American rapper, DJ and music producer Afrika Bambaataa has died in Pennsylvania at the age of 67, according to TMZ.
According to the publication’s sources, the cause of death was complications from cancer.
Bambatu (real name Lance Taylor) has been called a hip-hop pioneer. In the 1980s, he released a series of electro-style tracks, which greatly influenced the development of hip-hop culture. One of his most famous books is “Planet Rock”, which was published in 1982.
Taylor was born to immigrants from Jamaica and Barbados and grew up in the Bronx in New York City. As a young man, he won an essay contest and a trip to Africa, and when he returned home, he founded the Bronx River Organization, which aimed to unite youth in the area, and then founded the Global Zulu Nation, a community named after the Zulu people of South Africa.
In 1985, Taylor co-created the album “Sun City” as a member of Artists United Against Apartheid, an association of musicians who opposed apartheid in South Africa. Other participants include Bob Dylan, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Joey Ramone and Lou Reed.
In May 2016, Bronx political activist Ronald Savage accused the rapper of sexually assaulting him in 1980, when Savage was 15 years old. Three other men later joined the charges. Taylor himself denied these accusations. In 2025, he was ordered to pay reparations to a man he accused of human trafficking in the 1990s.