Your credentials are amazing tell me a bit about being part of something as groundbreaking as the Rocksteady Crew.

Well as a DJ/member of the rock steady crew I was just proud to be one of the first breakdancers in the world and represent the Zulu nation and hip hop world wide

You have worked with a long list of people that reads like a who’s who of the music industry, including such diverse artists as Michael Jackson to the Eurythmics do you have a favorite artist or collaboration experience you can share with us?

My favourites would be Chuck D, Ice-T, Grandmaster Melle Mel, my father Afrika Bambaataa. For the new ghetto metal band we are working on called Machine, people like Vernon Reed from Living Colors, Flea from the Chilli Peppers, Ernie C of Bodycount, and I hope Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.

What was it like working with a legend such as Michael Jackson?

Michael Jackson was a man that enjoys his music and knows how to use it

Your style seems as diverse as the artists you work with is this a deliberate attempt to do something no one has done before or is it more just a natural mash up of your favorite styles?

To go where no man has gone before ….And DJ a space station rave for the aliens out in space

Can you name a few of your musical influences for me?

My influences are drums. The native tribes of earth used the drum to communicate. Other influences are my teacher Grandmaster Flash, my dad Afrika Bambaataa, Jimmy Hendrix, Miles Davis, and techno DJs Westbam and Rush. Music in kung fu movies, Bruce Lee kickin your ass! Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones and all of true old school hip hop and b-boy music.

You have played some major international events such as Mayday and the Love Parade how does that kind of thing compare to being in the studio would you prefer to be in one over the other?

I like to be live in front of a crowd, the studio is whack ….. blahhhh blah blah!

How do you feel about the very commercial side of hip hop that is flooding our airwaves at the moment?

Commercial hip hop is just what it is. You know, I like dancing girls, commercial girls or underground girls, hip hop girls, techno girls, house girls, and so on. Music is what it is, let the music play. Just have fun and Dance ya ass off.

With such pop soaked hits firing up the charts right now how hard is it to keep it real and not get caught up in the money making machine?

Just keep it real, yo! Just keep it real pimpin’, fuck the new world order and globalisation that is killing the nation. Free your mind, body and soul. Death to hip pop and fake rock, power to the hip hop.

What is in the works for Afrika Islam right now anything you are working you can tell us a little bit about?

My next project, Machine, is the sound of ghetto metal and the true story of my music life. A hip hop, gangster rock, hard techno, musical war. Alien Attack… Fuck it down load the music free. Fuck the music industry. Burn all the new movies… Better when that shit is free.

You have done a heap of remix work for other artists, do you prefer remixing other artists to making your own music?

Making my own music feels better, to me… We are all robots and slaves to the machine, I have a computer brain and remixes are new art anyway. The DJ is the artist, the music is his canvas, show him some love.

Can you tell me a bit about the meaning of your name?

My name Afrika is the name from my dad Afrika Bamaataa as I am a Zulu king in the Zulu Nation. Islam is really a code word – I, s. L. A. M. My nick name was IZ, it’s a South Bronx hip hop thing.

Having accomplished so much do you think there will ever come a time when there will be no new challenges for you to undertake?

There is always a new challenge. Like let’s get rid of Bush, stop the war and feed the poor

Is there anyone you hope to work with in the future whom you haven’t had a chance to as yet?

I want to work with The Prodigy, Jimmy Hendrix, Bob Marley, Mike Tyson, a girl with 3 breasts, and a space alien that breakdances, all together in the studio. That would be cool.

What does the future hold for Afrika Islam?

I will just keep it real and just be Afrika Islam, son of Bambaattaa. I’ll get on the decks and wreck and rock the dicscotek. Respect really hard techno and breakdance music, and hard trance, and tribal music, it’s all the same just with different names. Music is music, just use it and don’t abuse it.

Afrika Islam plays Progress @ Gas in Sydney on Saturday June 26th and the Pharmacy Winter Carnival in Melbourne on Friday July 2nd (BUY TICKETS). Stay tuned to guides for national tour dates, to be announced.