Hip Hop Be Bop

Afrika Islam was a DJ and MC for the legendary Rock Steady Crew and also a brief member of the World Famous Supreme Team. He learnt the art of mixing and production under guidance from Afrika Bambaataa.

He moved to Los Angeles where he became good friends with Ice T and the pair went on to team up with Melle Mel and Bronx Style Bob to form Afrika & The Zulu Kings.

The group released two singles for Posse Records in 1986, although some say that their second single, Cars, was released at the start of 1987. This may well be the case but as it’s not certain I’ve included it here as 1986. Both were produced and mixed by the group with additional help from Grandmaster Caz.

The Beach was an idea put together by Vansilk using replayed elements from Layla by Eric Clapton (Derek & The Dominoes). In addition to the Posse Records release, another version worthy of note is the Japanese release from 1988. It includes an edit from Fumi Miyoshi, Katsuhiro Honda and Koichi Takase aka The JG’s which is reminiscent of a Latin Rascals style edit.

This was also released again in 2000 with an additional dance mix by Perfect Klub Groove.

As a group, the Zulu Kings went on to score the first hip hop animation, Street Frogs.