Over the next five weeks, Taiwan will be a pit stop on the tours of a lot of big-name electronic acts. Even though they may command heftier DJ fees and demand more synced pyrotechnics, none of the artists stacks up to hip-hop luminary Afrika Bambaataa, who will be playing at Room 18 tomorrow night and Neo Studios on Sunday,
In the days before he was known as Bambaataa, Kevin Donovan was a gangbanger with the Black Spades in the Bronx. He rose through the ranks and became a warlord, which meant his job was to expand the gang’s territory and membership.
After Donovan entered and won an essay competition, he journeyed to Africa. The trip had a profound influence on his life and Donovan took up the moniker Afrika Bambaataa. He then formed the Universal Zulu Nation with artists, DJs, dancers and MCs as a socially and politically-conscious group.
Photo courtesy of Room 18
In the late-1970s, Bambaataa began to spread hip-hop culture to disciples by organizing block parties all over the South Bronx, and soon the Universal Zulu Nation’s numbers swelled.
In 1982, Bambaataa released a hip-hop single, Planet Rock, which fused the electronic riffs of Kraftwerk with snippets of drums from funk jams and started the genre now known as electro funk.
Bambaataa was a staple in the downtown New York party scene in the 1980s and pushed hip-hop into a lot of places it had never been.
Over the years, he has made records with everyone from Little Steven van Zandt to UB40 to James Brown to George Clinton, has been called one of the most important Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. Bambaataa has the ultimate musical pedigree and is now known as the godfather of hip-hop.
Will that translate into twenty and thirty-somethings digging into their pockets and going out to see him over the weekend? It should.
DJ Vicar (楊奇章), who plays alongside Bambaataa both days, is nervous and excited, and has a hard time believing that these shows are happening.
“I never thought that I would be able to see Afrika Bambaataa in my life, especially in Taiwan,” Vicar said.
■ Afrika Bambaataa with DJ Vicar, Chicano and Klone is tomorrow from 10:30pm to 4:30am at Room 18, B1, 88, Songren Rd, Taipei City (台北市松仁路88號). Admission is NT$700 and includes two drinks. Afrika Bambaataa plays HRC’s 15th and Zulu Nation’s 42nd Anniversary Party on Sunday from 2pm to 10pm at Neo Studio, 5F, 22 Songren Rd, Taipei City (台北市松壽路22號5樓). Tickets are NT$1,200 at the door.
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