"Planet Rock" is released

Why it matters

You know the drum machine that has powered rap for forty years? The Roland TR-808? "Planet Rock" is the song that put it on rap's map. Before April 1982, the 808 was an industry-shocking failure. Roland had stopped making it the year before, because real drummers said it sounded fake. After April 1982 the 808 was the sound of the future. Bambaataa, Arthur Baker, and John Robie hooked the machine up at Tommy Boy and committed it to wax. The kick was deep. The cowbell was sharp. The handclap was electric. Hip-hop producers picked it up and never put it down. The entire downstream lineage (Marley Marl, Mantronik, the Bomb Squad, Dr. Dre, the Bay Area, Houston, Atlanta, Memphis, Drake's whole catalog) runs in some part through Bambaataa pointing at an unloved Roland box and saying: that one.