Planet Rock

Credited to Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, produced by Arthur Baker and released by Tommy Boy in 1982. Baker, Bambaataa and Robie recorded it at Intergalactic Studio, where the group had made Jazzy Sensation, in about three all-night sessions: music and part of the rap on the first, the rapping on the second, the mix on the third. The studio had a Neve console, a Fairlight and a Lexicon delay, and for a drum machine they answered a Village Voice advertisement, "Man with drum machine, 20 dollars a session", and played its owner Kraftwerk's Numbers to show him what to program. Robie played a Micromoog and a Prophet-5. The first night, with no rappers yet, took about eight hours.

Bambaataa said he wanted the first black electronic group. The track draws on Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express and Numbers, Captain Sky's Super Sporm and Babe Ruth's The Mexican, which he said they sped up. He denied that anything was sampled, saying Robie was so good that it sounded as if it were. Baker said the aim was a record that fans of Talking Heads and the Sugarhill Gang would both play. The rappers despised the music at first. Emcee G.L.O.B.E. wrote the verses, Baker wrote the chorus, borrowing a line from The Strikers' Body Music, and Pow Wow's wordless zz-zz-zz was what he performed when he could not remember his lines. Bambaataa explained the title as all planets being made of rock, but ours being a planet rock.

Reception and afterlife

It reached 48 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 11 September 1982, spending 11 weeks on the chart, and was gold by October. Billboard's chart history also shows the remixes reaching four on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in July 1982. In the Village Voice's 1982 Pazz and Jop poll it finished eighth, and Christgau called it the year's most influential dance record. NME placed it 16th on its list of the year's best, Robert Palmer of the New York Times called it perhaps the most influential black pop record of 1982, and in 2012 Rolling Stone ranked it the third greatest hip-hop song. Rick Rubin told the magazine that at the time he barely considered it a rap record.

Norman Cook said he started DJing at 18 after hearing it, and Mr. Mixx of 2 Live Crew called it the crossover point between electronic dance music and R&B. A remix EP on Tommy Boy followed on 5 May 1992, with Karl Bartos, 808 State, DJ Magic Mike and LFO. Paul Oakenfold remixed it for the 2001 film Swordfish, and Kaytranada and Boys Noize remixed it for the film 808 in 2015.