Run Riot's Jareh Das meets Afrika at the St Martin's Lane Hotel for a good old catch up before his party with Modular later that night

Interviewing a Hip Hop legend, a man so ‘huge’ he is named after a continent, turns out to be a little strange. Let me put you in the picture.

I arrive at St Martin's Lane hotel on time and ask the 'nice' man on reception for Afrika Bambaataa. He treats me to a really weird look and campily checks his Mac for the evidence, reluctantly handing me the phone with a sigh. Three unanswered calls later, I decide to text the press guy. Press Dude bustles in and tries calling everyone on Afrika's entourage, shouting into his i-phone in between jabbing it wildly.

Minutes pass, the screen is dented but no one can locate the 'big' man himself.

At this point Vice Magazine wanders in and looks warily at myself and the Press Dude, who has by now started pinching his phone screen, following a mysterious green dot there. There is nothing for it, we are forced to 'hang'. Forty minutes pass and still no sign of Mr. Bambaata. There's some talk of rescheduling when lo and behold Big Bambaata walks it with his rag tag train and announces we should interview in the very noisy (and slightly chav) lobby. Vice looks aghast and reminds us all that ''we were all promised an intimate one to one interview''. At last we decamp upstairs to Afrika's room.

Behold the strange court of Bambaata. As well as BBC6, Vice, Press Dude et al crowded in the room King Kamazee, International spokesman of The Universal Zulu Nation sits in. Right then. Safely gathered at his feet Bambaata goes into a brief monologue about a YouTube 'Obama Deception' video, something incomprehensible about a Sphinx god (apparently overseeing the proceedings) and begins to hand out gifts. Zulu Nation necklace and stickers all round.

I don my necklace as at last we are allowed to start the interview. I'm up first. Armed with my i-dictophone, I begin getting to know the real Afrika Bambaataa.



Jareh: Reading up a little bit about you Mr Bambaataa the accolades are endless: ''Living Legend'', ''Icon of Hip-Hop'', ''Godfather'', "Creator of Turntablism", ''The Father of The Electro Funk Sound'' as well as my personal favourite '' The Amen Ra of Universal Hip Hop Culture' it almost feels like you have conquered/achieved it all?

Afrika: Well musically I still want to make many types of duets with a lot different artists from different musical backgrounds, Spiritually trying to wake up many humans to respect our great planet because there's gonna be all types of chaos if we don't start putting positivity back in our atmosphere.



Jareh: Do you mean this in terms of a Global Warming perspective?

Afrika: Well more than just global warming, there's gonna be more earthquakes, typhoons, tornadoes and all that type, if we don't start finding other ways of getting certain energy; there should be nobody on our planet living in any such thing as poverty. Africa itself could feed the world ten - fifteen times over. There should be no starvation in the motherland. That was a place blessed by the supreme forces to have all the animals, have all this land and have all the gold and silver - that everybody stole, and stole civilisation from. There should be eco-economy systems all over the earth meaning 'Dome Homes' built for all the people because that's where the homes are going for the future... Monolithich Dome Homes if you have a look in a search engine you can see what they look like. [I did – check them out!]



Jareh: I read that you used hip-hop/music to fundamentally turn your life around, and this came after a trip to Africa. What exactly happened on that Africa trip that made you have this life-changing experience?

Afrika: It wasn't so much just the trip to Africa it was really the teachings of the most honourable Elijah Mohammed and Malcolm X administered by Louis Farrakhan that helped play a strong part in this [the big change]. Before the trip I used to think Africa was negative or savage and this and that. But when you find out that the first of all people of our civilisation came from here it straightens your perspective with the truth. Seeing so many people getting up to do their own work, agriculture, their own buildings and stuff - this was a big turning point for me as well as starting to travel and speak to different humans on the planet and then finding out the real out story. Unravelling the mystery of history.

Jareh: Your musical career has involved taking bold (even maybe risky) steps collaborating with artistes such as Kraftwerk and Arthur Baker and infusing electro into hip-hop, what prompted this change in direction, why the electo infusion, wasn't that quite risky at the time bringing electro into hip-hop coming from a hip-hop bakcground?

Afrika: Well at the time it was called 'Techno Pop' it started becoming more Electro/Electro Funk was when we came out with that whole funk attitude to techno pop. It started with groups like Yellow Magic Orchestra, through Kraftwerk, through Gary Numan and the rest, Dick Hyman used to do the mood synthesisers and stuff like that, with us adding that heavy base and rhythms of James Brown, Sly & The Family Stone and all that helped to bring that funk to that techno pop so thus came the birth of Electro Funk from our Electro Funk came the birth Miami Base, Rio Funk, Trip Hop, Jungle and all the rest of the different electronica and all the words that keep changing which was the dawn of Electro Funk.

Jareh: Wasn't this quite risky bringing an electro element into hip-hop?

Afrika: No because there was nothing else but what Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash decided what was been played. And we would always play music from all different backgrounds of music which was what really made up hip-hop. Most people today, when they talk about hip-hop they don't know what they are talking about. When they say hip-hop automatically they’re talking about rappers ‘n’ rap records. So when you're playing break beats at a party they say 'Can you please play a some hip-hop?' - they should never come up and approach Afrika Bambaataa or Grandmaster Flash and ask for that we know what we're playing. We started this, we are the architects of this, so if you want to hear a rap record just say could you play a rap record with somebody rapping on it.





Jareh: Do you still live in the Bronx today as I wondered if you're involved with your local community?

Afrika: The whole world is my home, we always do community work all over the city of New York and beyond.

Jareh: So I don't know how you'd respond to this but in a few years we will need a new Mayor of London and I think you should run for Mayoral office as we really need someone to inspire and help eradicate street violence, London's gang and knife culture, and I think you've really inspired a lot of young people across the pond, would you consider this?

Afrika: I don't like to get involved in Politics because sometimes it becomes more of a lot of Politricks. We like to get people off their butts and thinking and doing something for themselves - meaning all these temples, mosques and churches need to open up their doors again. Also all the schools need to start putting music and agendas back into the school system, instead of certain people taking a lot of away. These certain people are taking so many different things out of these schools. They’re closing down so many schools, hospitals, and taking away healthcare for the peoples. There's definitely something going wrong with all these Politics ‘n’ Politricks from country to country, town to town, city to city.

Jareh: I know you played Glasgow yesterday, London tonight and Bloc Weekend tomorrow. Any more UK, Europe summer gig, festival dates for us to look forward to?

Afrika: Some festivals or something hopefully we'll be back again in Europe as we're all back and forth.

My meeting with Afrika Bambaataa may have been eventful, teetering on the bizarre even and it almost didn't happen but ended up being inspirational. He is ecologically driven and with a world awareness it would be easy to sneer at. He is brave enough to believe in big solutions and I was fascinated by his Dome Home suggestions. I leave in a dreamy daze, passing the receptionist having an epiphany. Yes! Yes I think a hip-hop eco warrior is just what the world needs!

Shame he has no desire to get involved in London 'Politricks'. Mayor Bambaataa has a nice ring. Ding dong!