Planet Rock: The Album
Afrika Bambaataa
The Soulsonic Force
1986
Album Summary
Planet Rock: The Album is an old school hip hop album by Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force, released in 1986 as a collection of previous singles. The song "Planet Rock" was one of the earliest hits of the hip hop music genre and remains one of its pioneering recordings. The single's liner notes include members of Kraftwerk with the songwriting credits. In creating the track, portions of Kraftwerk's "Numbers" and "Trans-Europe Express" were interpolated (re-recorded in the studio, rather than through the use of a digital sampler), along with portions of songs by Captain Sky and Ennio Morricone.
Wikipedia-Renegades of Funk is a banger, but RATM did a better version -Turns out this guy has been accused of sexually assaulting a bunch of boys, so 0/5, I guess.
Wow. That's legitimately bad. I get that they were going for a "ground-breaking" and "genre-defining" album experience and maybe they achieved it for the time. But it aged very poorly. To a modern listener it just sounds like amateur hour at the college radio station. None of the songs go anywhere or say anything of note. It's an exceptionally empty and repetitive album.
Honestly if I were rating purely off enjoyment I might not give it 5 stars, but it's impossible to separate this music from how hugely important and influential it was to the early years of hip hop.
Cool to see the proto-Chicago house AND proto-hip hop here all mixed together. This album rules. Definitely a bit dated feeling but in a "Seinfeld is unfunny" way to a degree.
Even if I heard this album many years ago, listening to it today was a total discovery. As I checked the site and was about to play it I was readying myself for an old school rap record. To my surprise I was met by something much more rewarding. First of, all the songs here kind of sound like Rockit by Herbie Hancock, which is not a bad thing at all. They also have a lively feeling to them, as if they were actually played and not sampled. Further research revealed that indeed, many parts were re-recorded rather than sampled from the original recordings Then I am reading that this is the first electro album ever made, a genre I am not really familiar with and that I will explore in the next few days. And that's exactly what is interesting in this process: either you get a chance to discover something that you had never heard about, or you get a chance to listen again to some classics you hadn't heard in a while. And then there is the possibility of experiencing an album you already knew as if it were your first time ever, rediscovering aspects that weren't there before. Because we too are like musical instruments: the more you listen, with curiosity and open mind, the more you are fine tuned into a better understanding.
This stuff has been sampled and mapped over so many times, it's hard to think of what this must've felt like, hearing it for the first time. Great party energy, though it did fall into the background. Thought that's probably because of repetition - it alll already sounds so familiar. I'll give it an extra star since, when I was a kid, I thought Afrika Bambaataa and Mr. T were the same person and that seems wrong.
The keys on the opening tracks are immaculate; Could have been recorded today; Give me Sun Ra via funk. There's less musical material in the songs here, so it's a listen best left in context: Hip-hop has other realms to explore nowadays. The rest of the scratching and posse-cutting is about what one would expect, adding up to an essential listen with a little filler.
I enjoyed this one. The hip hop and electronica fusion works. Of interest is that I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it in 1986. I'll say my music taste has progressed although some might say the opposite.
Genre: Electro 3/5 An interesting exploration in electro instrumentals with the addition of hip hop vocals, with the song Planet Rock being one of the first singles to truly synthesize the two sounds, this compilation based around that single is a time capsule, showcasing some of the earliest rap singles around. The unfortunate context behind this album, that Afrika Bambaataa (Lance Taylor) is an all-but-jailed, quite prolific sexual offender, does sour some of what's going on. It's always difficult to look beyond sex crimes in art, especially when it deals with minors, so unfortunately this project is stained. However, the music that lies within is some of the most influential and important hip hop music ever produced, and is an essential listen in that regard. Planet Rock, the aforementioned, very important song, is now viewed and listened to as an "old-school hip hop" track, but that does it a disservice. It's essentially one of the earliest songs that set the instrumental template for what would be a whole decade's worth of rap music. The rest of the songs play out pretty much as you'd expect, break beats with the occasional verse and hook, with nothing from the back half sounding particularly exciting. What was exciting, though, was listening to the OG Renegades of Funk, and becoming more and more impressed with Rage Against the Machine's near perfect cover of it. Other than those two big tracks, this album is rather forgettable, unfortunately tainted with nonce behavior, but it's not offensive sonically. This will probably do wonders for those who truly love instrumental hip hop and are interested in its earliest fossils.
I've noticed that the 1001 albums list seems to comprise of two different types of albums. The first type are those that are those that are timeless, regardless of when they were released and can be enjoyed by multiple generations of music listeners. The other type are those that are historically significant but may not stand the test of time. I feel like this album is in the second category. It might be important to the development of hip-hop and I'm sure that if I grew up with it, the album would hold a special place for me. Listening to it the first time decades after it was released, it only sounds dated. There are some decent ideas on here and it's a pretty upbeat album from start to finish but there's other 80s rap that is far stronger.
In historical context this album is very important for electro and hip-hop, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's still interesting to actually listen to today. One of the problems of being the genre-definer is that once everything you do has been imitated, you end up looking pretty generic. A higher rating for significance, but for my personal enjoyment I can't go above a 2.
Intergalactic paedo-ing. Hyperspace kiddy fiddling. Absolute nonce-sense.
This record will make your dick bleed so much, that it will force you to tear it off and feed it to a baby chimpanzee for supper.
The album name and cover had me real worried, not gunna lie. I had a HUGE gut reaction assumption that this record was going to be a major pile of crap. But it's actually FUCKING AMAZING!! I love it. Socially conscious, inspired, unabashedly oddball and cool at the same time; all the elements I like blended up into one funky non-stop party groove. And Renegades of Funk... omg that has been one of my favourite RATM songs for decades!! I love hearing the original track, it's so good too! I'm so happy my extremely unfair bias has been proven resoundingly wrong this morning. Zulu nation!!!
Absolute genius. One of the best to ever do it, and also one of the first. Anyone who claims to love hip-hop, but doesn't know of the founders, is missing out massively. This album in particular makes me want to set up a class teaching the youngsters about the early days and the golden age!
Bizarrely, I was listening to the Swordfish soundtrack earlier today for the first time in absolute years - it has a version of Planet Rock on it, a song I am very familiar with. I was not however, familiar with any of the other songs on this album and it turned out to be startingly inventive, groovy and totally rocking in parts. Wish I could have gotten hold of this way back when I discovered electro for the first time.
-4 might be a bit high, probably a low 4, but it's been my favorite hip hop album so far, I think -Pretty cool instrumentals overall I like the use of stereo in quite a few of the tracks -Fun fast rhyme on "Renegades of Funk - The Latin Remix" -Great bass lines in "Who You Funkin' With?" and "They made A Mistake"
Didn't Mr. Bambaataa get Me-Too'd? Not that it would matter too much- Michael will never be dropped from GOAT status, so why not keep this on? This is pretty fun, but like a lot of early hip-hop, it doesn't have a whole lot of shelf life for me. I appreciate the beats and some of the production choices, but it's not one that I'll ever put on regularly. Still, when I do, it's terrific background noise. B-
This was old school, break dancing cool. I really enjoyed the beats they were putting down. Very enjoyable and I say I was initially put off but the album cover.
I'm sorry, but an average of below 3 stars is criminal here. I'm not even a hip-hop fan!
Very cool album. Enjoy every track. Wasn’t blown away or truly invested tho.
It’s definitely a fun part album. I don’t know if I’d listen to it regularly but I can see myself coming back to it occasionally. I like how different their sound is. It can be a bit cheesy but I like that
I haven't been up to date with all the things happening around Afrika Bambaataa so I'll ignore that and just focus on the album and not the person. Legendary old school hip-hop. Afrika Bambaataa delivers splendid beats and the level of production is hard to find in todays mainstream hip-hop with some exceptions like Run the Jewels. This is definitely worth a listen if you're interested in hip-hop. A fun fact is that Rage Against the Machine got a cover for Renegades of Funk that's even better than the original.
I don't know if this formally could be called go go but it's adjacent and I have gotten a lot of exposure and respect for that genre in the last few years.
Neljä..... toimiii hyin albumina vaikkei biiisit välilllä kovinkaan kummosia ole...
1. Hip-hop isn't a favourite of mine. 2. Electronica isn't a favourite of mine. 3. It's dated. 4. Despite the three strikes I like this. It just sounds like they're having a whole bunch of fun and that means that the listener is having fun too. Who You Funkin' With has the funkiest bass and some of the funniest raps. I'm in the uncomfortable position of debating between 4 and 5 stars.
Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun: the motto of the Universal Zulu Nation. Fun album, I can picture kids breakin' in Harlem project common areas to the new electronic and rap sounds of Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force circa 1979. Planet Rock and Looking for a Beat are great jams. A party album through and through.
Me ha gustado más de lo que esperaba. Como hip hop rap africano, pero guay.
It's interesting to consider how this is pretty much contemporary with the Run D.M.C. album from a few days ago, but seems like an entirely different era. I guess the progression of the "schools" of rap and hip-hop is pretty damn compressed. Still liked this a lot, crazy glam space flare and all. Very funky.
Fun album. Lots of these songs I recognize as samples from a lot of hip hop I’ve heard through the years. Fun, upbeat, good beats, solid 4!
When I first heard the ‘Planet Rock’ single, in 1982 or ‘83, I couldn’t believe my ears. I was a proper post-punk, futurist kid. My modern world revolved around the synthesiser’s song, to quote Ultravox, and Kraftwerk were the Godfathers of this sound. Then I heard this… hey, this is Kraftwerk’s ‘Trans Europe Express’ with people talking over it? Talking in a ridiculous rhythmic and rhyming fashion, with more drums and bass added?! What the fuck, how DARE they!? Hang on…..it’s…..quite good….it’s actually brilliant!! ‘Planet Rock’ led me down a new path. Hip-hop, or ‘Electro’, as we knew it back then, opened up a new world of music for me; funk, go-go, techno, and house. Music in technicolour! Returning to this album; released in ‘86, it was four years after the original release of the ‘Planet Rock’ single, and it’s a bit of a catch-up. Still fabulous though.
The title track has me curious. Looking For The Perfect Beat has a great intro. Renegades Of Funk is one of those great covers that couldn't be more different in its original version. The album leans in as hard into the new electronic production techniques of the time like on Go Go Pop. It sounds dated to modern ears but has a charm in its unabashed big boom hip hop styling.
I've never heard of these guys before and had high hopes, based on the album cover alone. This was fine, but very of its time. Unfortunately the 80s aren't a time that I particularly love so it wasn't as enjoyable for me as I'd hoped.
Pretty interesting. I didn't like it as much as I hoped but I can see how it was influential. Probably one of the first hip hop albums?
Harter Brocken, wenn man bedenkt, was der Typ verbrochen hat. Aber die Kunst soll ja über dem Künstler stehen, auch wenn es schwer fällt. Ich mag auf jeden Fall die Beats und den Sound an sich, jedoch ist mir hier bisschen wenig Abwechslung. Irgendwas zwischen 3 und 4. Ich gebe 3 aus Gründen.
This record is very culturally important for fans of hip-hop/house/electronics genres. Would recommend. As of right now this is an extremely solid 3.5/5 and might be a 4/5 whenever I listen to it again.
Best Song: Looking for the Perfect Beat. That perfect level of retro-futuristic sound. Worst Song: Really weird that they chose this as the leadoff song (let alone named the album after it), because I found it by far the most annoying on the album. Part of it is just that this style of hip hop has aged really poorly, so this track sounds a bit like the DK rap. Overall: Today I learned that RATM's 'Renegades of Funk' is actually a cover. Although I think this is one of those cases wherein the cover really elevated the song.
Back in the day when this came out I was wow'ed that they sampled the iconic melody from Trans Europe Express. They also gave sly nods to YMO and Ennio Morricone so they scored some major points in my book. So although this is arguably one of the most influential proto-rap and hip hop records, the rest of the album doesn't quite hold up well today. The cheesy lyrics, drum beats and scratching sound pretty antiquated. So this is a 2 but +1 for having the audacity to sample Kraftwerk.
Stellar old school hip hop, it should be no surprise how this got hella sampled. It’s retro-futuristic but still kinda modern some 40 years later? Weird, cool stuff. 3.5
Cool old-school hip hop with some interesting production choices and sampling. Don't know why there are so many 6+ minute tracks though when they could've easily been shorter.
weird album, but enjoyable enough. I would almost definitely never choose to listen to this again, however. I respect it for what it is, and it was neat to hear the source of Renegades of Funk from RATM covers album.
This was the genesis of hip house and electro. I can hear herbie Hancock and grandmaster flash in this album, I’m guessing this album influenced them rather than the other way round. Very dated today but enjoyable to listen to just to see how it all began. It’s b bit like watching a planet form, this is the Big Bang moment, from here it Improves and develops and sadly that moment of creation becomes a distant memory
Goddamn, the production of this album is just fucking amazing. I know that I said production didn't really get crazy until Dr. Dre released The Chronic, but I was mostly talking about the gangsta rap scene. The cover art is kind of cheesy. If they just removed the people on the top, it could have been a good cover. At least the font is cool looking. Favourite track would be the second one (I forgot the name lmfao) The production on it is so satisfying, with the beat peddling in your left ear. Also, all the vocalists sounded like they were having fun. 7/10
Ugh. The music / electronica on this album is such 80's garbage. It really is terribly cheesy. Which is a shame because the lyrics are pretty solid most of the time. It's not just these guys, all classic hip hop had this problem of really insightful, political lyrics and just tragic recordings to go with it. I love Rage's version of Renegades of Funk and I had no idea this was the original. But it is almost unlistenable. Planet Rock is tolerable, at times, but again over the top in all the sound effects. Frantic Situation is the only song worth listening to more than once - great lyrics and a cool beat that fits. Go Go Pop and They Made a Mistake had decent beats but lyrics were sort of meaningless. I'm giving it a mercy 3, for its lyrics (most of the time) and pioneering of hip hop. But I will never listen to it again.
This is a solid old school album. The title track anticipates Run DMC and the rise of new school to the point where I assumed this was a new school album before I did some reading. This album ranges from more minimalist moments that are more electronic driven to some really great funk/rock inspired moments which incorporate more instrumentation. I would say that this album sits between hip hop at the cusp of old school/new school and electronica. My biggest critique is that this album sounds very dated now. However, songs like 'Go Go Pop' would sound at home in a 90s club and as a whole, I can see how this album would be very influential in hip hop at a critical time in its development.
I’ll start by saying it’d probably be a 2.5 if I could give partial scores, but it’s a decent funk album that’s easy to listen to. Didn’t move the needle much, but hard not to enjoy.
First time of Listening to this and quietly impressed. Good Old Skool Hip Hop here, Interesting fusion of Kraftwerk/Krautrock Loved "Planet Rock" 12" Version" & "They Made A Mistake". A good choice historically.
Fun beats. Had a little dance party in the kitchen while doing dishes.
I only really liked one song, but none of it was terrible... Just not really my deal
Might have been a bit much to listen to first thing on a Monday morning. Still, it was alright.
This feels like an album that would work best either played loudly in a dance club or softly as background music while working/doing other things. Unfortunately, I listened to it in my car. Road music this is not. That said, man I really love some of the drum machine sounds on display here. There were moments in “Renegades” and a few others where I thought you could probably take these drum sounds a slightly different direction and you’d land squarely in the industrial genre. Throw a Trent Reznor or Al Jourgensen vocal over some of this stuff and voila: road music. Pretty clear this had a big influence on a lot of things. Oddly, never once did it sound anything like my expectations going in. Is this funk music?
An interesting listening experience, but one I'm not in a rush to repeat. That said, stuff like 'Go Go Pop' - featuring Trouble Funk - adds some nice shading to the proceedings. The guitar break in 'Who You Funkin' With?' is superb. I still get a kick out of the afrofuturist 'Planet Rock' too, which grafts the icy synths of Kraftwerk onto a hip-hop track to good effect.
Honestly after the first 30 seconds of this I thought I was going to hate this, but the album grew on me quite a bit and I even enjoyed most of it.
Ik vond dit album wel oké. Er zitten leuke baslijnen in, en de teksten zijn wel 'feestelijk', of zo
Brutal 80s beats and synths are a rough ride for me at the best of times. More to admire here than to enjoy.
The beats are pretty cool for that time, nice deviation from the guitar heavy samples prevalent then. However, the rapping hasn’t aged well and can come off a little corny.
A pretty good album when it comes to the beats and catchiness. Overall it was okay and felt like the songs had some variance within themselves. Planet rock was good but the second part of it was the best. The album is relatively short but it provides good material in its time. 6.3/10
Was important for the Rap music, but find it too friendly/soft, give me Public Enemy or NWA any time. Still pleasant to listen too and kraftwerk always cheer me up, so 3 stars
Bizarre, pas le genre que je m’attendais de afrika bambatta. Je n’aime pas vraiment mais c’est entrainant. 3
Planet Rock: The Album was an enjoyable surprise. Afrika Bambaataa is a band name that I barely recognized as a band name and that was the extent of my familiarity with their music. This album has an 80s, earl rap sound. Some tracks reminded me of Run DMC's Rasing Hell, which came out about 6 months earlier. The album was good enough for a listen, and I'm curious about other music from the band. I'm just not sure if I'll be drawn back to take another listen.
Yeh had that late 80's sound hip hop. Good listen, surprised this hasn't been on my radar before, but that's the whole point of this isn't it?
Planet Rock is cool for historical purposes, but everything else starts to get a bit jammy and rough.
Respect for being pioneers, and love their wildness and weirdness, the whole Afro-Futurism thing, but this actually got on my nerves a bit.
Cool to hear this, being something that has had such influence in the formation of hip-hop. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of its influence, is that it now sounds a little bit like a parody since it was copied so much (the break-beat DJ thing). I was familiar with Rage's cover of 'Renegades,' and enjoyed hearing the original, which is VERY different.