Hip Hop History 101

 

Afrika Bambaataa Aasim, or more commonly, Afrika Bambaataa, is a pioneering Hip-Hop DJ who, along with contemporaries such as Grandmaster Flash, became a recording artist as Rap records became marketed. He is most popular for conceiving the first breakthrough Electro record, “Planet Rock” in late 1981, which was recorded and released in 1982. The record redefined all of Hip-Hop to be produced electronically with drum machines and keyboards instead of relying on live house bands. Bambaataa is also widely regarded for founding a Hip-Hop cultural movement known as the Universal Zulu Nation, a collective that transcended gang-life and promotes history and culture, which has expanded globally. However, Bambaataa’s contribution as being the talent behind Hip-Hop’s entering the art-world’s consciousness in 1981, which in turn, caused Hip-Hop to expand beyond the Bronx and Harlem, is perhaps his most overlooked role, and greatest contribution to Hip-Hop.

Youth and the Black Spades

Between 1948-1963, the bulk of the Cross-Bronx Expressway is constructed. This is regularly blamed for the economic decline of The Bronx, and the South Bronx’s result was becoming plagued by street gangs. Afrika Bambaataa is raised within this landscape. His date-of-birth remains a mystery, although many sources have deduced it to probably be 1957, with some sources citing April 19, 1957. Bam clearly states, “we never speak of my age”. His birth name remains completely unknown. Biographers have incorrectly stated it as Kevin Donovan, but since then, it has been clarified that Kevin Donovan was a member of the Winely Records’ house band that backed early Bambaataa records.

What is known is he was born to parents of West Indian decent (Jamaican and Barbadian), in Manhattan, and his family relocated to the ground floor of the Bronx River Projects during his earliest days. As a child, he was exposed to the black liberation movement, and witnessed debates between his mother and uncle regarding the conflicting ideologies in the movement, as well as was exposure to his mother’s extensive and eclectic record collection.

Between 1968 and 1973, The Bronx becomes flooded with heroin due to the Mafia’s ties to regional suppliers such as Nicky Barnes. The economic crisis and dangerous conditions that arose from this caused street gangs in the South Bronx to become law of the land for youth. By the police’s own reports, there may’ve been as many as 10,000 gang members in the Bronx, alone. Reportedly, Bambaataa was a founding member of the the Savage Seven gang, which originated in 1968 at the Bronxdale Houses in

Soundview section of the Bronx. As the gang grew, they changed their name to the Black Spades (reportedly, future music partner DJ Jazzy Jay also was a member). The gang quickly spread to nearby housing projects and throughout the Bronx, with divisions in almost every precinct. They became one of the most prevalent violent African-American street gang in New York City during the 1970s, with over 50 divisions in New York State alone.

Bambaataa was inspired to take his name while watching the 1964 Michael Caine film Zulu, being influenced by the depiction of the Zulu warriors attacking British troops at Rorke’s Drift. Bambaataa is a phonetic translation of Bhambatha, which Bam explains roughly translates to “affectionate leader”. Along with other Black Spades, he was bused to a predominantly White school in the Soundview area of the Bronx, where “race wars” are said to occur with White gang members attending his school. In 1971 the “Junkie Massacre” occurs, which is explained as gangs such as Savage Nomads, Roman Kings, The Brothers and Sisters, The Black Spades, and The Ghetto Brothers all taking vengeance on heroin addicts in the community.

Bambaataa rose to the position of Division Leader of The Black Spades,

Bambaataa rose to the position of Division Leader of The Black Spades, as he was known for defusing potential wars with other gangs, as well as recruitment. In November of 1971, The Black Spades went to war with a White division of the Golden Guineas and Misters Bronx at Stevenson High School, and with the Savage Nomads in a movie theater. Shortly after, an attempted “emergency” peace treaty at the picturesque Bethesda Fountain in Central park was called by the Ghetto Brothers. Although this was covered by columnist Joe Torres in the New York Post, who praises the Ghetto Brothers’ attempts at peace, it proved fruitless at ending violence in the Bronx.

The Death of Black Benjie

The following month, the Ghetto Brothers then gathered representatives in Horseshoe Park at 165th and Rogers. A sizable figure of the Ghetto Brothers, 25 year-old Cornell “Black Benjie” Benjamin was called in to mediate. Without weapons, Benjie called for a truce, reminiscent of the opening scene of The Warriors. Despite this, Benjie was severely beaten at the incident, dying at Lincoln Hospital later that day. The Daily News’ headline read: PEACEMAKER KILLED IN MELEE. BRONX TEEN WAR. That afternoon, after rumor of Benjie’s death spread, and Black Spades leader, Bam Bam (not to be confused with Bambaataa) was one of several gang presidents to visit Ghetto Brothers’ clubhouse to make amends and avoid retaliation. Bam Bam stated the Spades were not part of the killing, and vowed to aid the Ghetto Brothers in their effort to find the killer. Internally, there was a division amongst Ghetto Brothers leaders; Charlie Suarez wanted absolute retaliation, whereas top president Benjy Melendez wanted peace. Despite Melendez, members of the Ghetto Brothers, including Suarez, vowed retaliation against the Seven Immortals and the Mongols. By dusk, one of the Black Spades was detained in connection to Benjie’s murder. The Ghetto Brothers believed the wrong guy had taken the fall. They believed Julio, a leader of the Seven Immortals had delivered the death blow. Ironically, Julio was a former Ghetto Brother.

A hunt ensued, and some members of the Ghetto Brothers found Julio and four others of the Seven Immortals. Tying all five up, Suarez returned to execute Julio with a .45 calibre handgun. Melendez stepped in to prevent the Suarez from shooting Julio. After a severe beating to all five, they were set free. Suarez and Melendez visited Benjie’s mother Gwendolyn Benjamin to console her. Benjie’s mother pleaded for no revenge, as she felt Benjie lived for peace. The following day, reporters donned on the Ghetto Brothers clubhouse. Melendez gave an impromptu press conference. Melendez made it clear there would be no retaliation, and chastised the press for wanting reports of revenge.

One of the Youth Services Agency’s Bronx gang crisis squad, “Spanish Eddie” Vincenti, 27, a youthful veteran of the 1950s Bronx street gangs, began working on the grandiose notion of getting every major gang in the Bronx to sign an intergang treaty and alliance. This giant alliance would be called “The Family”, and every gang would become a division in the larger gang. The idea had just enough vision in it for gang leaders to be interested in its possibilities. Vincenti felt that once unified under a single name, the gangs could do virtually anything, if someone provided them with the right kind of social vision.

After Benjie’s funeral, the Ghetto Brothers called for a truce at the Bronx Boys Club on Hoe Ave referred to as The Hoe Avenue Peace Meeting. The objective was to draw up a peace treaty in honor of Black Benjie’s death. The meeting included the Black Spades, Seven Immortals, the Mongols, Turbans, Black Pearls, Savage Skulls, Young Sinners, Royal Javelins, Dutchmen, Magnificent Seven, Dirty Dozens, Liberated Panthers, Latin Spades, Peacemakers and the Ghetto Brothers, along with Vincenti, city officials, and police. To guarantee that it would be nonviolent, it was arranged to have a member of the Turbans gang to take position, with a rifle, on a rooftop across the street from the Boys’ Club on the day of the meeting. Inside, the power structure was evident. Presidents, vice-presidents, and warlords sat on folding chairs in a circle in the middle of the club’s gymnasium. Gang members took seats in the bleachers, while wives were made to wait outside the building. Only two females were permitted inside—the presidents of the all-girl gangs, the Alley Cats and the Savage Sisters — and their folding chairs were placed in the last/fourth row, behind those of the warlords. A very young Bambaataa was there, and aided in setting up chairs in the gym for the event.

Suarez called for all police to leave, or the event would not take place. All in attendance erupted in applause. Suarez then spoke at length about peace, which morphed into the blame game. Suarez blamed the Seven Immortals and the Mongols. Bam Bam of the Black Spades attempted to pinpoint to roots of the ordeal to the Savage Skulls invading the Spades turf with shotguns. Skulls representatives revolted. Suarez returned to calling for peace. Hollywood Harper, an elder Skull representative, angrily called for peace beyond the seminar; he was passionately stating peace was needed on the Bronx battlefield, pointing to “whitey” as not having to live in these unbearable conditions, so it was on them collectively to bring peace. Even the Spades responded with applause. Bam Bam joined in on pointing towards the “white” police and politicians as being the real enemy. After this, Melendez took aim at Julio, who was in attendance. After coldly pointing him out, Melendez announced that the Ghetto Brothers were no longer a gang, but rather, an organization. The accused murderer was never ratted out, but rather, Benjie’s life was acknowledged as a catalyst for peace. The evening ended with presidents coming together hand in hand and verbally declaring peace. Suarez and Vincenti read a four-point peace treaty that was drafted up in advance. Vincenti signed on 68 gangs to the coalition/treaty. The meeting was a success but while no lasting peace was ever established, a subsequent negotiation established a procedure for dealing with conflicts to avoid street “warfare”. Some gang members abided the treaty, while some did not.

The following day, the NYPD set up the Bronx Youth Gang Task Force. The force began harassing assumed gang members, and arresting several key leaders by early 1972. Vincenti and 10 other crisis squad members were suddenly transferred from the Bronx and re-assigned to Brooklyn where Vincenti was shot in the face trying to prevent a gun battle in the West farms area. Vincenti survived to continue work on the Brotherhood Family in his spare time. As 1972 wore on, most people involved in the treaty seminar were jailed, shot, drafted into Vietnam, or simply ran off. Bambaataa had risen to a leader of the Spades, as Bam Bam himself was fighting in Vietnam. The Black Spades fragmented into a warring faction, and a community service faction. Bambaataa, mostly believing in the power of the peace treaty, worked for as much good clearing drug dealers off the block and running community health programs in the name of the Spades.

Afrika Bambaataa Aasim, or more commonly, Afrika Bambaataa, is a pioneering Hip-Hop DJ who, along with contemporaries such as Grandmaster Flash, became a recording artist as Rap records became marketed. He is most popular for conceiving the first breakthrough Electro record, “Planet Rock” in late 1981, which was recorded and released in 1982. The record redefined all of Hip-Hop to be produced electronically with drum machines and keyboards instead of relying on live house bands. Bambaataa is also widely regarded for founding a Hip-Hop cultural movement known as the Universal Zulu Nation, a collective that transcended gang-life and promotes history and culture, which has expanded globally. However, Bambaataa’s contribution as being the talent behind Hip-Hop’s entering the art-world’s consciousness in 1981, which in turn, caused Hip-Hop to expand beyond the Bronx and Harlem, is perhaps his most overlooked role, and greatest contribution to Hip-Hop.

Bambaataa began attending as many similar park parties thrown by the Spades as he could. Between 1973 and 1974, he befriends both Bronx River’s Kool DJ D, as well as Bronxdale ruling DJ, Disco King Mario with his DJ crew “Chuck Chuck City”. Both were ex-Spades, and he apprentices with both. By apprenticing with a DJ not in his own Bronx River, he transcends turf more than ever before. As DJ Kool Herc developed a DJ style of using two turntables to extend the bridge of Funk songs for dancers, Herc would become the undisputed king of Bronx DJ’ing come 1974-1975. This begins to plant the notion that DJ’ing was something to aspire to higher than gang activity. With the Black Spades still active, Bam abandoned gang life altogether, and began DJ’ing at Stevenson High School with a style that amalgamated what he learned from King Disco Mario and what he saw and heard from DJ Kool Herc. His former Black Spades friends attended the parties, building a fan base. Bam states, the aesthetic of the Bronx changed away from dirty gang bangers to stylish grooming, led in part by the emerging graffiti scene. Bam says when his cousin Soulski (whose real name Bam has never chosen to disclose) was shot to death by police on January 6, 1975, it became a life altering moment for him. Although Bam has been reluctant to talk about this, a January 11, 1975 police blotter in The Amsterdam News seems to recount the event. Reportedly, the police were acquitted. Bam enters an essay contest to be awarded a trip to Europe and Africa, which he wins. After this trip, Bam states, seeing “Black people wake up in the morning, opening their stores, doing the agriculture, doing whatever they have to do to keep the country happening…compared to what you hear in America about ‘Black people can’t do this and that’, that really just changed my mind.” He forms the Bronx River Organization, then later simply “The Organization”, before converting it to The Universal Zulu Nation. Bam indoctrinates a credo for Zulu: “…be open minded with all walks of life on this planet Earth and to teach [1] other truth (Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding). To respect those who respect them. To never be the aggressor or oppressor. To be at peace with self and others, but if or when attacked by others who don’t wish peace with the Zulus, then the Zulus are ordered in the name of ALLAH, Jehovah to fight those who fight against you.” This would grow to include Seven Infinity Lessons, a code of conduct for the “Zulu way of life.” One notable recruit into Zulu Nation was the son of Breakbeat Lenny. As Lenny was an entrepreneurial record broker servicing Bronx DJs in the wake of Kool Herc’s popularity, Bam’s repertoire grew wildly eclectic, causing him to take the title “Master of Records”.

Bam had a crew of five dancers known as the Zulu Kings: Zambu Lanier, Kusa Stokes, Ahmad Henderson, Shaka Reed, and Aziz Jackson. This grew to include a female dance crew, the Zulu Queens, as well as Zulu nation crew members Mr. Biggs, Queen Kenya, and Cowboy, the first true MC/Rapper. In 1976, Mario and Bam stage a friendly DJ battle in New York Junior High School 123. By 1977, Kool Herc’s reign had dropped dramatically. Bam’s following in the Bronx grew to massive heights, rivaled in numbers only by Grandmaster Flash, who helped galvanize a peaceful party atmosphere for the Casanovas in other Bronx turfs. Hip-Hop comes of age on Flash and Bam’s watch, with MC crews growing by leaps and bounds to perform over these DJs bed of breaks, and gaining popularity via mixtapes traded on the street.

Rap Records and Downtown

Inspired by the Bronx and Harlem scenes, a Rap record was commissioned by a New Jersey record label, partially funded by Morris Levy. Sugar Hill Gang was an act put together by the label as three rappers and with no DJ, and the record was released in October of 1979; “Rapper’s Delight”. It explodes into nationwide popularity, causing the Bronx Hip-Hop scene to check its intentions and potential, leading to many DJs to be signed with MCs in tow. Bambaataa signed on with Paul Winely’s record label in 1980, who in turn records a live party DJ mix set of Bam and his junior DJ partner, Jazzy Jay. The mix remains shelved as Winely commissions a formal record to be conceived by Bam. He and his MC crew release two versions of Bam’s lackluster debut record “Zulu Nation Throwdown”, using a house studio band replaying a break rather than Bambaataa’s live DJ’ing. Disappointed, Bam ends his relationship with Winely Records.

 

Former cast member of West coast art-rock band, The Tubes, befriends Bambaataa while DJ’ing. Holman begins creating homemade films of Bam in action at the Bronx club T-Connection, and forging a relationship that would take Bam’s art form outside the traditional world of Hip-Hop. In April of 1981, Michael Holman and Fab 5 Freddy, along with renowned artist Keith Haring, staged a downtown Manhattan art show titled “Beyond Words” at the Mudd Club, featuring Bambaataa DJ’ing for the first time in lower Manhattan to mostly Punk Rock/New Wave-centric audience. Come August, Sex Pistols manager and sex-fashion store owner Malcolm McClaren visits his NYC shop. McClaren meets Ruza Blue and asks her to manage his NYC store. He also meets Stan Peskett at the Manhattan art-loft “Canal Zone”, who in turn introduced McLaren to Michael Holman. McLaren’s arrival timed with a Zulu throw down at Bronx River Community Center. Holman took McLaren. As the only White adult in the place, he was surrounded by Black and Hispanic teenagers in the burned out Bronx, and was was reportedly scared out of his wits. Several fights broke out, causing him to fear for his safety. He wanted to leave but Holman convinced him to stay while urging Bam to go the extra mile and perform the best of the best for McLaren. Bam put on his right hand DJ Jazzy Jay, who did a quick mix complete with cutting and scratching. At the same time, the B-Boy dance crew, Rock Steady Crew, who personally did not know Bam or his crew, were causing a scene on the dance floor. Witnessing this combination, McLaren became a convert. The following month, Holman helped McLaren book a show for his New Wave act Bow Wow Wow at the Ritz, and McLaren quickly arranged for Bambaataa, his crew, and Rock Steady, to be the opening act. McLaren invited his new employee Ruza Blue to the show. Blue fell in love on first sight with Bam, and especially Rock Steady. Bam was also won over by Rock Steady, who he pronounced part of the Zulu Kings by the end of the show. After McLaren boarded a plane home, Fab 5 Freddy dubbed Ruza “Kool Lady Blue” and he began taking Blue along on his Bronx partying. Before Blue met Freddy, she spent her time hanging out at Negril, a small, dark space in the basement of an East Village Jamaican restaurant on 2nd Ave in the East Village used primarily as a Reggae club. She swiftly formed a friendship with the owner, who gave her a night to host on Tuesdays. After seeing Bam and Rock Steady, she knew she wanted them to perform at her night. During a meeting with Michael Holman in October, it was arranged, with Holman taking on 50% of the night. The crowd was no more than roughly 20 people, but Bam was thrilled to be playing outside of the Bronx again. This event quickly grew due to Blue’s art-world connections, moved to Thursdays, outgrew its venue, moved the the roller-rink The Roxy, and became the catalyst for introducing B-Boy culture to the world. Grandmaster Flash was the undisputed champion and leader of true Hip-Hop culture between 1978 and 1981. His skill and vision as a breakbeat DJ is best documented in two back to back events; the release of “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel”, and the September 1981 filming of his cameo performing a quick-mix in the movie Wild Style. Combined, these illustrated how precisely DJ’ing could be performed, and also that Hip-Hop could be marketed in its purist form as Breakbeat DJ’ing. This set a precedent for other working Hip-Hop DJs, working alongside the release of Rap records that failed to illustrate what their central role was the the community. Tom Silverman, the man behind the Disco music newsletter Dance Music Report, wanted to write an article on the new direction of Downstairs Records was going. Thanks to the likes of Breakbeat Lenny and others, Downstairs went from the store for those in the know to a store that had smartly begun to heavily cater to their market by creating a section specifically for records that had become established by Bronx DJs as “breaks”. Silverman asked young customers in the store at the time how they learned which records were breaks. The reply was simple; whatever Afrika Bambaataa played at his parties were breaks. Silverman was tipped off to go to T-Connection to see Bam. There, he was immediately amazed at the scope Bambaataa played with, lining up breaks from the Monkees’s “Mary Mary” to Kraftwerk to James Brown. Bambaataa introduced himself to Silverman as the “Master of Records”, which Silverman believed just on the basis of his play list alone. Silverman had begun his own independent label that was going unused, so he offered Bam a deal to cut a record that was in the vein of what he was playing. The deal was made, however, the original plan for a record of mixing records was quickly scrapped. In November of 1981, Silverman brought in the late period Disco producer Arthur Baker to produce Bam’s second song. Bam and his one of his MC crews, the Jazzy 5, recorded a Rap interpolation of Gwen McCrae’s “Funky Sensation” dubbed “Jazzy Sensation” for Silverman’s Tommy Boy label, again built with a house band. It was a minor local success, and furthermore, still remained far from Bam’s vision to illustrate what his role and skills were.

Planet Rock

In December of 1981, Bambaataa conceived his third release as a Braekbeat mix to compete with “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel”. Silverman took Bam to Westchester, New York, to record a demo version of the song at the studio known as “In the Red” with the intent of recreating Bam’s DJ set. The original demo included interpolations of BT Express’s “I Like It”, Babe Ruth’s “The Mexican”, Captian Sky’s “Super Sporm”, Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express” and “Numbers”, as well as an unidentified Rick James song. After the December ’81 “In the Red” demo, Bambaataa met a White keyboard player named John Robie who was looking for advice on which of his songs to release through Disconet Records. Bam advised the release of his song “Vena Cava”. Once released, Bam put Robie in touch with Tom Silverman, who was still writing the Dance Music Report. Silverman not only liked the song, but had heard about Robie from the owner of Disconet. Realizing Robie played synthesizers, Silverman hired Robie for the production of Bam’s next single. At this time, Bambaataa had become completely enchanted by the newest Kraftwerk release “Computer World”. Bam asked Robie if he could program keyboard parts to emulate Kraftwerk, to which Robie responded excitingly that he could. In March, Silverman gave the “In the Red” demo to Arthur Baker who loved the idea and he booked a short recording session with Jay “Burzootie” Burnett in an abandoned Upper East Side school building appropriately named “Intergalactic Studio”. Robie was even more excited when he learned that the studio had the new Fairlight synthesizer, which he was very curious about. Burzootie had given Baker and Robie a short demonstration of the Fairlight by running through a few preset sounds. When Burzootie came across the sound labeled ORCH5, one note played by full symphonic orchestra as sampled by David Vorhaus for the machine in 1979, Baker and Robie both decided that was an ideal sound to include in the song. Baker decided against hiring a band, and instead, he decided on using a programmable drum machine. Being the studio didn’t have one, and nobody involved with the production could afford to buy one for this session, they turned to the classified section of the Village Voice community paper. There they found a guy who only introduced himself as Joe who had recently purchased a Roland TR-808, and he was renting it out. They brought Joe in and played him the break to Captain Sky’s “Super Sporm” and “Numbers”. Joe copied the beats as best he could, and Bam tweaked the tempo to match Kraftwerk’s latest release. They recorded the drum machine to tape, and attempted to pay Joe with a check from Tommy Boy Records. Joe refused a check from an unknown label and demanded cash. With Joe out of the picture, Baker and Bam began instructing their hired gun Robie to replay melodies from “The Mexican” and Kraftwerk’s “Trans-Europe Express”, as well as a bass note to coincide with each kick drum.

The whole while, Bam’s rappers Mr. Biggs (Ellis Williams), G.L.O.B.E. (John Miller), and Pow Wow (Robert Darrell Allen) loathed what was being produced. The song was not the typical of the Hip-Hop DJ & MC community. It was electronic, which was more aligned with John Robie’s New Wave music rather than what was happening in the B-Boy clubs of the Bronx and Harlem. Also, it was uptempo, like the old style of Disco that was dead by 1982. On the other hand, John Robie hated it as it was, by his barometer, too simple. But Bam was infatuated with Kratwerk’s 1981 album “Computer World”, and this sonically was as close as he heard anyone come to it. When the first night’s session was over, only a rough instrumental had been complete, and Baker proclaimed to his wife that he felt they were making musical history. Now it was a question of how to make the rappers fit with this song. G.L.O.B.E. brought in something he called “MC Poppin’”, which he professed is different than what was rapping at that time. Baker recounts that it was rapping at half-time, which is what allowed the vocals to work on a song that was this fast. Fellow rapper Pow Wow forgot his lyrics at one point and began scatting (zih-zih-zih-zih-zih), which Silverman made it a point to keep on the tape. Baker, realizing this was musical history in the making, came up with the idea of calling out cities globally rather than simply calling out boroughs as a way to help spread the song beyond the local scene. When the track was finished in April of 1982, Silverman took the song to the small 10,000 watt local radio station WHBI as Mr. Magic had a pay-to-play radio show there breaking late period Disco and street music at a ground level since 1979. At the same moment Silverman brought in Planet Rock, the well established NYC Disco writer/producer Leroy Burgess had brought in his new record the the Fantastic Aleems. Silverman thought he didn’t stand a chance. One week later, Tommy Boy received an order for 5,000 copies. Funhouse DJ Jellybean is reported as calling this record “the one”. Bambaataa has a massive hit record on his hands, eclipsing “Rapper’s Delight” in short time. Eventually, the song got so big that Kraftwerk themselves heard it. Founding Kraftwerk member Ralf Hutter professed to have loved the song and felt vindicated by its production, while Karl Bartos has mixed feelings. Kraftwerk’s publisher, No Hassle Music, did not. No Hassle demanded 25 cents per record sold, to which Silverman talked them down to 7.5 cents. Silverman had more hits in the bag based on the song’s template with the same team, but this time, without traceable melodies. Planet Rock, along with that lineage of subsequent Baker/Robie hits, as well as other labels following suit, birthed what we now call Electro. In November, 2004, “Planet Rock” placed at number 237 on the Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest songs of all times. The success also led Winley Records to release Bambaataa & Jazzy Jay’s mix recorded in 1980 as “Death Mix”. The muddled release is not applauded by Bam, yet is a good insight into 1980 DJ’ing by Bam & Jay. Globalization of Hip-Hop

With the aid of Fab 5 Freddy, Kool Lady Blue moved her Manhattan B-Boy night from the 200 capacity Negril to Manhattan’s only roller rink, the Roxy, which held well over 1,000. Blue cut the venue in half by hiring graffiti writer Futura 2000 to use a giant curtain as a canvas, and she’d hang it in the center of the floor. Once the night was underway, she officially titled the night “Wheels of Steel”, and each week, the curtain was moved further and further until it wasn’t needed. What had occurred between her time at Negril and the Danceteria was Electro had hit, and Hip-Hop was no longer seen as a novelty. The Roxy essentially phased out the small Bronx venues and opened up Hip-Hop to the entire city. It was now deemed chic to be down with Hip-Hop by the art and Punk communities thanks to Blue’s efforts, so the target audience, and the money that could be earned, were multiplied tenfold. In the summer of 1982, Rock Steady Crew had become weekly guests of honor at the hottest spot in the world. Bambaataa had gone from playing the Bronx River Community Center to holding court for an audience that matched his musical tastes here at the Roxy. For a full year, the party was never ending, and many saw this as a cross-cultural utopia come to fruition. By November of 1982, French avant-garde record label, Celluloid Records, was owned by Roxy patrons Jean Karakos and Bernhard Zekri. They made a deal with Blue to put together a package tour of Hip-Hop and bring it to France and the U.K. Billed as “The New York City Rap Tour”, the show featured Bambaataa, Grandmixer D. ST, Rock Steady Crew, Ramellzee, Futura 2000, and graffiti legend DONDI. In 1983, Blue took the package tour to Japan. However, in August of 1983, Blue was edged out of her own night by the very same owner that recoiled of the idea in the first place. The Roxy continued on as Hip-Hop central without her, and she’d take the Rock Steady Crew global as their new manager. Malcolm McLaren would go to spearhead his own take on Hip-Hop/Electro with British producer Trevor Horn. In June, 1984, The feature film Beat Street is released, featuring lengthy spotlight on Bambaataa and the Roxy scene, while Holman’s crew “The New York City Breakers” were featured in the Olympics Closing Ceremony that took place in the L.A. Coliseum. Bambaataa suddenly found himself in the national spotlight, where he had the chance to work with the legendary James Brown on the track “Unity” in 1984 (later sampled by the Beastie Boys for “Shake Your Rump”). Bambaataa then teamed with Johnny Rotten of the P.I.L. (formerly of McLaren’s Sex Pistols) as Time Zone for the “World Destruction” single, leading to Bam’s appearing on Little Steven Van Zandt’s “Sun City” release in October, 1985. Today, there are hundreds of Zulu chapters worldwide (Japan, Italy, South America etc.).

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