Excerpt from Afrika Bambaataa interview

B = Afrika Bambaataa
S = Spady

S: Was Japan the first place outside of the United States that you set up chapters of the Universal Zulu Nation?

B: No. France was the first place that we established the Zulu Nation outside of the U.S. time France had the largest Zulu Nation in the world besides the United States.

S: When I talk to members of the Hip Hop community in France they claim that it was you who encouraged them to use their own language. What actually happened?

B: Yes, that happened back in the early 1980s, like 1982 or 1983.

S: Why did you tell them to rap in French and to communicate in their own street French speech?

B: Because I was telling them. Everybody tried to rap like Americans. I told them in France, “No, rap in your own language and speak from your own social awareness. Rap about your own problems that are happening in your own country and whatever and talk about what you want to talk about. And just watch how your own will start jumping up and being great entertainers. You will have Hip Hop entertainers from your own land.” And that is what happened. Now, France is really the second biggest Hip Hop place in the world…  They have a lot of great artists and they are very fnnky. One time, when we were touring France they didn’t even have the word Funk in their vocabulary. They couldn’t even take ice cream and stick it in a Seven Up. [Bambaaata, speaking  with a French accent and attitude says] “That’s not possible. C’est pas possible.” So Hip Hop and The Zulu Nation changed a lot of people’s thinking. In France, the government there almost was going to give money to our Queen Candy. They saw we needed money.

S: Were you listening to Kraftwerk at the same time you were listening to  James Brown?

B: Nah! James Brown was what we were raised up on. James Brown, Sly and The Family Stone and George Clinton.

S: What music were your parents playing in your household when you were growing up in The Bronx?

B: We heard all of the James Brown records, like I said. Sly and the Family Stone. Then we heard all of the Stax, Motown folks. Then we heard stuff by the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and all the Rock groups....

S: Do you think that Planet Rock and Soulsonic Force became so popular in Europe, as some have claimed, because of your familiarity with Transeurope Express, Kraftwerk and  Western European bands at that time?

B:  I think it was more because of The Funk of Sly, George, Parliament and the Funkadelics. When we came out there wuz no other Hip Hop groups really happening out there but us, Grandmaster Flash. We were challenging  the Funk groups.

S: What do you mean challenging the Funk groups?

B: We weren’t challenging any rappers on the stage with us. We were more on the stage with the Zapp Band, Ray Goodman and you better be able to shake that thing and come with if for those power Soul audiences. When we came out against those groups we had to bring it. Especially when you were playing on stage with some one as wild as George Clinton. And then I knew we had the punk rockers coming on, too. So I tried to bring those four classes altogether. And it worked. It worked. We were the first to start bringing the whites, coming from downtown, to come and hang with the Blacks and Latinos up in The Bronx. Everybody thought it was going to be racial war. But when that music hit the Universal Zulu Nation was being born.

S: Bambaataa, you refer to Blacks and Latinos almost as one. You always say “Blacks and Latinos” when you mention the early days of Hip Hop. Were you encountering Latinos back in the early days when you started?

B: I will say this. Wherever we were at the Puerto Ricans was there. I don’t like to get into when we call them Puerto Ricans. They are Africans just like we are… We got to remember that our Puerto Rican brothers are the ones that kept Africa alive. They are the Africans that kept the drum. They kept the Gods of Santeria alive. In the sixties, Blacks and Puerto Ricans were always playing the Conga. Always had the rhythms. They came up with Salsa Soul when the Salsa came out. We had Joe Bataan that was saying Salsoul and all of that. The guy that wrote Down These Mean Streets was Piri Thomas. And in that book, he was trying to find out “Was I Black?” or “Was I Puerto Rican?” At the end of the book he realized, “I Am a Black Man.” And so then you had The Young Lords, The Black Panthers. Everybody was teaching. Somewhere down the line, once Disco came in, everybody just got spasmed out. And then they started saying, “Puerto Ricans over there. Blacks over there. West Indians over there,” like we was on some different shit. So, something came and took our minds.

S: Bambaataa, what do you tell Hip Hop scholars and those writing about Rap music ought to study more carefully?

B: Not just Rap music, but the culture! Not too many people are staying on the culture. When you say Hip Hop, automatically they think you are talking just Rap records. I hate when I go to a store and I say I want some Hip Hop and all they show me is rap records. They when I say, “Go to Luke’s music. Then they say, ‘That’s booty music.’” And I say, “That’s Hip Hop, too.”  If you go to “Electric Funk,” I say “That’s Hip Hop , too.” Electronica is Hip Hop. Even the Rolling Stones. If you take “The Honky Tonk Woman,” that’s Hip Hop. It’s Rock music, but it’s still Hip Hop. How you play it makes it a Hip Hop song. And from Hip Hop came all of the other branches: Hip House, Jungle, Drum ‘n Bass. All of that music. Hip Hop has branches and Hip Hop is still coming.

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