Afrika Bambaataa

Afrika Bambaataa

2:55pm, Blue stage

Born Kevin Donovan in 1957, Afrika Bambaataa remains among the founding fathers of hip-hop. He formed the Universal Zulu Nation in the Seventies, an organization that codified the elements of hip-hop culture and made graffiti and break-dancing an alternative to gang violence. Following in the footsteps of Kool Herc, Bambaataa played breakbeats at block parties and pioneered an Afro-futuristic electro-funk that spread quickly beyond the Bronx.

"Once I saw I could take it downtown and I got a big punk rock following, my ideology was to keep spreading this as far as we can," explains Bambaataa. "That's when I started playing all the different rock clubs and dance clubs that were downtown."

His 40,000-strong record collection now resides in the library archives at Cornell University. Hip-hop, of course, became a globally dominant art form. Bambaataa predicts that's just the beginning.

"My prophecy is that we will see it become galactic. You'll see it on other planets, and it'll take on other vibrations when we get with different beings of other planets. It'll go through different stages in universal time.

"There are certain artists who will always pass the test of time. James Brown will still definitely be in space. Kraftwerk will still be there, my stuff, and a couple other groups. It ain't so far-fetched. We already know that other beings have been coming here since the ancient days, so they've been checking in."

That makes "Looking for the Perfect Beat," Bambaataa's far-out 1983 electro-funk manifesto, an interplanetary mission.

"It's on Earth and out there in space. People keep forgetting where Earth is. Earth is in space, sitting out there in the universe. It could be in this galaxy or it could be in other dimensions, other time zones. Time is and time always was. No such thing as time."