"Planet Rock" is a song by the American hip hop artists Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force.

The recording came together after DJ and producer Baker met with Bambaataa and the two bonded over the idea of creating a song about their mutual appreciation for the band Kraftwerk.

The song quick gained popularity, eventually earning a Gold record certification in the United States, the first for the group and label.

The band approached the label and Tommy Boy's manager, Tom Silverman, eventually agreed to give Kraftwerk one dollar for every record sold.

Attempts to get a full-length album for Bambaataa were not possible with Tommy Boy initially as Silverman's contract with him was strictly for singles and re-negotiating it proved difficult.

[1] Several musicians and groups noted how the track influenced them including Run-DMC, 2 Live Crew, A Guy Called Gerald, Fatboy Slim and Newcleus.

Arthur Baker had moved from Boston to New York in 1981 where he had been DJing, producing and mixing records and working as a music journalist as early as 1976.

[2] Baker followed these up in the late 1970s with an album he made that was released by Tom Moulton as TJM, followed by "Happy Days" a single on North End Records.

[2][3] Along with working in the studio, Baker was also writing reviews for the magazine Dance Music Report, which was owned by Tom Silverman who was starting up the label Tommy Boy Records.

[4] Bambaataa met Silverman at one of his DJ sets, which led to working on releases for Tommy Boy including "Let's Vote" by Nuri and other tracks for a girl group called Cotton Candy.

[2] Silverman suggested a two-record a follow-up which led to Bambaataa and Baker creating a record based on their love of the band Kraftwerk.

[2] Baker recalled that when he heard Kraftwerk's song "Numbers" being played at the Music Factory in Brooklyn, he saw "black guys in their twenties and thirties asking, 'What's that beat?'

[7][8][9] Robie detested disco music, believing musicians did not have to have talent to make it, declaring "you had people playing to metronomes, everyone sounding the same, and lyrics that were nonsensical and generally infantile".

[6][12] In the studio, Baker experimented with the Fairlight CMI and found a few sounds on it, including one of an explosion, which would be used later on "Planet Rock".

"[13] Bambaataa added that whether he works with Bill Laswell of Material or Baker, he "usually act[s] as a co-producer" and brings "one of my groups to come up with a strong rap".

[14] The personnel used within the Soul Sonic Force whom Bambaataa performed and recorded with was smaller and contained two separate groups with the same name.

"[16] Author and essayist Kurt B. Reighley described "Planet Rock" as a fusion of hip-hop breaks and "icy synthesizer lines lifted from Kraftwerk" that "laid the blueprint for the genre dubbed "electro".

Producer Rick Rubin said that "at the time we barely considered it a rap record",[18] while DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill said that on the West Coast, hip hop had not hit until around 1984 and people listening to "Planet Rock" called it funk.

He noted the influence of James Brown, Sly & The Family Stone, George Clinton and his bands Parliament and Funkadelic.

[17] The Soul Sonic Force's look and stage wear—carved African walking sticks, Mardi Gras style headdresses and Zulu beads, a fashion that Bambaataa called the "wildstyle"—was compared to those of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic.

[21][22] The lyrics of "Planet Rock" celebrated the ability of music to take listeners to the past and the future while encouraging them to enjoy the present.

[11] Prior to releasing "Planet Rock", Baker played the song in various record stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan asking listeners what they thought of it.

[27] Shortly after the production, Jazzy Jay was driving on a freeway and heard "Planet Rock" on the radio and rushed off to phone Bambaataa to tell him about it.

[12] Karl Bartos, the co-writer of "Numbers", said that "in the beginning we were very angry, because they didn't credit the authors [...] [so] we felt pissed off [...] there was nothing written down saying that its source was 'Trans-Europe Express' and 'Numbers'.

[34][35] Ron Wynn of AllMusic felt the remixes were unsuccessful, noting that "Planet Rock"'s "hook was old-school, as was its charm.

[38] Contemporary reviews, in the United Kingdom, included one by Edwin Pouncey of Sounds who praised an import version of the song declaring it a "wiilldd paarrtty monster" which "once heard is never forgotten".

"[21] Brian Chin of Billboard would later say that Melle Mel and Duke Bootee's late 1982 track "The Message II" was influenced by "Planet Rock".

"[50] Frank Owen commented on "Planet Rock" in 1990 in Spin, referring to it as "year zero of the new dance music", noting that it was still a strong influence on American regional scenes with Miami bass, Detroit techno and Los Angeles hip hop.

[51] Owen noted that the influence of "Planet Rock" declined in New York where he believed that what was once was a "radical listening experience" had become "lost under the weight of endless imitations that followed in its wake".

"Planet Rock" was placed at number three on the list, with Chuck D of Public Enemy proclaiming it "as important as Willie Mitchell or Booker T. were to the Memphis scene.