The First Ten Albums From Hip Hop Pioneer Afrika Bambaataa’s Huge Record Collection

 

 

Afrika Bambaataa (born April 17, 1957), hip-hop pioneer and Zulu Nation founder, kept a vast and extensive record collection. Around 1,400 catalogued 12″ vinyl records he acquired between the late 1960s and the early 1980s reside in the archives of Cornel University. Many of these records he signed and gave a collection number.

It represents a small subset of his famed record collection, and the archive includes more than 30,000 of his vinyl records as well as cassette tapes and CDs, notebooks, manuscripts, scrapbooks, lyrics sheets, set lists, photographs, flyers, stage costume accessories, audio and video recordings, magazines, books and other publications, materials documenting the activities of the Universal Zulu Nation.

Bambaataa’s early vinyl records reveal the influences to Hip Hop culture in its formative years. The playlist is an eclectic mix of soul, funk, rock, R&B, disco, and African and Latin music.

Before we take a look at some highlights and a few what may well be surprises from the collection, if you wonder what Bambaataa plays to get the party started he tells us:

Every James Brown cut makes a party get crazy. He’s the god of all music. I always play different wild remixes of his songs because people start bugging out when they realise what I’m playing.

And the final song, for when it’s all over?

Sly & The Family Stone: Stand!

Along with I’m Black And I’m Proud by James Brown, it’s the song that I’ve based my whole life on. Stand is a song that speaks for the whole planet.

 

The First Ten Albums In Afrika Bambaataa’s Vinyl Collection

Note: there are are gaps in the collection, so this Top 10 are the ones that we know exit and are numbered in the archive.

Number 1:

 

 

Dance to the music
Sly & the Family Stone
1969

 

 

Number 2

 

 

Life
Sly & the Family Stone
1968

 

 

Number 3

 

 

A Whole New Thing
Sly & the Family Stone
1967

 

 

Number 5

 

 

Third album
Jackson 5
1970

 

 

Number 7

 

Funkadelic by Funakadelic
1970

 

 

Number 11

 

Greatest motion picture hits
Dionne Warwick
1969

 

 

Number 14

 

 

Cosmo’s factory
Creedence Clearwater Revival
1970

 

 

Number 15

 

 

Historic performances Recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Otis Redding
Jimi Hendrix
Lou Adler
Bob Dylan
Sam Cooke
1970

 

 

Number 16

 

Captured Live at the Forum
Three Dog Night
1969

 

 

Number 18

 

 

Hair
Gerome Ragni
Galt MacDermot
Lynn Kellogg
1968

 

 

Let’s end with one of Afrika Bambaataa’s own works: Planet Rock, released on April 17, 1982.

 

 

Via: Cornell