays, he is still full of energy and tours worldwide with his DJ sets and live shows, releasing new music as well as not forgetting his role as a mentor when doing public talks to promote Zulu Nations’ ideas.
We were lucky to catch Afrika Bambaataa between his tours, talk about his recent tour with Jamiroquai, the essence of Zulu Nation ideas, his plans for new music, and other interesting things.
Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov
Hello! What have you been mostly focused on recently in music – making some new tracks, touring, or combining these things?
First Peace Be Unto You and the good people of Earth and Beings of Beyond in our Universe. Rotherham Afrika Bambaataa has been focusing on recording many new songs and music for humans to listen and dance to and just came off a successful tour for our brother, Jamiroquai, in many countries as well as some DJ club dates. We have new songs out that you can only order online. New songs called “Funk On The 1, Tribute To Sly and The Family Stone”, ”Do Them Old Dances”, ”On The Dance Floor” featuring Lord 7even and EDollaz, “Radar” featuring Dominique. We have our True School Radio Station every Tuesday on streetwireradio.com with Dr. Shaka Zulu,Lord Yoda X from 8 pm to 12 and our 24 Hours a Day True School Radio On trueschool.airtime.pro for people who just like all types of good music and are tired of hearing the same 10 songs on other radio stations, can now switch to True School Radio and enjoy good music from Earth.
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