Afrika Bambaataa gave this interview to Tim Westwood about his take on hip hop today and how it evolved from other diverse musical influences and cultural references. I found it so enlightening that it inspired me to do some further research research and thinking. The first thing to take from what he said is that hip hop is bigger than rappers and rap music . It has 5 elements - djing (musicianship), b-boying (dance), mcing (spoken word), graffitti (visual art) and finally knowledge that ties everything together. We all too soon forget that hip hop is a culture; influencing the way we express ourselves, think, dress and live but that is for another discussion. Then Afrika Bambaataa referenced hip hop evolution from as early as the 1940s in the form of spoken word/chanting over music to the first rapping over a funk beat. While paying tribute to other spoken word musicians (and radio dj hosts etc) he alludes to the more obvious brigde provided by funk music and gives props to James Brown the Godfather.

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