Afrika Bambaataa (1960 - )
Related: DJ - black music - hip hop - American music
Key tracks: Planet Rock (1982) Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force
Looking for the Perfect Beat: 1980-1985 (2001) - Afrika Bambaataa
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Biography
Afrika Bambaataa (born Kevin Donovan on April 17 or October 4, 1957 or 1960) is a DJ and community leader from the South Bronx, who was instrumental in the early development of hip hop throughout the 1970s. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrika_Bambaataa [Oct 2006]
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk, the showroom dummies who caused Bambaataa to scratch his head and say, "'Scuse the expression, this is some weird shit". For "Planet Rock", Bam used the melody from "Trans Europe Express". Over the distinctive 808 beat, the effect was spectral. The idea of making music from pocket calculators appealed to kids accustomed to scratching vinyl. [...] -- David Toop for Wire magazine
Jazzy Sensation
Afrika Bambaataa & The Jazzy Five's groundbreaking 'Jazzy Sensation' was released in March 1981 on Tommy Boy records. It was produced by Arthur Baker and Shep Pettibone
1978, New York City. Dead summer.
1978, New York City. Dead summer. The city was always public but an inescapable heat sends folks out of their apartments and amplifies the streets' activity. The buzz surrounding hip-hop has already escaped —via mixed tapes aired on boomboxes— to Manhattan's attention. But it is here in its birthplace, the South Bronx, where Afrika Bambaataa and his crew of diasporic black youth known as the Zulu Nation have gathered to celebrate the new sensation.Bambaataa switches from Olatunji's drumming to the Monkees to James Brown in the course of a few songs, ending up on Kraftwerk's electronic epic "Trans-Europe Express". How exactly, did futurist music from Düsseldorf, Germany find its way alongside African drumming, American soul, and British rock into an open-air party held in the economically ravaged Bronx? Hip-hop's logic is complex, irreverent, all its own.
From its inception, hip-hop was plural, defined by an approach to sound and music-making rather than a single stylistic designation. Jazz, soul, funk, rock 'n roll, Nigerian drumming — everything was in the mix. Parties were a cross-cultural barrage of styles chosen and mixed by the disc jockey (DJ). Jamaican-born Bronx resident Kool Herc provided the innovations that elevated DJing to an art form
Looking for the Perfect Beat: 1980-1985 (2001) - Afrika Bambaataa
Looking for the Perfect Beat: 1980-1985 (2001) - Afrika Bambaataa
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
1. Zulu Nation Throwdown 2. Zulu Nation Throwdown 3. Jazzy Sensation [Bronx Version] 4. Planet Rock 5. Looking for the Perfect Beat 6. Renegades of Funk 7. Frantic Situation [Vocal Version] 8. Unity, Pt. 1 (The Third Coming) 9. Who Do You Think You're Funkin' With? [Hip Hop Mix] 10. What Time Is It? (Live) [Live] 11. Funk You! 12. [Untitled Hidden Track]
The Freshest Kids - A History of the B-Boy (2002)
Breaking... Born at Kool D.J. Herc's House parties in the early '70s, catapulted to a worldwide phenomenon in the '80s, and now experiencing its latest gravity-defying incarnation as a thriving underground movement, "The Freshest Kids" brings to you the illest B-Boying this planet has ever witnessed. Over two hours of hardcore breaking gives you an all-access pass to the underground world of B-Boys spanning the last 25+ years. See and hear the early history via rare archival footage and exclusive interviews with The Nigga Twins, Spy (the man with 1000 moves), Rock Steady Crew icons Crazy Legs and Ken Swift, The New York City Breakers, Mr. Wiggles, Styelements and the world's most innovative B-boys of the next generation along with hip-hop legends Kool D.J. Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, KRS-One, Mos Def and many more as they come together to reveal for the first time the most comprehensive history of B-Boying, its evolution and its place within hip-hop culture and beyond. These are The Freshest Kids and this is their story!