When you talk about hip-hop, you’re talking about the whole culture and movement. You have to take the whole culture for what it is.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAWhen you talk about hip-hop, you’re talking about the whole culture and movement. You have to take the whole culture for what it is.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAOvercoming the negative through the positive, science, mathematics, faith, facts, and the wonders of God, whether we call him Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, or Jah.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAIt could be breakdancing, freestyle dancing or whatever type of dancing that’s happening now in the Black, Hispanic and White community.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAThat’s definitely my goal, and always has been through the Universal Zulu Nation, is to show that music breaks down all that foolishness and can bring all types of people together, especially when you can mix it and shape it.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAWe also want to try and slow down all this foolishness that’s going on between the East and West.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAWhen you talk about rap you have to understand that rap is part of the Hip-Hop culture.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAI knew that as a DJ from 1970 on up that I would eventually come with this sound.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAThanks to my traveling, and keeping up from place to place, and pushing our ideology – peace, love, unity, and having fun – it has worked.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAHip-hop has different elements dealing with music, rap, graffiti art, b-boys (what you call break boys)… and also dealing with culture, and a whole movement dealing with wisdom and understanding, as well as peace unity and fun.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAPowers that be can’t stay in control if you have everybody in love and in tune with each other and with the planet, and in tune with the electrons and the dark matter that’s moving at the speed of light.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAHow you act, walk, look and talk is all part of Hip Hop culture. And the music is colorless. Hip Hop music is made from Black, brown, yellow, red and white.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAI brought out all these other break beats that you hear so much on a lot of these records.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAThat’s the beauty of sampling: taking the old sound and recreating it and making something new, or bringing back the old sounds, mixed with some heavy grooves and beats, so people can remember. “Oh, I remember that, back in the day.”
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAWell, a lot of people within government and big business are nervous of Hip Hop and Hip Hop artists, because they speak their minds. They talk about what they see and what they feel and what they know. They reflect what’s around them.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAAll these names we’re using now are just an illusion made to keep us fighting each other.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAAI am one of the founders of Hip-Hop along with my brothers Kool DJ Herc and Grandmaster Flash.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAA