Planet Rock: The Album

Maybe this is important and influential as a rap or hip hop album. But the songs are all over the place and I don't think these guys are very talented. The voices sound very raw in a bad way. The way they pan and fade in and out was also kinda annoying to me. The production is awful. It sounds like a bunch of high schoolers decided to make a rap album. There's a few cool moments here and there, but overall not for me.

not for me and not someone you can separate the art from the artist on.

That was ok, pretty funky but didnt feel much for it outside of Go Go Pop which is my standout.

For the 80s the beats and production were genuinely pretty good and very catchy, I found myself humming some of the songs throughout the day afterwards. Sadly the rapping leaves a lot to be desired but it was incredibly innovative and influential for it’s time so I have to account that into my rating as well.

Beats-heavy hip hop

"8-year-olds, dude."

Legendary, no doubt about that. But I am only familiar with Planet Rock here, and I know I might piss off some people here, not that I care, but isn't Planet Rock basically just heavily sampled Kraftwerk from Trans Europe Express anyway? So this haven't aged super well for me, it's an enjoyable early hip-hop, however it is also quite average so at most 3 stars.

I’m still undecided if this was any good. But it was fun, and that’s worth something!

Hip hop is best when the mic is shared, and there is a lot of sharing on this album. Full of energy and 80’s synth sounds that somehow don’t get in the way of enjoyment.

Curioso disco de hip-hop en sus inicios, puro años 80. A mí me gusta. Los toques Kraftwerk están guapos.

Loved the old school rap.

This is the definition of old school. Thought the beginning and the end were meh and thought the middle was fantastic.

I always knew Planet Rock - a banger - but today I learned that Renegades of Funk was a cover by Rage Against the Machine, originally done by these guys!

Being influential sometimes requires making music that feels a little undercooked.

Along with a good number of hip hop artists from the '0ld skool' 80s, this act are often described as 'seminal' in the genre and their importance is judged in terms of influence as opposed to units sold and long term fans. The opening track shows a very intelligent and creative use of a Kraftwerk sample and the rest is relatively funky and shows off the obligatory scratching that came with the turf back then. The tracks are often 12 inch versions which was in keeping with the production of Arthur (New Order) Baker who did the majority of knob twiddling. A familiar sound for anyone of my age, but not my go to, let's put it that way......

Funky

Why 1986 Was the Best Year for Music - Chapter 6: Outer Space As soon as I heard a Kraftwerk sample on the first song, I knew it was going to be great. The title track is one of the best songs this generator has given me in a while. Second song opens up with a huge beat, which was exactly the perfect beat I was looking for. The other five songs are just as great. This album reminds me of the grooviness of the Les Rythmes Digitales album I got a few months ago. This is definitely one that I will listen to again, and it helped pave the way for hip hop in the 90s when jazz rap and gangsta rap merged together.

2.5 cuz he’s weird

Unfortunate one of the pioneers of hip hop is a pedophile, but glad we look up more to eric b and rakim and we can kind of forget that Afrika Bambaataa ever really existed.

3.25

7/10 Buen album. Ritmos divertidos, no aburre y es movido

The first song was in Da Ali G Movie. How you choose to use this important information is up to you!

I know this influenced most of the music I love but just not a fan.

5 - AVERAGE

Some cool parts but doesn’t feel cohesive

I was expecting more bass and drum world music but was pleasantly surprised with a solid early rap album. It was interesting how many of the rhymes I actually knew.

not for me

I guess this was trying to futurize funk music? I don't know, give me Funkadelic or Parliament. I appreciate the mixing of funk with hip hop but it kinda just made week funk and weird hip hop. Not for me.

The only reason the alblum was not a 1 is it was in English and not offensive

Actually wasn’t that bad. Of course, I’d have to be in a certain mood to listen to some of these songs.

a strangely enjoyable funky moment on a nice wednesday morning

Love the classic electro tunes. It was cruisin for a 4 star rating and then took a left turn to shitty 80's rap half way through

Wasn’t very memorable and just very dated rapping. I see it’s importance to the history and development in hip hop but it has come a long way since then and there’s just much more interesting things in the genre that stay with you

This didn't age very well did it

2/5

3.5

fun but not at all memorable. i think the best word for it is "amusing". maybe influential or something but it feels like a subgenre that has been entirely grown out of and left behind. favorite song is Frantic Situation because the synths are neat, also liked Who You Funkin' With? strong 2

Rating: 3/10 Was not entirely irredeemable as it was fun enough in a cheesy way in the moment, especially in the opening two tracks but it grew more and more tiresome as it went on. Definitely bad

apparently he's a nonce. cool album though

Come ON!! Hip hop with a serving of phat juicy funk! Hip hop that makes your hips swing and your feet hop! All aboard this trip!! This album feels like a party I want to attend. Great find for me. Reading other reviews turns out this artist has caused harm, and I apologize to anybody who is offended but I am rating solely based on my reaction to the music.

Sounds dated as fuck oh and he … yeah, dont look on his wikipedia

Not for me. 1/5

Yo entiendo como esto fue la base de lo que después paso a ser el hip hop, pero envejeció horrible y a dia de hoy suena espantoso perdón Procedo a justificarme: los beats son caoticos y suenan todos igual, las letras no tienen sentido, y el flow tampoco se destaca 3/10

I get that this is foundational for Hip Hop and Rap. I get that this is an important album. It's heavily dated, even for 1986. The call and response is there on almost every track, propelling you back to the house party origin story. I don't think this specific album is necessarily essential. Is there something else by Afrika Bambaataa that could have been put on the list? Maybe? My Rating: 3/5

Cool production. The flows are.... let's just say they aren't beating the stereotype that 80s hip hop guys have one flow and it's an AABB rhyme scheme. Still good to listen to but rap with funky electronic has been done so much better since.

This is really dated sounding but it does have that great early techno beat set that was later adopted by some more modern hip hop artists and turntablists (looking at you x-ecutioners). It unfortunately has the problem of a lot of old school hip hops songs in that they all go on forever, and it's worsened in this case by the lyrics not really making any sort of point other than "we're gonna party" and "fuck the man". It's classic sounding but listening to any of the songs all the way through is a bit much. You could cut the runtime in half and it'd be better I think, not by cutting the number of songs but by cutting the song lengths themselves.

cool cool cool. thanks for all the samples 🙏🏻

2.5

I thought I'd like this, but no

ne znam da li jednostavno nemam ukusa, ali meni ovo uopće nije bilo loše. nije mi bilo izvanredno dobro, ali bilo mi je sasvim solidno i svakako bolje nego što sam očekivao od hip-hop albuma. neki pišu da zvuči zastarjelo, meni zvuči kao zanimljiv smjer kojim je hip-hop (i rep) mogao poći, a na kraju nažalost ipak nije pošao. sviđa mi se manje teksta, više gruvanja i oslanjanje na elektroniku

Good

'Planet Rock' is the definition of a classic, for good & for bad - but mostly for good. It's one of those tracks that encodes history rather than merely being a part of history, & thus deserves not only our adulation but our time. Yet, unlike say 'The Message,' another definitional classic, which I listen to happily & willingly, I can't say the same about Bambaataa's essential tune. It simply doesn't do as much for me. The album is yet more than that one hit, boasting 'Looking for the Perfect Beat' & 'Renegades of Funk,' at least as good as if not superior to 'Planet Rock.' Having turned the corner from Kraftwerk to hip-hop as we'd know it, Africa Bambaataa will remain forever a key to our global music. A 'complex,' i.e., fucked-up legacy, sours it tho.

no points for sex pests, doubly so for child molesters

Album 338. Planet Rock: The Album (https://open.spotify.com/album/3qX0GugLujpIodkT6r06hf?si=3Gs1PekaT5yjrV-OwZSR-g) — Afrika Bambaataa, The Soulsonic Force (1986) They raped my ears today. It's one of the most fucking strange hip-hop albums I've ever heard. Wtf intergalactic funky hip hop. And influential af, 'cause it was used by Public Enemy (https://t.me/falton1001/373), Kendrick's To Pimp A Butterfly, which I'll get to later on this list and in many other cases. They're raping and at the same time blasters are shooting everywhere, greenish aliens under the acid doing galaxy shit and everything is fucked up. I guess Planet Rock has some similarities with Planet Earth. Even Renegades Of Funk by RATM has always been a cover of the original from this album. Unbelievable reveal. 4/5 Liked: — Planet Rock — Renegades Of Funk — Frantic Situation — Who You Funkin' With?

Underbart! Perfekt jobbmusik

Troligen listans enda go-go funk i ”go go pop”. Som go-go-entusiast blir jag glad av att legenderna trouble funk inte bara hypeas upp i texten utan också är med och lirar. I övrigt ger inte det här mig skitmycket tyvärr, förutom som tidsdokument över hiphopens tidiga historia. 2,8/5

Kul och lökigt

Hip hop throwback

Milestone album.

This was ok in the car, super fun in headphones, back to sort of annoying in the car. Nostalgic - made me feel like 6th grade wishing I was listening out of a good old Panasonic ghetto blaster. Also showed source of so many samples and songs that came after including what I always thought was a RATM Renegades of Funk. I favorited 2 songs. Not likely to play it again beyond those. 3/5

I listed to this album and had no other option than creating an old rap playlist. This is caviar.

Planet Rock: The Album by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force is so drenched in early-’80s hip-hop, record scratching, and sampling that it feels like these guys would get laughed off the stage if they tried performing this exact same material today—especially if they showed up wearing what’s on the cover. The group looks less like a hip-hop outfit and more like the Intergalactic Negro Force of African Space Knights. This is such a specific time capsule of 1986 that it’s difficult not to enjoy, even if only for the sheer nostalgia of it all. I wasn’t familiar with the album going in, although the opening track immediately sounded familiar. And honestly, that familiarity was doing most of the heavy lifting. The nostalgia alone was enough to make the album an interesting listen, even when the music itself wasn’t necessarily pulling me in. Would I listen to this again? Highly unlikely. But I’m glad it was on the list. Some albums are worth hearing simply because they capture a particular moment in time, and Planet Rock: The Album is absolutely one of them.

This just brings me back to a time when the skating rink was king. It's what I expected and I enjoyed the ride.

I wasn’t super into this. It sounded cool at times, and my favorite track was Go Go Pop. But I think overall the songs were too long, and I’m not a huge hip-hop fan. Would be 2 stars for me, but I saw the reviews saying the artist was a pedophile, so I’ll dock him a star.

Break? Electro? Hip-hop? Very 1986 with every cons of it.

Fuck this guy. 🖕

The beginning of HipHop and Rap courtesy of Kraftwerk and Roland TR 808. Important album.

Ovaj album je ok zajebancija na nekom nostalgičnom partiju, ali ne više od toga. 2/5, 3/10

Enjoyment: 5/10 Replayability: 5/10 Cohesion: 4/10 Flow/Pacing: 5/10 Artistic Merit: 1/10 Weighted Average: 4.25/10 Review: I'm sure this was revolutionary for hip hop at the time because it comes off as a certified classic. Hip hop still isn't my favorite genre, but I respect the beats and flows that the album upholds 40 years later. But I did read about the SA charges and I'm not one to separate music from artist, so that has to take it down a couple notches. Liked Song(s): Looking for the Perfect Beat, Who You Funkin' With? Disliked Song(s): Go Go Pop Recommend? Maybe Heard Before? No

Day 409 Enjoyed this, had no idea he was an absolute turbo-nonce. Highlights Renegades of Funk Go go pop

They Made A Mistake

Nyt on todella old school hiphopia

No va

why would i ever listen to this when i can listen to licensed to ill which released the same year.

These rappers are pretty average; they've got that funky 80s sound, but compared to what this style of music can do, it feels mediocre. It's like they are trying to show off their production without realising everyone else is doing the same, and it's clearly not their vocals that show their brilliance.

Not a fan.

From the first *bwoom* knew this record would be iconic and probably insane. But is it good? It has this almost amateurish quality to it. Like it is the first single of a relatively obscure local rap group. The backing tracks are often kinda repetitive. It's insane this record birthed the electro genre, which in turn birthed house and techno. I do hear some common threads, mostly with old school funky house, but those genres are mostly their own entire beast. To get back to the question, is it good? Nah. But its atleast fun and influential.

This is a very specific type of that 80s hip-hop that is most primarily busy with having fun. And though I cannot pretend it isn't achieving that. I also cannot say I particularly like it.

I can get on board with the R&B, but the synth future pop stuff was too much for me. Hard pass.

El Funkinator. Easy E of scifi (actually might be???)

Rap, HipHop, 1986 -> 2

I was not expecting this. I was expecting rock for one thing... Nice enough, felt like the kind of hiphip I grew up around but the songs were too long in my opinion.

Albums like this are exactly why I signed up for this service. It would have taken me years to come across this organically; listening to it yesterday helped me realize what an important piece of art this album is to hip-hop. You can hear the influence on every track - a seminal album.

Entiendo que pudo haber sido importante para su epoca, pero basandome estrictamente en el sonido y dejando de lado la importancia histórica, no suena muy bien, no me encantó. Sin embargo no fue espantoso, por eso 2 estrellas

I’d heard singles before but this was a blast. Definitely party music. Starting off with a Kraftwerk sample the whole electro hip hop thing is so fun. My 11 year old daughter’s review is the it sounds like the DK Rap. So I guess that’s a positive review from her too. Despite loving it, I doubt I’ll be putting this on often.

Afrofuturist funk isn't my jam

Not my cup of tea

Many planets are rocks, but the only planet that(we know of) with albums is Earth.

Love the funk sound mixed with more 90's styles.

It’s just noise

Wtf(unk)

Not bad but we’ve had a few albums like this now and I’m pretty over them.

As I listened I just kept saying, I think I know this one...but didn't know their version or that everyone sampled this album. So it was cool to hear inspiration for those in the music world and how they used these as a base for their music. And it was a good funk, rock, R&B bass line.

I really enjoyed the blend of hip-hop and electro beats, but overall this got a bit too repetitive to fall in love with.

I understand why this was on here, and was glad I listened - but this is not my thing

Erinnert mich etwas an Run-DMC oder auch die Beastie Boys. Gefällt mir.

Happy sound which seems like the origins of Rap (Hip-hop). Nothing to out of ordinary.

Given how recognizable some of these were, I'm assuming they've been sampled to death because they were huge when they came out. Now they feel a little pale, comparatively.

I'm not sure if I know these songs, or just know the songs that are sampled within them (like all the Kraftwerk) or the many songs that have, in turn, sampled these. It's fine. It is obvious how influential it has been. I like it a lot more than gangsta rap. But it is not something I would choose to listen to.

I’m sure this was riveting for the time and most likely had downstream influence on the hip hop genre, but wow…tough to get past the cheesy production and overall feel. Still a fun listen for the right setting. And it’s cool that they sampled Kraftwerk. Only…Kraftwerk is way cooler.