in 1981, hip hop artist fab five freddy was putting together music packages in the largely white downtown manhattan new wave clubs, and invited bambaataa to perform at one of them, the mudd club. it was the first time bambaataa had performed before a predominantly white crowd. attendance for his parties downtown became so large that he had to move to larger venues, first to the ritz, in a show organized by hip hop pioneer, michael holman, with malcolm mclaren's group bow wow wow, then to the peppermint lounge, the jefferson, negril, danceteria and the roxy. "planet rock," a popular single produced by arthur baker and the keyboardist john robie, came out that june under the name afrika bambaataa and the soulsonic force. the song borrowed musical motifs from german electronic music, funk, and rock. different elements and musical styles were used together. the song became an immediate hit and stormed the music charts worldwide. the song melded the main melody from kraftwerk's "trans-europe express" with electronic beats based on their track "numbers" as well as portions from records by babe ruth and captain sky, thus creating a new style of music altogether, electro funk.