Hip Hop Pioneer Afrika Bambaataa Dead at 67

Afrika Bambaataa -- a rapper and DJ who helped pioneer hip hop -- has died ... TMZ has learned.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... he died from complications of cancer at about 3 AM today in Pennsylvania.

Bambaataa was born in The Bronx .... and he joined the local gang the Black Spades, quickly rising up the ranks in the gang to the position of "warlord."

Beginning in the 1970s, Bambaataa began hosting parties where hip hop flourished ... which quickly grew to become huge block parties in the South Bronx.

Bambaataa released his first single in 1980 titled "Zulu Nation Throwdown" -- a reference to the Universal Zulu Nation, an art collective for socially conscious rappers, graffiti artists, B-boys, and more people involved in hip hop culture -- and his 1982 track "Planet Rock" rose up the ranks to reach Number 4 on the U.S. R&B chart.

In 1985, Bambaataa helped make the anti-apartheid album "Sun City" with several huge artists ... including Joey Ramone, Run-D.M.C., U2, and many more.

Near the end of his life, Afrika Bambaataa ran into a host of legal issues ... after multiple men accused him of sexually abusing them in the 1980s and 1990s. He was forced to pay out a settlement in 2025 to a man accusing him of sex trafficking him in the 1990s after a judge issued a default judgement when he didn't show up to court.