The celebrity news site TMZ, citing anonymous sources, reports that Afrika Bambaataa (real name Lance Taylor) died from cancer on the night of Wednesday in Pennsylvania, United States. Originally behind the 1982 hit “Planet Rock,” he is considered, alongside DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, one of the founding fathers of hip-hop, a musical and cultural movement based on four pillars: DJing, rapping, graffiti, and breakdancing.
The Emergence of the Zulu Nation
Born in a Bronx neighborhood on April 17, 1957, he co-founded in 1973, considered the birth year of hip-hop in New York, the Zulu Nation, an organization standing against gang violence and using hip-hop to promote peaceful values, notably through “block parties” in this borough of the American metropolis. “Afrika Bambaataa contributed to shaping the emerging identity of hip-hop as a global movement founded on peace, unity, love, and fun. His vision made the Bronx the cradle of a culture that now reaches every corner of the world,” wrote several organizations, including The Hip Hop Alliance, on Instagram.
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