Malcolm McLaren: Anarchy & rap In The UK
Malcolm McLaren chilling in the studio. Photo by Jean-Francois Carly
Malcolm McLaren – Buffalo Gals
It is our sad duty to pay tribute to yet another legend of hip hop who has passed — but this man’s legacy extends far beyond the world of rap: he is the man who brought anarchy to the UK as the manager of the Sex Pistols, and changed the face of British music forever.
Some might consider it an unlikely combination — but those cats are just not in the know. Fab 5 Freddy, Dondi White flirted with the punk world too, collaborating with Futura 2000 & The Clash to record hip hop record The Escapades Of Futura 2000. But the man Malcolm McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was really something else!
No shit, the dude was straight up ahead of the game since day one. He is the man who gave punk it’s identity. He managed the Sex Pistols, dated fashion designer Vivienne Westwood (who he ran a boutique store in Chelsea named SEX with), picked up on Adam Ant, Boy George and Annabella Lwin, and put together a crazy hip hop album called Duck Rock, one of the records most responsible for taking hip hop to the UK.
Let It Rock & SEX
The man’s career had an unusual (but not unique) start — getting expelled from several art schools. While living in a squat with a bunch of art students, he lost his virginity to none other than Vivienne Westwood, who not so long after fell pregnant with his kid. In 1971 he decided to give education a miss all together and start designing and making clothes. The same year, by chance while trying to escape a rain-storm, he came across a small store called Paradise Garage. In an interview with I-D magazine, McLaren explained that when he first came into the place, it was pitch black, and the only thing he could notice was a gleaming jukebox, cranking out 50s rock music, and a few items of vintage clothing pinned to the walls. He fell in love with the place, and soon after in became the new squat for Malcolm and his pals, including Vivienne. Once again by chance Paradise Garage became a store — some guy in a Rolls Royce kept knocking on their front door day after day, which at first they ignored but after a while they were worried he might be the landlord — or call the cops. Dudes name was Charles Saatchi, and he was a collector obsessed with Marilyn Monroe, and he was hoping to take a look around and maybe purchase something. Since they didn’t own anything in the store, they told him there was nothing for sale, but he kept coming back day after day for weeks, and eventually they decided to just sell him some records. Before long, he’d bought the jukebox and clothes too and there was nothing left, and they started to freak out, thinking the owner might come back and kick them out for selling all his shit. So they bought some sewing machines to make some new clothes, which began McLaren’s foray into fashion design with Vivienne Westwood.
After a few months of selling clothes, they decided the owner was probably never going to come back, so they renamed the store to Let It Rock, taking the name from a Chuck Berry song on the jukebox they had sold. When the landlord finally returned, a fight ensued but they demanded squatters rights. Eventually they came to a deal where they would pay £500 rent per month. McLaren got bored with Let It Rock for what a lot of people might consider a pretty strange reason — it was too successful. “this is really boring, this is horrible. It’s just too successful, I just feel like some idiot, it’s not creative” he said to Vivienne Westwood. She was against the idea, as she had left her job as a primary school teacher to work making clothes at the store. It was then they decided to do something dangerous. They changed the shop’s name to SEX. Featuring 4 foot high rubber letters reading ‘SEX’, and employing the assistance of a bunch of crazy fetishists, they started selling fetish clothing, leather and rubber gear, straps and basically anything offensive they could come up with, their goal: to be as bad, cruel and as mischievous and as manipulative as humanly possible. This was the beginning of punk, and it was around this time that the Sex Pistols came into the picture.
The Sex Pistols
McLaren formed the band Sex Pistols in 1975. Despite the fact that their career only lasted just over two years and produced but a single album (along with four singles), they are considered to be one of the most influential groups in the history of modern music. Originally named The Strand, it was McLaren who gave them the name Sex Pistols, and it was McLaren’s assistant who discovered John Lyndon, spotted — the man who would be dubbed Johnny Rotten, while it was Vivienne Westwood discovered Sid Vicious.
Needless to say, the Sex Pistols became one of the most infamous bands of all time, with the fuck you image — and attitute, and lyrics that at the time were completely shocking. Their 1977 single God Save The Queen was one of the most infamous at all, released during Queen Elizabeth II’s silver jubilee year, and thanks to it’s lyrics comparing the monarchy to a fascist regime it was quickly banned by the BBC as well as the Independent Broadcasting Authority. Despite this, it made it to #1 on the NME charts, and #2 on the BBC charts. At the time there was controversy over whether the BBC had fixed the charts to prevent it reaching the #1 position, which they later admitted to. The songs closing refrain, the phrase “no future” became a symbol of the punk rock movement.
Their shows faced constant difficulties with promoters, venues and authorities and their public appearances nearly always resulted in complete chaos. It was Malcolm McLaren who brought the world this great rock and roll swindle. The punk rock scene was also influential in hip hop circles — Fab 5 Freddy notably mentioned that he found particular interest in punk, seeing similarities in the energy and DIY attitude of what these white kids from the UK were doing to what was going on in New York at the time.
Duck Rock & Buffalo Gals
Malcolm McLaren – Buffalo Girls video clip (featuring some very rare footage of graffiti king Dondi White in action and breaking by members of the Rock Steady Crew!)
But yo, I know what ya’ll Cold Crush readers REALLY want to read about, is McLaren’s influence on the hip hop world. McLaren first met Afrika Bambaataa in 1980, on the streets of Manhattan. At this time, Bambaataa was just a DJ, playing with his crew — this was of course a few years before Planet Rock was released. McLaren saw the commercial potential to hip hop style, saying “These guys started to spin on their heads and it was phenomenal. They already had the attributes that would become ubiquitous in hip-hop style: the caps, the baggy t-shirts. . . all of that was already assembled, but it hadn’t hit anybody downtown on a commercial, even independent level”. After unsuccessfully trying to convince major label RCA to give Bambaataa a deal (their loss, suckers) McLaren decided to produce his own hip hop records.
He released some dope singles including Buffalo Gals, Double Dutch and D’Ya Like Scratchin, and his album Duck Rock dropped in 1983. Produced by Trevor Horn, who would go on to form the breakbeat group Art of Noise, Duck Rock was McLaren’s tribute to street beats and world music. The album produced two major hits — Double Dutch and Buffalo Gals, and featured African inspired rhythms combined with raps by McLaren himself and guest appearances from the World’s Famous Supreme Team. Buffalo Gals featured a slamming beat very much in the style of Herbie Hancock – Rockit, and was later sampled by artists including Mariah Carey and Eminem. Duck Rock also played a huge role in bringing the hip hop sound to the limelight in the UK.
The film clip is also an incredible piece of old school history, featuring rare video footage some of the greatest old school legends of hip hop and graffiti all in the one clip. Not only does it feature some bboy action from members of old school hip hop legends The Rocksteady Crew, but it also features none other than graffiti’s style master general Dondi White painting a public style burner reading Buffalo Gals. Footage of Dondi painting is extremely rare, and this is undoubtedly one of the best quality clips to see someone I consider to be the greatest graffiti king of all time in action. I’m prepared to put it out there that there is not a writer worth their salt who is not in some way influenced by Dondi White. The man had style locked down, and his lettering can hold it’s own to this day against any new shit out. Watch for dope Dondi handstyles in the background while cats break near the end of the video.
“I always thought hip-hop was the black punk rock. It had similar DIY aspects.” – Malcolm McLaren talks punk rap to Swindle magazine
McLaren also released another dope hip hop single the same year called Hey DJ, which gave shout outs to many DJs across the world, After Duck Rock, he released several more albums, combining elements of early electronica, hip hop, classical and disco, and collaborating with cats including Jeff Beck and Bootsy Collins, but it was 1998 when he went back to a more straight up hip hop album; collaborating with hip hop artists including KRS-One, De La Soul and Rakim to record the album Buffalo Gals – Back To School.
Rest In Peace Malcolm McLaren
McLaren passed away April 10, as yet another tragic victim of bastard cancer. It had been a long battle, but his girlfriend Young Kim said that when his time came he faded quickly.
McLaren once told Andrew Denton on Australian TV show Enough Rope, that his grandmother always said to him, “To be bad is good… to be good is simply boring”. The man may be best known as the innovator behind punk, but there is no doubt he played a big part in early hip hop too, not to mention fashion. However you want to look a it, one thing is for certain — the dude commands respect.
Be childish. Be irresponsible. Be disrespectful. Be everything this society hates.” – Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren – Buffalo Gals
