PIMP: One intention of the Zulu Nation was to get violence and negativity off the streets, yet hip hop is now closely associated with gangsters and violence. What happened?
AB: I wanted to take out violence and racism and bring a culture that could spread throughout the world. I wanted to create an international hip hop awareness movement; a culture that allowed black, brown, yellow, red and white people to discuss AIDS, UFO's, science or a country's problems together. A culture where people could sit down together and ask 'Why do you call me nigger?' 'Why do you do this or that?'

I strongly believe a conspiracy is going on and that certain powers-that-be want to keep this gangster rap happening. All these so-called radio stations that claim to be hip hop and R’n’B really are not, because it's not just about hip hop. If you say you're a hip hop station then where's your trip hop, Miami bass, electro-funk, go-go, hip house and drum 'n' bass? You're not really hip hop, you're just pushing a certain style - rap records - which are catering towards gangsters, booty-shaking, calling women bitch, using 'nigger, nigger, nigger' and killing each other. I know certain people who are getting tired of playing that and that's why a lot of DJs - especially former hip hop DJs from the UK - strictly turned to house and techno. There's a problem. In the UK when I came over here, I could hear the Rolling Stones or I could hear a punk groove on pirate stations - nowadays they're all controlled.

PIMP: You must be able to relate to this gang-related violence because you were a former member of the notorious street gang the Black Spades. What words would you give to people in a similar situation?
AB: Well, it depends. If you're gonna be in a street gang, be a warrior for your community and fight for certain things that are right. Now, if you're all about negativity, violence and drugs, then be the best at that as you wannabe. But always remember that there's a consequence to whatever you do. Sometimes people don't see that because they get caught up with television - telling-lies-and-vision - and a lot of people try to blame different communities or the gangsters but they've got to realise that this is what they've seen on 'tell-lie vision' watching Al Capone and all that. People aren't pushing up on Hitler, but if people keep showing movies about Hitler and bringing up his name, then you've got an army of youth worshipping Hitler like he's a God.

PIMP Are you saying that television feeds negativity?
AB: Oh, it definitely feeds negativity as well as it can feed positivity. It just depends who's programming your mind. You've got to understand what you mean when you say programme. You want to say I'm watching a TV show. Why would we use the word programme? What is being programmed?

PIMP: Planet Rock is the hip hop anthem. Did you know when you first heard the completed track that you'd created something special?
AB: I knew something special was happening, taken from what I was hearing within techno pop - which is what they called it back in the day - with Kraftwerk, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Gary Newman and the guy that did the Halloween movies, John Carpenter. I looked around and said 'Shit, I didn't see any black people doing these types of sounds. Well I'm gonna do this thing, take that techno pop and flip it, add that funk of James, Sly and George (Clinton) to it.' Thus came the birth of the electro funk sound. Mixing the two cultural clashes and from the electro funk sound came the Miami bass and freestyle, house, techno, two step type of garage, hip step, drum 'n' bass and I was glad that I was making that sound that I felt was going to be the music of the people. So you hear all these people going 'electro's out' and they keep changing the name from electro funk, now they say its electronica, then it's another name. It's all electro funk; it never went anywhere. It's definitely going to be the music of the future. And as we become galactic humans - which is inevitable - it's going to be that sound. It would be foolish for us to say that we're the only life form. I mean, that's disrespectful to the Supreme Force or whatever we call that Force, be it He, She or It.

PIMP: If you had the chance to visit another planet, would you go?
AB: I'd definitely want to go but I'd go when they get to the 'Beam me up Scotty!' type technology. I'd want to wait until they could get me there quicker, because I wouldn't want to travel for three months. I wish I could fax myself over from America to England. You can believe that they're studying that. We always say in the Zulu nation: 'What you thought was your fantasy becomes your reality and what you think is your reality becomes your virtuality.'

PIMP: Which person has influenced you the most?
Muhammed from the Nature of Islam. The message he put out through Malcom X touched me the most at a time when there was so much negativity and racism happening to blacks. Then the travelling and meeting people from different racial backgrounds. I think that when you meet different people and you ain't looking at their colour, you're looking at their mind and hearing what they have to say, that's the most important thing.

PIMP: Who's been the most influential person for you musically?
There are three but the main two are James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone. Then Uncle George and the Funkadelic. There's a whole entourage of others. I guess it's those three first because of the funk and for them being so bold, especially Sly. Sly's the first group that had an interracial band and he broke down barriers between black and white at a time when there was really a lot of hate and hell going on around the planet. He was wild, energetic and he was busting a lot of groups on their butt, especially at Woodstock; he was the most dynamic thing there. There are a lot of people who still ain't given that respect because there was the music before Sly and there was the music after Sly. Then you hear the music that happened after Sly and everybody started changing up and came along with talking wah wah's and instruments speaking and all that. Then you got other people from Kraftwerk, Gary Newman, to the whole Motown sound, y'know the Temptations and the Supremes.

PIMP: Is there anyone you'd still like to work with?
There are a lot of people I still want to work with. I'm still dying to work with Mick Jagger. The Rolling Stones have always been one of my favourites. I like doing things that are different musically. People always expect you to work with somebody. A lot of people said 'A hip hop guy working with the king of soul?' Y'know, I like to shut people up. Those people who say 'I'm a house DJ' or 'I'm a reggae DJ' - you know that if I go in your house, I bet you I'll see some other shit. You might have some Nancy Sinatra or something, stop lying!

Zulu Nation website
Interview by Nosca

Interested in pin-up and erotic photography? You should try the Suicide Girls. READ