Artist · chart history
Afrika Bambaataa
Solo artist South Bronx United States US DJ singer, songwriter & producer
Afrika Bambaataa is an artist from South Bronx. Afrika Bambaataa has 5 chart appearances on 5 radio countdowns from 3 stations on RockLists, spanning 2004–2006. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Metal”, which appears on 3 lists with a best position of #37. The station that charted Afrika Bambaataa most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 2 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2004.
Afrika Bambaataa, born Lance Taylor in the South Bronx in 1957, was a DJ, rapper and producer whose electro records of the 1980s helped set the course of hip-hop. He was one of the first DJs to build sets around breakbeats, and he steered his street gang, the Black Spades, into something new: the Universal Zulu Nation, an organization built around music and culture that helped carry hip-hop around the world.
His sound was machine funk for the dancefloor, all drum-machine thump and synth zaps, with Bambaataa working turntables, keyboards and synthesizers alongside Soulsonic Force and Time Zone. "Planet Rock" is the calling card, a track that still sounds like the future beaming in, and it turns up on the 2001 album Freestyle Allstars. In 2004 Dark Matter Moving at the Speed of Light, with its song "Metal", showed him still chasing new electronic sounds.
In May 2016 he stepped down as head of the Universal Zulu Nation after multiple allegations of child sexual abuse. He died in 2026.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Afrika Bambaataa on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metal | 3 | #37 | – | 2004 | |
| 2 | Planet Rock | 2 | #415 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 453 | Planet Rock | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2006) |
| 2005 | 71 | Metal | CD101 Top 101 Songs of 2005 |
| 2005 | 415 | Planet Rock | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2005) |
| 2004 | 67 | Metal | CD101 Top 101 Songs of 2004 |
| 2004 | 37 | Metal | WEQX Top 102.7 of 2004 |
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