AFRIKA BAMBAATAA: Poppin’ And Lockin’

THIS YEAR AFRIKA BAMBAATAA CELEBRATES THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF PLANET ROCK, BUT BEFORE TRAVELLING BACK TO THE START, HE SPEAKS TO RIP NICHOLSON ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THAT RECORD AND THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE DJ IN A CULTURE HE CREATED.

AFRIKA BAMBAATAA interviewed for Rip2Shredz  //  Street Press  //  Hiphop.sh@ 13:30 on Friday 3rd May, 2013

Write Up Featured in – Inpress (May 8, 2013)Drum (May 14, 2013)Time Off (May 15, 2013)[READ HERE] 

Hip hop has been played like a 40-year game of broken telephone. Through misinterpretation, it has fallen to a predisposed term for a rap industry. Like the voice of God himself, the legendary Afrika Bambaataa Kahim Aasim speaks only of the gospel in a tone befitting the mythical status of a founding father. While DJ Kool Herc was amassing his Herculoid sound system at Cedar Park, down south, Aasim was transforming rioting gangs of the Bronx into battling participants of what he and Keith ‘Cowboy’ Wiggans would soon coin as hip hop. The revered and followed DJ was a born leader, but before Aasim was to become a much fabled chunk of music history, he would command a strong authority over the warring streets of South Bronx. He could storm through any neighbourhood to battle another DJ. The myths written of him are staggering and grow through the eons of time. He has been named ‘Master Of Records’, a title awarded for having one of the world’s largest record collections, started at age 4. His name has been incorrectly recorded online numerous times and when asked of a recent birthday, and how old he felt, he replied coyly, “The whole month of April is my birthday,” and, “I’m as young as a newborn flower and I’m as old as the sun, moon and stars.”

By 1975, Aasim had built up his stockpile of records and with the strength and numbers of the Zulu Nation, held down some of the biggest block parties the Boogie Down had ever seen. Next came Grandmaster Flash who would redefine the wheels of steel. Then as call-and-response MCs became recording artists, most DJs fell off. The industry supplanted them for studio music. Aasim explains how he managed to survive the cull after Grandmaster Flash was pushed off The Message.

To read full interview + Q & A [READ HERE]