The summer of 1982 ushered in the first substantial change in recorded rap, which was less than three years old.

Until that time, rap records were largely cover versions of popular disco and funk records of yesteryear, sprinkled with remakes of current urban radio hits which were still very much funk-oriented. These records, which were released mostly by Sugar Hill and Enjoy Records, were played by the house bands of both labels in an attempt to recreate the energy of the breakbeats played at park jams and Hip-Hop clubs.

DJ Afrika Bambaataa was incorporating television themes and other odd things into his DJ sets, and among them were songs by electronic bands Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra from Germany and Japan, respectively. Songs such as "Trans Europe Express," "The Man Machine" and "Numbers" by Kraftwerk played side by side with songs by Parliament Funkadelic, The Monkees and Gary Numan in Bam's sets.

Tommy Boy Records was a dance music label launched by Tom Silverman in 1981. Not much later, he met Afrika Bambaataa, who said he wanted to create "Black electronic music." 1982's "Planet Rock" was a combination of "Super Sporm" by Captain Sky, "The Mexican" by Babe Ruth and "Trans Europe Express" and "Numbers" by Kraftwerk. Where the idea to insert Kraftwerk into "Planet Rock" originates is still in question.

Dwight Fuller of Rockers Revenge who operated Music Factory Records on Fulton Street in downtown Brooklyn with his brother maintains that the idea started in his store. "Arthur Baker who produced 'Planet Rock' with John Robie used to hang out in my store every day," he told Rock The Bells. "He was already familiar with "Trans Europe Express", and he heard me playing 'Numbers' and asked 'what the fuck is that?'"

MC G.L.O.B.E., the main writer on "Planet Rock," told Rock The Bells that there were a few different ideas for the song before the Kraftwerk-heavy final version.

"At one point, we were gonna use 'Another One Bites The Dust,' 'The Champ' and a James Brown Record," he said. "Everyone remembers it how they remember, and maybe Bam and Arthur Baker discussed using 'Numbers' at some point later. The brothers from Rockers Revenge did suggest 'Trans Europe Express' as a good choice to go with 'Numbers.' But remember, the MC is the one who must rhyme to the beats! G.L.O.B.E., Pow Wow, and Biggs are the MCs, and we decided which records that we wanted to rhyme over. There was a brother named Pooh who used to hang out and attend our parties."

G.L.O.B.E. says further that he was walking home from a party with Pow Wow and Pooh and he was saying that he wanted to rhyme to a beat that no one had rhymed to. Because Pooh knew that G.L.O.B.E. did speed rhyming, he suggested the “fast beat” that Bam plays.

“I said, 'you mean 'Numbers' — that’s an excellent idea. I called Bam the next day and said that we wanted to rhyme over 'Numbers.' In fact, I wrote 'Planet Rock' to 'Numbers' before they even had a track."

Despite the origins of the Kraftwerk interpolation into 'Planet Rock,' in many ways, it became more influential than any of the records it was based on. The Roland TR 808 kick drum gave the song a punch that was absent in Kraftwerk's material, and the harmonizing cadence of the MCs made "Planet Rock" one of the most unique rap songs of the time period.

Other acts would quickly mimic the style, eventually creating a new sub-genre. Rahiem of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5 told The Foundation that "The Message," the groundbreaking record that shared the charts with "Planet Rock" in the summer of '82, was in some ways created to compete with The Soul Sonic's Force's gargantuan hit.

"We wanted to do a song like 'Planet Rock,' but Sylvia [Robinson, Sugar Hill Records CEO] told us if we did 'The Message' first, we could do a song like 'Planet Rock' after," he said. "We did 'Scorpio' which didn't do as well as 'Planet Rock,' but 'The Message' did."

Rahiem's group mate Melle Mel echoed his sentiments. "'Planet Rock was the biggest record that summer. We just wanted to knock 'Planet Rock' off the charts."

Acts like The Egyptian Lover, Cybotron, Hashim, Twilight 22 and dozens more would mimic elements of 'Planet Rock' — the new movement was dubbed electro-funk. An 808 drum machine, synthesizers and a robotic vocoder voice effect were the ingredients for these records which morphed into Miami Bass and many different sub-genres throughout the decades. Mainstream R&B groups like The Dazz Band, Midnight Star and The Bar-Kays blatantly copied the grooves of "Planet Rock," and those grooves are the basis of early west coast rap music.

The reverberations from "Planet Rock" are still present in music, with City Girls scoring a hit in 2021 with "Twerkulator." As the hook says: "Rock rock to the Planet Rock — don't stop."