Planet Rock: The Album

Might have been 5 if not for me failing to separate art from artist - fun music

Didn’t really get anything out of listening to this unfortunately

I could tell from the beginning that this was not going to be for me. I pretty much let it play in the background while I was working on something else and thinking about other things.

Interesting album. I am positively surprised. I would describe it as HipHop-Funk. Reminds me of MC Hammer

Leider hat mich das Album mehr als enttäuscht. Die überwiegende Präsenz von Acid- und House-Experimenten entsprach nicht meinem Musikgeschmack. Ich bedauere, dass ich meine Zeit auf das Hören dieses Albums verwenden musste.
Musikalische Bedeutung:
“Planet Rock: The Album” ist ein wegweisendes Werk in der Geschichte des Hip-Hop und der elektronischen Musik. Veröffentlicht im Jahr 1986, enthält es einige der frühesten und einflussreichsten Tracks des Genres. Das Album hat die Entwicklung von Electro und Breakbeat maßgeblich beeinflusst und sollte ein Meilenstein in der Musikgeschichte sein. Dies hat sich mir nicht erschlossen und so konnte mich das Album persönlich nicht überzeugen. Die experimentellen Klänge und die stilistische Ausrichtung waren einfach nicht nach meinem Geschmack und einfach nur schlecht.

Not bad for hip hop, but not my thing. 2/5

Afrika Bambaataa. Zulu Nation. Touching little boys since the early 80s. I know, separate the artist from the art, but the artist is so vile...

"Renegades of Funk" now belongs to Rage Against The Machine, listen to that version instead.

I liked it a lot!

Today's album is super early hip hop, like Grandmaster Flash or The Sugarhill Gang. This album is super important to the evolution of modern hip hop and rap. These songs have been sampled any times, and have influenced so many artists.

Interesting side note: Planet Rock (the song) features samples of Kraftwerk's song Trans-Europe Express. These aren't traditional samples, however, as DJ and producer Arthur Baker met with Afrika Bambaataa and decided that instead of just playing a recording of the Kraftwerk tune, they would recreate it. This was done without Kraftwerk's permission, so the band approached the record label, and got royalties awarded to them for sales of the single. Afrika's version of the song (Planet Rock) was sampled and featured in an episode of Trailer Park Boys (I've Met Cats and Dogs Smarter Than Trevor and Cory). In the episode, the boys open an illegal night club in the park. Cory and Trevor are put in, charge of promoting the club around town, and hand out flyers at a gay bar called The Empty Closet. This leads to J-Roc's Crib being full of dudes on opening night. This song is being mixed in the background on opening night. Sampling another artist without asking for permission sounds like another episode of Trailer Park Boys called Who's the Microphone Assassin where J-Roc bootlegs songs of rap artist Detroit Velvet Smooth and calls it "cross promotion". It's also interesting that Rage Against The Machine's song Renegades of Funk is a cover of an Afrika Bambaataa song. I had no idea.

This is a super solid album. Too bad Afrika Bambaataa is accused of sexually assaulting a bunch of kids.

Favourite songs: Planet Rock, Renegades of Funk, Who You Funkin' With?, Looking for the Perfect Beat, Frantic Situation

Least favourite songs: if forced to pick, They Made a Mistake

5/5

One of those probably groundbreaking at the time, but sounds so dated now.

never ask a woman her age,
a man his salary,
Wikipedia why we don't hear about Afrika Bambaataa anymore

If I'm going to be honest, this is pretty enjoyable 80's hip-hop for me (though I'd rank Paul's Boutique, It Takes A Nation of Millions, 3 Feet High & Rising, etc. all higher)
Maybe it's just been a good day for me, or maybe it's the blend of rap, funk & electronica doing something to transcend its 80's-ness

HL: title track, "Renegades of Funk", "Looking for the Perfect Beat", "Go Go Pop"

December 18, 2023

Solid, fun, but ultimately needs a little more diversity of sound. 3.5/5

Dudes having fun goofing around with synths and drum machines and keyboards. Hard to imagine this being a massive cultural touchstone and the frontier of cool now since it sounds so corny, especially the rap - the beats sounds and samples are still pretty decent. Perfect Eddy Murphy sliding across the hood of a long car music. At this point more of an artifact than an in the rotation album.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

afrikaaaaaaa

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.