Afrika Bambaataa has died

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2evppm30p7o

by mellosouls • 3 months ago

186 42 3 months ago

bbc.co.uk

Klaster_1• 3 months ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHQ11l4uiM4

defrost• 3 months ago

Contemporaneously: World Destruction - Afrika Bambaataa & John Lydon (Released on: 31/12/1984) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoXGMSOIrIs

phendrenad22• 3 months ago

Great bumper music for the progressive history podcast _Blowback_.

waffletower• 3 months ago

"Bruce Dickinson" would definitely say that there wasn't enough cowbell

jimt1234• 3 months ago

Afrika Bambaataa is a major reason I fell in love with hip hop back around '82. Further, I've always felt "perfect beat" is a much better song than the more popular "planet rock". Back then, "planet rock" was for regular folk, "perfect beat" was for the breakers. Regular folk would be dancing on the floor, just like normal, and then, later in the evening, the DJ would drop "perfect beat" and it was on - specifically, this part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=229&v=rHQ11l4uiM4 . The dance floor would clear, otherwise you'd catch a foot from some dude spinning around. Good times.

I'm still trying to digest all the s3xual abuse allegations against Bam later in life.

RIP Bam

wahnfrieden• 3 months ago

The allegations became public later in his life but the incidents go back to the 80s and 90s, his whole career. Rest In Piss indeed

echelon_musk2• 3 months ago

s3xual

This is not TikTok. You can spell the word sexual without fear.

Teever• 3 months ago

I fell into a job bussing tables and porting alcohol at a local live music venue when I was 19 and I worked there off and on over seven years.

As much as I love live music after a while it just sort of became a job, but every now and again an incredible musician would come through and I wouldn’t know until I showed up for my shift and I asked my coworkers who was playing that night.

One night I come in and my jaw drops when find out it’s fucking DJ Africa Bambaataa! Now I’m not big into hip hop but I had listened to a few of his albums and I knew his music was phenomenal and I was shocked such a legend was playing in my town.

The crazy part is only like 100 people showed up out of a capacity of like 800 but every single one of those people could dance.

The venue had an old sound booth that was attached to ceiling and was accessible with a rickety old spiral staircase, as it was so slow that night I spent most of my time up there just soaking in that experience.

I’ve seen a lot of live shows in my day but that one stands out.

kristopolous• 3 months ago

yeah, he was skilled. Got to see him a few years ago.

contubernio3• 3 months ago

Bambaataa was a serial sexual abuser and everybody in the rap scene knew it back in the day (early 90s) same way everyone knew about R. Kelly (I ran a rap program on the radio in 92-94).

sjtgraham2• 3 months ago

What did you do about it at the time?

chris_wot• 3 months ago

The same thing you did. What sort of question is that?

contubernio3• 3 months ago

Not a reasonable question. All my information was third hand at best.

We didn't play Bambaataa, R Kelly or Tupac (convicted rapist) records. That's about all a radio station could do. Can't state what legally speaking were merely rumors on the air without facing problems. All you can do is not support them commercially, which we did.

dbcooper• 3 months ago

A friend of mine has worked in TV and film for decades. Many times he has told me about rumoured offenders (typically after they are arrested), but other than avoiding working on productions with them what are his choices? Trying to do a completely ridiculous "citizen's arrest"?

nunez• 3 months ago

Wow, had no idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrika_bambaataa#Child_sexual_...

Massively influential guy to hip hop, but what a shame.

rafaelgoncalves• 3 months ago

this surprised me as well, the more you know the respect for his influence diminishes, really sad.

torben-friis• 3 months ago

Damn. As someone half the world away I just knew him as a pioneer, news didn't travel enough to know anything about the personal lives of artists in the early 00s.

No idea about the allegations until now, which means the news doubly suck.

echelon_musk2• 3 months ago

Any tape rips of your show we can listen to?

Bayart2• 3 months ago

That's sadly a recurring pattern with Black American pioneers. For example a lot of early bluesmen are known to be highly problematic and the completely clean ones are rare (Howlin' Wolf is one). I've been recently experimenting with rape as a structuring force in sociology and anthropology (when I say "experimenting", I'm mean as a work hypothesis) and I'm now thinking it's more determinative at scale than murder. After all murder takes someone out of the pool.

I wouldn't go around DJing an abuser's music but I find it insufficient to stop at signaling about it and cancelling. That's where the work begins, not where it ends.

Stopping at jailing abusers will force them to hide better and prevent the more cowardly ones from acting, but it won't stop before the process behind it is fully understood, internalized and treated. I don't know the story behind it but there's a very high chance Afrika Bambaataa was abused as a child.

scorpionfeet• 3 months ago

Sadly a reoccurring problem with lots of white rock and roll “heroes” from Aerosmith to Led Zeppelin to Iggy Pop to Lynyrd Skynyrd to The Cars to The Stones…

close04• 3 months ago

That's sadly a recurring pattern with Black American pioneers

I think we have enough evidence these days to confidently say race has nothing to do with it.

For people who get enough power and influence they'll either become role models from a position of power, get followers and maybe even act as mentors to their subsequent victims (priests, teachers, various artists, activists and other "influencers"), or they're rich enough to think/know they can get away with anything (everyone in the Epstein files).

Throaway199999• 3 months ago

It was just a symptom of the social standing of males and the lack of interest in prosecuting rape.

phendrenad22• 3 months ago

I've read this a number of times, and dismissed it because there's no proof. But, I'm beginning to believe it, given the sheer amount of different sources saying it.

gvv• 3 months ago

Hacker news?

wartywhoa23• 3 months ago

Yes. Many hackers are into music and culture in general, among other things.

nailer• 3 months ago

I got into this guy via this Leftfield collab, it’s a great video: https://youtu.be/KvxbFWY2Hsc sad to hear he was a creep.

shevy-java• 3 months ago

Awww. Oldschool bboy music in the 1990s and before.

gosub100• 3 months ago

This brings up a point I often ponder: should the records of horrific criminals be cancelled? Consider the two extremes:

A) artist is never played again, no more royalties are paid. Nobody gets to enjoy the music.

B) the artist's estate is sold to a victims compensation trust, that collects, say, $4m/year that gets distributed to victims and charities. You still hear their song occasionally on the radio and gradually forget about their plight over the years.

Which one brings the victims closer to justice?

philipallstar• 3 months ago

This is an incomplete dichotomy. Option a) means the victims never have to hear their abuser's voice again.

eudamoniac• 3 months ago

C: they go through the legal justice system which has nothing to do with music, and people continue to play the songs they want to hear

butlike2• 3 months ago

Should they ban Mein Kampf?

_sys491522• 3 months ago

i can seperate art from the artist. why do i need socially performative nannies censoring whether i can watch ren and stimpy or not?

rikthevik• 3 months ago

I saw DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist's Afrika Bambaataa tribute and it was just outstanding. One of the best shows I've seen and some seriously talented people. Then I learned more about Afrika and how his misdeeds were mostly ignored.

When I open up a famous author / musician / athlete's wikipedia page, it feels like it's a coin flip over whether there's some horrible thing they've done and largely gotten away with it.

I'm still upset about Neil Gaiman. I connected deeply with a lot of his work in my youth and now I don't know what to think...

lproven• 3 months ago

He opened for Gorillaz in Prague about 8Y ago, and did a good set. Dude looked old and tired, but also happy to be there, performing live.

Afrika Bambaataa has died

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