Run Riot's Jareh Das meets Afrika at the St Martin's Lane Hotel for a good old catch up before his party with Modular later that night

Interviewing a Hip Hop legend, a man so ‘huge’ he is named after a continent, turns out to be a little strange. I arrived bang on time at St Martin's Lane hotel on time and askes the 'nice' man on reception for Mr. Afrika Bambaataa. He gives me the weirdes look whilst suspiciously checking his Mac for Mr. Bambaataa. He then reluctantly hands me the phone with a huge sigh. Three unanswered calls later, I decide to text the press guy. Press guy finally appears and spends the next ten minutes calling everyone on Afrika's entourage, whilst shouting into his i-phone in between jabbing at it wildly. Minutes (which seem like hours) pass, the screen is dented but no one can locate the 'big' man himself. At this point Vice Magazine's journo wanders into the waiting area, looking warily at me and the frustrated PR, who at this point had started pinching his phone screen, following a mysterious green dot about the screen? Forty minutes pass and still no sign of Mr. Bambaata. There's some talk of rescheduling when lo and behold the Big man walks in, with his rag tag train and announces we should interview in the very noisy (and slightly chav) lobby. The Vice journo looks alarmed and reminds us all that ''we were all promised an intimate one to one interview''. At this point someone suggeste we decamp to Afrika's suite to conduct the interviews there.

Behold the strange court of Bambaata, his entourage surround him and several journalists that include: BBC6, Vice Magaizine, PR etc. all crowded in the room of King Kamazee, International spokesman of The Universal Zulu Nation. Right then, we being. Safely clustered in his room, Bambaata goes into a brief monologue about a YouTube 'Obama Deception' video, something incomprehensible about a Sphinx god (apparently overseeing the proceedings) and begins to hand out gifts. Zulu Nation necklace and stickers all round! I don my necklace (which I quite like actually) and at last we are allowed to start the interview. I'm up first, armed with my i-dictophone, I begin about my business of getting to know the 'real' Afrika Bambaataa.



Jareh: Reading up you, Mr Bambaataa, the accolades are endless: ''Living Legend'', ''Icon of Hip-Hop'', ''Godfather'', "Creator of Turntablism", ''The Father of The Electro Funk Sound'' as well as my personal favourite, ''The Amen Ra of Universal Hip Hop Culture", it almost feels like you have conquered/achieved it all? Surely there is nowhere else to go from here?

Afrika: Well musically I still want to make many types of duets with a lot different artists from different musical backgrounds. Spiritually, I am still trying to wake up many humans to respect our great planet because there's gonna be all types of chaos if we don't start putting positivity back in our atmosphere.



Jareh: Do you mean this in terms of Global Warming, conflicts, suffering and hardships that currently blight out current existence?

Afrika: Well more than just global warming, there's gonna be more earthquakes, typhoons, tornadoes and all that type, if we don't start finding other ways of getting certain energy; there should be nobody on our planet living in any such thing as poverty. Africa itself could feed the world ten - fifteen times over. There should be no starvation in the motherland. That was a place blessed by the supreme forces to have all the animals, have all this land and have all the gold and silver - that everybody stole, and stole civilisation from. There should be eco-economy systems all over the earth meaning 'Dome Homes' built for all the people because that's where the homes are going for the future... Monolithich Dome Homes if you have a look in a search engine you can see what they look like. [I did – check them out!]



Jareh: I read that you used hip-hop/music to fundamentally turn your life around, and this came after a trip to Africa. What exactly happened on that Africa trip that made you have this life-changing experience?

Afrika: It wasn't so much just the trip to Africa it was really the teachings of the most honourable Elijah Mohammed and Malcolm X administered by Louis Farrakhan that helped play a strong part in this [the big change]. Before the trip I used to think Africa was negative or savage and this and that. But when you find out that the first of all people of our civilisation came from here it straightens your perspective with the truth. Seeing so many people getting up to do their own work, agriculture, their own buildings and stuff - this was a big turning point for me as well as starting to travel and speak to different humans on the planet and then finding out the real out story. Unravelling the mystery of history.

Jareh: Your musical career has involved taking bold (even maybe risky) steps collaborating with artists such as Kraftwerk and Arthur Baker whilst infusing electro into hip-hop. What prompted this change in direction and why the electo infusion? Wasn't that quite risky at the time bringing electro into hip-hop coming from a hip-hop bakcground?

Afrika: Well at the time it was called 'Techno Pop' it started becoming more Electro/Electro Funk was when we came out with that whole funk attitude to techno pop. It started with groups like Yellow Magic Orchestra, through Kraftwerk, through Gary Numan and the rest, Dick Hyman used to do the mood synthesisers and stuff like that, with us adding that heavy base and rhythms of James Brown, Sly & The Family Stone and all that helped to bring that funk to that techno pop so thus came the birth of Electro Funk from our Electro Funk came the birth Miami Base, Rio Funk, Trip Hop, Jungle and all the rest of the different electronica and all the words that keep changing which was the dawn of Electro Funk.

Jareh: Wasn't this quite risky bringing an electro element into hip-hop?

Afrika: No because there was nothing else but what Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash decided what was been played. And we would always play music from all different backgrounds of music which was what really made up hip-hop. Most people today, when they talk about hip-hop they don't know what they are talking about. When they say hip-hop automatically they’re talking about rappers ‘n’ rap records. So when you're playing break beats at a party they say 'Can you please play a some hip-hop?' - they should never come up and approach Afrika Bambaataa or Grandmaster Flash and ask for that we know what we're playing. We started this, we are the architects of this, so if you want to hear a rap record just say could you play a rap record with somebody rapping on it.





Jareh: Do you still live in the Bronx today and I wonder how you're involved with your local community?

Afrika: The whole world is my home, we always do community work all over the city of New York and beyond.

Jareh: So I don't know how you'd respond to this, but in a few years we will need a new Mayor of London and I think you should run for Mayoral office as we really need someone to inspire and help eradicate street violence. London's gang and knife culture is rife and I think you've really inspired a lot of young people across the pond, would you consider this?

Afrika: I don't like to get involved in Politics because sometimes it becomes more of a lot of 'Politricks'. We like to get people off their butts and thinking and doing something for themselves - meaning all these temples, mosques and churches need to open up their doors again. Also all the schools need to start putting music and agendas back into the school system, instead of certain people taking a lot of away. These certain people are taking so many different things out of these schools. They’re closing down so many schools, hospitals, and taking away healthcare for the peoples. There's definitely something going wrong with all these Politics ‘n’ Politricks from country to country, town to town, city to city.

Jareh: I know you played Glasgow yesterday, London tonight and Bloc Weekender tomorrow. Any more UK, Europe summer gig, festival dates for us to look forward to?

Afrika: Some festivals or something hopefully we'll be back again in Europe as we're all back and forth.

My meeting with Afrika Bambaataa may have been eventful, teetering on the bizarre even and it almost didn't happen but ended up being inspirational. He is ecologically driven, with a worldly awareness. He is brave enough to believe in big solutions and I was fascinated and impressed by his 'Dome Home' suggestions to solve housing issues. I leave in a dreamy daze and have an epiphany: Yes! Yes! Yes I think a hip-hop eco warrior is just what the world needs! Shame he has no desire to get involved in London 'Politricks'. Mayor Bambaataa has a nice ring to it....