A teen grew up in the Bronx in the 70’s when violence, drugs, and poverty were rampant. He was swept up in the gang lifestyle until he went on life-changing trip to Africa after winning an essay contest. He adopted a new name, Afrika Bambaataa, and devoted himself to encouraging peace and positivity through hip hop music and culture. Nearly forty years later, his enormous record collection was briefly on public display in an “Open Archive” before landing in the Cornell University Hip Hop collection. Learn more about Bambaataa’s influence on hip hop culture and the open archiving process in this week’s show featuring Johan Kugelberg.

Note: We discovered after publishing the episode that Afrika Bambaataa’s real name is the subject of debate. Bambaataa legally changed his name years ago and his birth name is actually unknown in the public sphere. According to Johan Kugelberg, It is often incorrectly cited as “Kevin Donovan” based on a printing mistake on a record label that was released years ago. We attempted to confirm the information in advance, but we also included the apparently incorrect “Kevin Donovan” moniker in our episode based on multiple other sources that erroneously contain that information. According to Wax Poetics, this record’s label is the source of the confusion. Kevin Donovan was the leader of the band on the record and not Bambaataa. We regret the error.

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Click here to see a visualization of how many records can be stored on an iPod.

Here are some additional photos from the Open Archive:

WOPI in Bristol, Tennessee has been broadcasting since 1929. It plays a critical role in the region and it now resides in a giant, three-story guitar. That’s only part of story. The building and station are tied to a man named Joe Morrell. Joe Morrell, a musician in Curly King and the Tennessee Hilltoppers, made Guitars for bluegrass players on The Crooked Road, or Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. Emile Klein of You’re U.S. shares the story of a man who helped cement Bristol’s title of “The Birthplace of Country Music.” and whose contributions are still supporting the region’s rich musical heritage today.

Photo Courtesy of WOPI

Thanks again to Emile Klein for his help with the story. You can find more about You’re U.S. on the web, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Learn more about the history of WOPI at this link.

“I made that photo of Joe just after he opened the Grand Guitar. He was so excited and proud of his building. That photo was distributed around the world at the time and he recieved international attention.” Photo by: Earl Carter

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Emile took some more photos of his trip:

Find the Grand Guitar on Google Maps, learn more about the Joe Morrell Scholarship Fund and some music of the Crooked Road.

Joe and Curly King (Photo from: Images of America, Bristol by George Stone and Sonya A. Haskins. Copyright 2005.)

The music in this episode was provided by Michael Staun.

Special thanks to WCQS for generously offering their studio for the recording of this piece.

This episode uses these sound effects from freesound.org: ‘Seattle Public Market Center’ by Lenguaverde

Recalling 1993 was a project by an agency called Droga5 to supplement the NYC 1993 exhibit at the New  Museum in 2013. The idea was simple: Pick up a phone, dial a special number, and get connected to a story from the neighborhood you were standing in from 1993. Find out how New York has changed in twenty years and how this project was coordinated with Ray Del Savio.