“Planet Rock” by Afrika Bambaataa

"Planet Rock" came out on Tommy Boy in 1982, credited to Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force, and it grew out of a shared obsession: Bambaataa and producer Arthur Baker, who had already worked together on "Jazzy Sensation", both worshipped Kraftwerk, with Yellow Magic Orchestra, Gary Numan and George Clinton in the mix too. Instead of the disco-leaning grooves that were popular then, they built it on the cold snap of a Roland TR-808, cut it with musician John Robie at Intergalactic Studios in New York, and the group's lyricist, Emcee G.L.O.B.E., came up with an off-the-beat style he called "mc popping".

The Kraftwerk borrowing wasn't cleared, and Tommy Boy's Tom Silverman ended up paying the band a dollar for every record sold. It went gold anyway, a first for group and label, the new sound got a name, electro, and Rolling Stone later voted it the third greatest hip hop song.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.