Kevin Powell, at Newsweek, reflects on Afrika Bambaataa’s death and legacy:

But, alas, here I am, dazed and confused by the sad and tragic fall of Afrika Bambaataa, a preeminent pioneer of hip-hop.[…]

But as my wife always says, two things can be true at the same time. There is no hip-hop as we know it without ambassadors like Afrika Bambaataa […]

But the other vicious reality is that a long line of people in the circle and community of Afrika Bambaataa knew something, and no one ever said anything, tried to stop it, help him, help the alleged victims. The vicious reality is there is a long line of people, mostly males, in sports, in entertainment, lurking in our neighborhoods, who have been accused of very ugly things: rape, domestic violence, sex with underaged people, marrying underaged people, grooming, kidnapping, even murder, and heads are casually turned toward indifference. Too often, the victims get blamed again and again.