Planet Rock: The Album

Kinda repetitive but funky

Rap. Фу, хип хоп фу

Opener is an all time great. rest of the album doesn't hold that standard but some great musical journeys which have been so influential bringing genres together and still sounds fresh and modern despite being sampled to death. 3.9

This could have been an email. And I would have marked it as spam.

Very 80s for better or worse. A lot of these tracks would fit on the Space Jam sound track. Fun early synths

Meh. All sounds the same to me. Energetic, but not as good as the Bhundu Boys or Malian blues.

HAIKU REVIEW Old school MCs serve Kraftwerk and break beats making Something much bigger

You can hear the influence that this album had on the music that followed it. This historical influence however does not make the album any better to listen to. Some tracks have a pretty good beat and rhytm, but are still very repetitive and overstay their welcome.

Nope

interesting early hi-hop record. advanced for its period. 8/10.

I don't love it, although I do recognize that it is a pioneering album in the world of hip hop, which is a genre I don't like at all. So, not sure if I should appreciate the innovation or be mad at the introduction of a new genre that I'm not really into. 2 stars.

Me ha gustado más de lo que esperaba. Como hip hop rap africano, pero guay.

This is remains fantastic

Didn’t like it at all

Soooooo dated and repetitive

Good stuff. One star removed for being a nonce

Still looking for the perfect beat

The funky beginning to many great records

Electro gets boring so fast. While I appreciate it was groundbreaking, it's not a listen for now. Combine this with ongoing revelations about Bambaataa and it's a very unappealing listen.

Album 113 of 1001 Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock - The Album Rating : 2 / 5 Lots of rhymes. Pretty low key hip hop. I didn't mind listening to it, but it never grabbed my interest.

Obviously had significant influence on hip hop as we know it but the production is too spikey/aggressive/disjointed/erratic for my 21st century ears

Here we come to yet another album with a complicated history. In terms of legacy, this album is titanic in hip-hop history, collecting a set of singles that were massively influential in developing the sound profile of early hip-hop and the electro subgenre. Afrika Bambaataa was huge in early hip-hop. Unfortunately, he was also a huge child molester, which is a sentiment that I wish I didn't have to express about so many artists on this list (seriously, what the fuck was wrong with rock stars in the 70s?). The music on the album is actually really cool given the technology that they were working with. For as much as 808s are discussed lovingly today, they often sound a bit thin on the track, but they fit in really well here, especially on Looking For the Perfect Beat. The synthesizers are similarly really cool, and the mix is really powerful. The rapping is...well it's early rap. Luckily, groups like Run DMC were about to come along and teach folks how to rap with style. Luckily, they tend to employ a lot of repetition and call and response, so the rapping generally doesn't weigh down the songs too much 4/5

It’s pretty bad unfortunately, this is a really hard one to recommend

Early hip-hop sucks

first song is comically bad but i like the "fwoOmph" snare sound

Omg

funky funk that gets extra funky

Not my cup of tea

Dated and campy in the worst way - not a single one of the musical fads featured here made it outside the 80s, and for good reason. There’s some rhythmic breakdowns later on that drew me in a bit, but they were a day late and a dollar short to overcome the cloying instrumentals and goofy lyricism that dominated most of this LP

Planet Rock: The Album is an old school hip hop album by Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force. It is a collection of singles that contain the earliest hits of hip hop music. The album was celebrated critically, but didn't perform amazingly commercially. I liked listening to the early music of hip hop, but this album is pretty dated compared to what hip hop has evolved into. It may be a great album in the history of music, but it's not for me.

In some ways, I appreciate this "old-school" rap because this is the style of rap I remember growing up, but I'm still not of fan of the genre. It's interesting with nice beats and there isn't a reliance yet on too many gimmicks and effects. I enjoyed most of it, so I give it a pass.

every song starts off interesting enough but gets boring pretty quickly. the raps are unbearably corny and every song overstays its welcome. i liked the beats. bass was pretty funky at times especially the last song! not overly bad but dated.

One of the originals and one of the best

Uh oh another fun early rap album what are we to do? Uh oh more bitching cover art what are we to do?

Haha, is that a Kraftwerk sample? Honestly the beat is pretty dope. Song itself is kind of a mess though. Renegades Of Funk is my favorite so far. Topped by Who You Funkin' With? Loving the aggressive bassline. Reminds me of something, but I can't place it. Early hip/hop always has an element of goof and this album is no exception. Flows are choppy and at points caricatured, but for what its worth it always sounds like a damned fun time. Where this album shines for me is in the beats and production. I wish we could ditch trap for just a bit and slide back to these wonky funk-forward beats. I may not come back for any particular song, but I did have a fun time. 3 / 5

Renegades of Funk tf

This was exactly as good of a time as the album cover promised me. It's a shame the dude is a pest.

A classic, but of course a little bit dated. I would say a high 4 though.

8/10 such a fun, groovy, funky album it has a lot going for it, and while it might be a little rough in some parts, they had a great vision and stuck with it very well

I just don’t understand. What were the lyrics?! Yeah I have no words

Yeah no this album sucked. Like how did it even get here.

Virtually all of these are timeless classics that you could play in the club and still get people moving. But can you imagine doing them at karaoke?

I don’t think I’ve heard of Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force before, but what a name! And also, what am album cover! This looks so ridiculous, and I’m excited to give it a good listen today. Let’s find out if it’s as fun as I’m hoping! Songs I already knew: none Favourites: Planet Rock, Go Go Pop This was good fun, but it was nowhere near as zany as I was expecting. It reminds me a lot of other rap groups of the time such as Run DMC, with some of the funkier elements of The Sugarhill Gang. The beats a fun, the rapping is good, and the album was generally enjoyable. However, when compared to the other bands already mentioned, these songs are undoubtedly not quite as catchy and won’t stick in your head for quite as long. Overall, catchy and fun, but not something I’ll likely return to.

Highly influential early hip-hop.

Iconic, elemental

Funky as hell. I loved the rhythms and beats of the record throughout. I was unprepared for how much I enjoyed this one.

I enjoyed it a lot, but it lacks something (I can't identify precisely what) to be a perfect 5-star record. Classical albums are defined as it, usually, for fair reasons and this is not different, even with this lack of some spicy that I expect in this kind of music. So I hope to have more Afrika Bambaataa on the 1001 list to try again and ensure that the problem was me or my mood and not the album.

They're finally here, performing for you if you know the words you can join in too. A silly album with some fun beats. For whatever reason every song is at a different volume. I like it when they just decide to laugh and make a bunch of stupid sounds for fun. Really enjoy the shitty 80's drums. Score: 60 Art: 70

Really old school hip hop - It's pretty dated, but some cool beats nonetheless.

Idk!

How can an album that sounds like all the other albums that came out at the same time be considered so influential? Especially when they've got nothing to say? Best track: Who You Funkin' With?

Well this is nothing but entertaining

3.3 - Some funky break dancing beats created with samples and synths - solid stuff. MC’ing is lame as much early hip hop tends to be. Standouts: “Looking for the Perfect Beat”, “Planet Rock”, “Who You Funkin’ With?”

Van ser la continuació natural als '80 de l'esperit i so de Funkadelic o Parliament la década anterior. En aquesta recopilació, que inclou relectures d'alguns dels seus primers singles, acrediten la seva fama com un dels pioners del hip hop a tenir més en compte. Sona molt old school i una mica passat de temps, però mereix el seu estatus

Choppy beats and flow, corny lyrics, and lacking substance are being merely held back by snippets of enjoyable music and inspirations surely brought forward by this album keeping it barely afloat. There are certainly other "items" to bring this album down more, but as it is not directly tied to the album itself, the album stays at that low two rating. Thank God hip-hop got much more interesting by the end of the 80s.

Quick notes on this one: - I'm not denying the historical and cultural importance of the "Planet Rock" single, with its interpolations taken from Kraftwerk and its socially conscious lyrics. -The same goes for "Renegades of Funk", even if Rage Against The Machine did a far better version of it in their *Renegades* album (the one made out of covers). Listening to both tracks again, I was surprised at the way that RATM version and the original actually sound so distinctly *different*, musically speaking. -Turns out Bambaataa has been accused of using his position as community leader to sexually assault a bunch of teenage boys. Those allegations, which came out during the mid-2010s, are pretty serious and believable. And it seems the abuse started as far back as the early eighties. I guess there could NOT be *worse* ways to tarnish the man's legacy, along with the one of the Zulu Nation. I was also appalled at the way some people in that community kept on defending Bambaataa/Lance Taylor some time after those allegations came out. Or the way a couple of bastards even exerted pressure on the victims so that they kept their mouths shut. - Fortunately, it seems that Taylor was then quickly expelled from that group he had founded, and I just hope its current leaders won't make the same sorts of mistake again, at the very least. The Zulu Nation had rather admirable goals, culturally and community-wise. It would be a shame to see *everything* it established go down the drain because of that very sad story. Under that light, I don't really have the heart to explore the deep cuts of this album any further. To be honest, I've only listened to a few tracks from it... Knowing the singles and how hip hop generally sounded back in 1986, I have a pretty good idea of how the thing pans out. Besides, there are only ten reviews in here rating this LP with a 5/5 grade. Seems like I'm not really missing anything here... Hip hop was in its infancy back then anyway. Maturity allowing the creation of more "timeless" full-length releases would only appear with Public Enemy, and then, even more, through the Native Tongues and Wu-Tang collectives. Oh, and there was also that thing called *Gangsta Rap* on the west coast, but that's a story for another time, kiddies... Hard to rate this album. 2/5, mostly for cultural importance? Number of albums left to review: 565 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 210 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 102 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more essential to me): 127 (including this one)

Would probably enjoy this more with an entourage on a Friday night than working from home on my own on a Monday.

Kinda torn on this - it's that mid 80s rap that's aged really badly (same as run DMC) and even compared to stuff that came out just afterwards it sounds undeveloped. Lots of cheesy 80s "learn the dance" vibes, but the sci-fi theme is right up my alley and the sampling is pretty cool. If I'd heard it when it came out I would've been blown away. I knew renegades of funk from the RATM cover, but it sounds totally different and the rest is an unknown. Who you funkin' with was the standout track, genuinely cool. 3/5.

I usually like this stuff but man this sucked

Mid

Interesting early hip hop album. Some cool beats.

This is charming, exuberant, and shows an infectious wonder around the novelty of these sounds and structure. But I don’t think I’d go out of my way to listen to the whole record again. “Who You Funkin’ With” is my standout track.

Probably groundbreaking at the time, but now sounds like less than the sum of its parts. It's OK

Es como un 'rap trival', con mezclas de música africana, algo así. No está bueno.

Was initially given Afrika Bambaataa but decided against listening after seeing his numerous child molestation charges. Instead, I chose another random album and was given Gorillaz 2001 self-titled debut album. I was surprised by how forgettable this was outside of Clint Eastwood. It turns out that almost all of the songs I enjoy are from Demon Days or Plastic Beach. 2.5/5

A whole lot of funk

Surprisingly good!

It's very dated now. Way too much ear abrasion for an enjoyable album

I understand the historical significance of this album, but not really my jam. The title track was ok tho. 2/5

This album is an absolute classic. A hallmark album that helped transition us from the classic era to the modern era of hip hop. Does the album hold up today though? No not really. You can sample this bitch to death tho

-I feel like you can sample the hell out of this album based on the first song alone. I'm pretty sure the first track has been sampled in a lot of different tracks, bc eventhough I havent heard this song in particular, I recognize the instrumental. (Upon further inspection, this song appears in over 400 songs as a sample) - I like the classic hip-hop vibes. Reminds me of RUNDMCs style of rapping. Its a little dated, but I can appreciate the style at the time. -The songs instrumentals on the other hand, are really cool. I see so many samples being made from this album. Other than the potential sampling of this record, nothing really stood out to me. I can appreciate how it’s the beginnings of hip hop and rap but I’m probably not gonna listen to these songs again

Wayyy too much vocal panning in the first song lmao. Why is every song so long? This album was never meant to exist at the same time as Spotify. Track 5 is kinda cool tho. Cover art: 6/10 it’s so bad it’s good but not bad enough to be that good

Idek what to write about this one. It was probably influential for some hip hop artists but I have no frame of reference to know how influential it was. It sounded like the type of music ur old head basketball coach played on his jock jams tape from when he balled and tried to “show you youngings what real rap is.” Probably won’t listen to this one much or dive into further but it honestly was pretty enjoyable to listen to. Also why tf were all of these like 6 min songs for no reason. 👍: go go pop, renegades of funk Guess for peder’s art rating: 10/10 or he’s wrong Update: found out license to Ill was released this same year and sounds so much better so yeah this album kinda blows.

As one of the first hip hop albums ever and possibly the first with commercial success, it goes without saying this album is extremely influential. Some of these beats were actually really cool. That’s about where the good stops for me. Everything on this just sounds SO dated. The rapping/singing wasn’t anything write home about. These songs were all so long and overly repetitive, if they were half the length, MAYBE this album could’ve been alright for me. Also a line worth noting in the last song “you know we’re doing it right and we’re doing it correct, when it comes to mc poppin we don’t give a heck” … yeah alright Heard before: heard the beat on the first song, honestly feel like I’ve heard a lot of this sampled. Best: idek MMM (there were hardly even Melodies on here) : EVERYBODY ROCK LETS GO TO THE GOGO🤭

Although this was new music to me, it was a very nostalgic listen. Record scratches! Simple lyrics! Quite a lot of fun!

Some old school hip-hop...awesome! Well, at least I thought that it would be and then the thrill kind of died as it started to sound a bit stale to me.

Interesting and enjoyable throwback.

As I expected from the cover, funky groovy and a bit wacky.

Classic album, highly influential and the beats are still great.

I know it’s very influential but it’s just not my kind of music.

It’s not for me in your face 80’s hip hop made by some nonce…nah

Not funky enough or hip hop enough for me, somewhere in the bland middle. Some interesting samples and ideas but not a very engaging listen. Another reason why Ronald Reagan's America sucked.

Not the best old school hip hop album so far, but definitely still a fun album. Another early electronic album, which I have respect for. Renegades of Funk!! (Rage version is better) I think I wanted to like this album more than I did. Album cover reminds me of Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure.

Renegades of Funk is a cover 🤯 I like the go go sound throughout the album then it really pops off in go go pop Very solid hip hop album which I could imagine influenced a lot

A third song from Renegades of Funk this early???? I wonder if we'll hear all of them eventually. Rage's is obviously better (like most of album). I'm sure this was very cool in 86 and I can see some influence but it was very meh to me for most.

One of the albums that helped launch hip hop. One of the biggest drawbacks of a lot of early hip hop albums is that they are dance albums, so the songs tend to run long for dance purposes. A lot of them would be better songs if they were cut down to 3 - 4 minutes.

Opening track pretty popular, the rest is pretty dated hip hop. Enjoyable album, though not necessarily my thing. 6/10.

Last year I bought a cheap Sanyo music centre, and unexpectedly it came with a few recorded cassettes. One of the cassettes was a recording of a radio show from 1984. It was an interesting blast from the past, especially some of the news reports throughout the radio show. One of the things I thought interesting was a claim from some scientist about how breakdancing could contribute to hair loss. Yeah honestly, if this was the sort of thing that people were breakdancing to back in the mid 80s, I can see it. I thought this was a really fun album, and judging by when it came out I can imagine this had an influence on both hip hop and house music going into the late 80s and 90s, while interpolating and drawing influence from Kraftwerk. It's undeniably aged, but I don't care. This was just a really fun and groovy album. Favourite: Planet Rock

It’s ok

Yuck. It's like everything I hate all at once.

It's possible this was very influential. I bet it's better live.

I get it. Fantastic

I rather enjoyed listening to this. Clearly a source of a lot of beats and samples.

The production on the album doesn’t exactly hold up. I would have picked something more recent if there’s only one Afrika Bambaataa album listed. Putting that aside, there’s a lot here to enjoy.

2/3

Wife and daughters used to dance/exercise to this music after dinner. Sadly, I never found it compelling.

At one time this was cutting edge, now it sounds like a SNL skit. I do wish I had a boom box to blast it on.

Hip hop sound with an expiration date sometime in the mid 80’s.

I still like the title song. The rest of the album shows it age. Fine but not something i'm going to revisit.

Started off and I hated it. Then for a song or two I thought, oh this isn't too bad. Then I started to dislike it again. It's just too dated. Not for me.

3.5/5 I like this album more than a lot of what I've listened to. Honestly on a personal level I give it a 4 but thats my objective rating. I hear the modern hiphop precursors in this album heavily.

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!

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.

some good bits, but a whole album of this is way too much

1/7, 14%

Early hip-hop is always a trip to listen to. This album must have been wild when it came out. It rules and is a lot of fun to listen to. That album artwork too... what a time.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Kinda boring, renegades of funk is okay buy RATM did it better

Definitely not for me

This seems like it was a very experimental album for it’s time (1986). It’s like RunDMC in space with all its synthesizers and techno effects! I was really shocked to hear so many things I recognized from later music, so they were definitely inspirational to up and coming artists in the 90s. (I heard inspiration for LL Cool J, Rage Against the Machine, even Beverly Hills Cop!)

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!

Fun!

21st February 2023 Listened while in Tesco and throughout the day. Had Dave and Chris in the house working on living room. Liverpool areal in the evening. Bet this album has been sampled and used a whole host of samples within it. Classic rap funk, sounds very of it’s time.

Cool.

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.

classic hip hop.

Hip-hop. Ni fu ni fa.

Me ha gustado más de lo que esperaba. Como hip hop rap africano, pero guay.

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!!!

Nice sounding Old School album. 3.5

Enjoyed this one.

Ok. Typical sound for that period

Not bad at all, just heavily dated.

Nice flow, greatly influential. This is a use of the synth I can get behind to

Oof

We get it you figured out how to use a sequencer

Old techno

nice блин я их откуда-то знаю, но откуда не могу вспомнить...

80's club/dance/party rap. Not my favorite. Probably nothing like it at the time. Best played extremely loud. 2 stars. Definitely would have be a killer mind blowing change from disco.

1st track pretty rough 2nd track better. Clearly a lot of influential sounds.

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.

Somehow simultaneously laid back and ready for a party

Önskar man kunde ge minuspoäng. Det bästa var slingan de stulit från Kraftwerk.

Damn, yeah, this was goood

An electronic funk spin on what feels like east coast rap to me

Great title and album cover! Fun record.

Cheesy and over the top in all aspects. Normally I would enjoy something so ridiculous and fun and give full credit to its place in history. I even just had Kraftwerk two albums ago, which should make Planet Rock even more rewarding to listen to. But somehow I found it grating and weirdly slow from the get go and I just couldn't warm up to it. 2 stars.

Very old skool hip hop. Not much of an advance from Rappers Delight or Grandmaster Flash’s hits. Good to hear Kraftwerk, but generally disappointing given all plaudits for being so influential.

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.

I don't think there was anything that I liked on this album but I can't bring myself to give it a 1 :(

This was groundbreaking at the time, but feels very dated now

Yes some excellent, vital tracks but absolutely not an album.

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.

This is alright but almost every track is better as a sample source than a work in its own right and they each go on loads longer than necessary.

Not come across this before, but lots of the sounds are very familiar. Feels like it's probably on the list by virtue of what it inspired and what has borrowed from it, rather than on its own merit. Sounds very dated, lacking a bit of energy, not really my cup of tea. 2/5.

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.

Respect for being pioneers, and love their wildness and weirdness, the whole Afro-Futurism thing, but this actually got on my nerves a bit.

Planet Rock is cool for historical purposes, but everything else starts to get a bit jammy and rough.

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?

I felt like this was a weird redux of Grandmaster Flash. Didn't do a lot to me, but some of the Go Go stuff was pretty enticing. Maybe with a couple more listens, but I wasn't super excited about it.

Remember when you thought that Breakin' was the best movie ever until Electric Boogaloo came out and then you couldn't decide? Well, this album takes you baaack in time and proves that you are better off where you are now. Though I did enjoy doing a deep dive into the rabbit hole of Renegades of Funk, I didn't feel like this was something that I'd listen to again. I get it, Afrikka Bambaataa was an innovator, a godfather of early hip-hop and a super important figure we should have some knowledge of and respect for ... (Poppin', sockin', rockin' puttin' a side of hip-hop ... 'Cause where we're goin', there ain't no stoppin') If I listen to this album again, it'd probably be on my way to an 80's-themed breakdance party.

Yet another album I looked forward to due to legacy and influence, only to be sorely disappointed. There was such a huge leap from the early hip hop of the 80s to both the gangsta and indie/underground rap of the 90s.

I did not enjoy this at all.

This sounds like a soundtrack from a space invaders movie for the 1950s if the space invaders were actually friendly and took someone from earth to a club on their planet where other aliens were shown having a good time. It sounds cool and futuristic…70 years ago.

Kolme..... toimiii hyin albumina vaikkei biiisit välilllä kovinkaan kummosia ole...

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.

all due respect - not my jam

Bizarre, pas le genre que je m’attendais de afrika bambatta. Je n’aime pas vraiment mais c’est entrainant. 3

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

Here and there, I found some elements I did like.

Hip-hop. Ni fu ni fa.

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

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.

I can dig this

Really boring The first track is OK, but then it's just more of the same

Mihin avaruus katoaa ekan biisin jälkeen? Odotin jotain jännempää, oli aika perus kasariräppiä kuitenkin. Tosin Afrika-ilottelu tavallaan ilahduttaa

Musiikillisesti ehkä 2, Kraftwerk-sample hymyilyttää sopivalla tavalla. Mutta menin lukemaan artistista wikipediasta, eikä fiilistä jäänyt hiventäkään.

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.

Unfortunately not much to it, lots of funky beats and electronic music, not much rapping and it all sounded the same

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.

Sounds a bit like uncompleted songs

Can appreciate the influence these guys had but musically it feels to much like an early draft too really enjoy a full listen. Also I really want hiphop to use more real drums so I'm a bit mad at these 808 pioneers :')

I love hip hop and I love the pioneers of hip hop but I just can’t get into a whole album of this sound which grates after a while, all electro stabs and synth reworkings of Kraftwerk. And that’s without bringing up the allegations which have been swirling about Bambaataa who, on the balance of probability, seems to be a pretty trash individual.

after the 12” songs > before the 12” songs

An album that does deserve to be in this list because of its influence over hip-hop along with it's clever sampling and production. Although I respect it, especially with the use of Kraftwerk, I personally didn't like it. Bit like an artefact that is significant that you look and become informed, but walk away unmoved emotionally.

Brutal 80s beats and synths are a rough ride for me at the best of times. More to admire here than to enjoy.

Great early hip hop classic

Nowt special in this for me.

Ik vond dit album wel oké. Er zitten leuke baslijnen in, en de teksten zijn wel 'feestelijk', of zo

Wasn't expecting a rap album tbh

The original hip hop songs in one album. I didn't think I would see a 'Best Of' record on here, but here we are.

It was definitely interesting to listen to the origins of DJing and Hip Hop, but the music just does not hold up. So I'm happy that I listened to it, but I feel not the urge to listen to it again.

Grab your Kangol, your shell toes and get ready to bust some moves.

The sorted of dated dance music you’d expect to hear in the background of a period film set in the ‘80s. A few funky rhythms sprinkled in here and there do not make up for an otherwise uncompelling listen.

This would be good for anyone that likes the beastie boys.

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.

7/10. Funky fun, with occasional annoying electronic distortion.

I liked the funky stuff but not the synthy stuff. 6/10

More of an inspiration for better music than something I enjoyed for itself

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.

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

Afskaplega mikið barn síns tíma. Gaman að því.

Very cool album. Enjoy every track. Wasn’t blown away or truly invested tho.

Another album that you can see throughout music and culture.

Bla. Erreicht mich in keinster Weise. Ich kann diesen Achtziger-Hip-Hop einfach nicht hören. Blub.

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.

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.

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?

Might have been a bit much to listen to first thing on a Monday morning. Still, it was alright.

I only really liked one song, but none of it was terrible... Just not really my deal

Fun beats. Had a little dance party in the kitchen while doing dishes.

Urgh, what am I listening to? This is dated in the worst way; it just doesn't hold up. The vocals are weird and all over the place. There's no depth to the lyrics besides 'rock the party,' which gets old and tedious quickly. The instrumentals are boring and uninspired. Overall, this was not an impressive album.

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.

This is fucking stupid :)) 1

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.

Probably groundbreaking at the time, but now sounds like less than the sum of its parts. It's OK

Goofy and definitely not timeless.

afrikaaaaaaa

great beats funky

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.

Tedious and headache-inducing.

It can be really difficult to separate the person from the music. This is one of those cases. I first became aware of Afrika Bambaataa in high school. A friend of mine put "World Destruction" on a mix tape. It's a good song, him and John Lydon going round and round, their vocals. I hadn't heard the song in 20 years. It popped up on the PiL box set I picked up and brought me back to my teen years in an instant. So I was surprised to hear his work on this album, a very different context. Anyway, this album seems so... dated. At the time, I'm sure it seemed very much ahead of its time, but I listen to it, and compare it to some of the other rap hits of the era, and a lot of them still hold up, while this just... doesn't. Then "Renegades of Funk" came on. I was unaware that this is where Rage Against The Machine covered it from. I knew it was a cover, but didn't realize that this was the original. The cover is better, way better. So then I looked up in wikipedia about Afrika Bambaataa. Do your rating of this album or any of his work, then look him up. Because once I read it (not going to summarize), it really colored my feelings toward any of his work. I know it shouldn't, but it's like looking at a painting, critiquing it, and THEN finding out it was Hitler's. Do you still give it the same regard? _CAN_ you?

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.

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.

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.

interessante, hip hop das antiga

electrohip hop from around this time must have blown peoples minds. however now it just sounds like a casio keyboard turned to the hip hop setting and a teenager just jabbing away at it. this has not aged well.

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.

Great outer space noncing. Textbook.

Intergalactic paedo-ing. Hyperspace kiddy fiddling. Absolute nonce-sense.

Wow. Old school. Blast from the past. Loved it.

I'm sorry, but an average of below 3 stars is criminal here. I'm not even a hip-hop fan!

Meh. Good music

Référez-vous à la critique d'Àfrica Brasil même si elle n'a rien à voir.

Afrika Bambaataa nous propose ici une pâle copie de Grandmaster Flash. Seulement, ses senegalaiseries n'arrivent pas à la cheville de celles offertes par Grandmaster Flash. Afrika Bambaataa ferait mieux de retourner a ses cahiers de funk hip-hop.

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.

Meh. Very dated party hip hop that just wasn't for me. Favourites: "Renegades Of Funk"

The founder of the Zulu nation, Afrika Bambaataa. The dude was batshit insane. Just look at these lyrics, then his beliefs, and finally his conviction for child trafficking. But let's ignore that for now. Here we have an old-school hip-hop record heavily tied with electronica, no doubt influenced by the rise of synthpop (and of course Kraftwerk). The title track is one of the most iconic tracks from the period. Reminds me a lot of Mothership Connection, with its strong ties to p-funk, silly and fun lines, sound affects, and alien-themed dance-craze subject matter. Note that the title track was released two years before they even had the idea to make an album named after it... that's how BIG this song was in clubs. "Looking for the Perfect Beat" is nothing more than an attempt to follow up on "Planet Rock" and, hey it worked out. It's more of the same, except more fun and suited for clubbing, but it was also super successful, and pushed for this album to be made. This track has my favorite electronica. Just like the previous there's plenty of diversity and wildness to keep me going for the full 7 minutes. It's crazy how Ratm managed to reinvent "Renegades of Funk." The lyrics are a near-perfect match, but Ratm is twice as fast and mindblowing. For that, I have to compliment the writing, but besides the clapping and belching part in the middle, it felt repetitive and dull. "Frantic Situation" was alright, fortunately the shortest, but has nothing new, and the lyrics suck. "Who You Funkin With?" whips out the guitar. Raps are tight, and it's loud and exciting. "Go Go Pop" mostly sucks, but I do like the cool stylistic shift in the instrumental and the distant female vocals. "They Made a Mistake" oh yeah they made a mistake alright leaving this irredeemable track on the album. 2 stars for 2 great tracks, 2 decent ones, and 3 bad ones.

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.

crazy stuff, not for me

It screams "the 80's"

mehhhh

This was TU2 electric boogaloo.

I dunno. Maybe 1986 proto-hip hop isn't my thing.

Muito bom.

The first track was fun. The charm wears off quickly due to how dated it sounds. I wouldn't recommend a whole album of this, but in small doses it's a good time. Cheesy as hell, but fun.

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

é bronca

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

Guess I’m not with the funk

unusual fusion of oldschool hiphop and electronic, but it wasn't very enjoyable for me. First two tracks were remarkable, but that's all

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.

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.

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-

-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.

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

Planet rock Searching for the perfect beat

A little slow for my taste

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.

Not my jam, but I admire these early-hip-hop/funk experiments.

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.

I’ve always poo-pooed Afrika Bambaataa and said that without Kraftwerk, no one would have ever heard of him. But this LP makes me appreciate that he was the creator or at least one of the creators of electro and Miami beat – both cheesy, but long-lasting club genres. As good as that looks on a resume, I still find the vocals beyond annoying. It’s more bearable knowing that Kraftwerk got $1 for each single sold. That’s $1 million in the US alone.

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.

blegh

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. 

-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"

been digging the old rap, there was some good here, but overall, not a fan.

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.

I don't want to live on this planet any more.

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.

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.

not bad. not something i'd listen to often.

2/5 not anything special

So 'Planet Rock' was just a name, huh? At least 'Go Go Pop' and 'Renegades of Funk' weren't lying to me. Like Grandmaster Flash, this sounds pretty dated now, but the artwork is great, so: 2.5 stars. I hope they find that perfect beat one day.

Fun album but I'm unlikely to play it again

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?

Very spacy, not my cup of tea though

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.

Weird record, def not rock

2.5/5

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.

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.

Jezus wat is dit zeg!

Dit zal best wel baandoorbrekend zijn geweest voor de hiphop, maar dit is echt niet om aan te horen.

Nee!

Er lopen dus mensen op aarde rond die vinden dat iedereen dit album geluisterd MOET hebben. Ik vond er precies niets aan.

A really fun album. It is old school hip hop so it's great.

Big banger

A historically essential record, very groovy if somewhat aged

Ja inte vet jag... jag hatar hur trummorna låter, plastiga, tomma och torra. Fick inte särskilt mycket av skivan och musiken låter väldigt föråldrad, men fattar förstås hur inflytelserikt det är.

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.