DJ Premier Drops Malcolm McLaren Tribute Mix

The death of famed punk entrepreneur, producer, promoter and band manager Malcolm McLaren sent waves through the music world last week. As the bizarre inventor of the Sex Pistols, McLaren knew how to create spectacle like few others and had a lifetime of managerial successes to boot. One of the little known aspects of his career was as a solo artist, where McLaren mixed hip-hop with all sorts of strange dubbed out sounds, obscure sampling, world music and pop elements.

In tribute, DJ Premier used his 'Live From Headqcourterz' radio show to present one of the dopest mixes of McLaren's music and associated bands ever put together. The mix starts out with McLaren telling a story of how he entered the world of hip-hop by chance.

"It was a New York phenomenon that burst onto the scene," explained McLaren. "I was walking down the street in Harlem. It was in 1980. I had, at that time, been managing a group called Bow Wow Wow and they were to play the following night at the Roxy club. I happened just to take a walk through Harlem and I was on 125th Street and I saw across a road, it was a bright sunny day, a huge black guy, a massive man, but the most extraordinary thing about him was that he had a t-shirt on which said, 'Never mind the bullocks, here's the Sex Pistols...' It was Afrika Bambaata."

Download the full mix from the DJ Premier blog.