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Bijan Blum: Pioneer of the "Sound of Frankfurt" Passes Away

May 29 - n3Eo | 0 Comments

Bijan Blum has passed away. The DJ was a defining resident during the early days of Dorian Gray in the first half of the 1980s. At the club located within Frankfurt Airport, Blum fired the starting shot for the "Sound of Frankfurt"—a movement that made the city's nightlife unique for two decades.

Blum is regarded as a role model and inspiration for Sven Väth and many other Dorian Gray residents. Many friends and contemporaries have expressed their condolences on social media. However, the date and cause of his death remain unknown. In February, Bijan Blum had mentioned a visit to the intensive care unit, though he did not go into detail regarding the circumstances.

Bijan Blum grew up in Cologne, where he attended school alongside Erwin Bach—Tina Turner’s husband. Later, he completed an apprenticeship in the textile trade and initially worked in that field. Music had fascinated him since childhood; his Iranian-German parents’ stereo system was constantly running at full blast. From an early age, he began buying his own records.

“I’ve always had this music gene in my blood,” Blum told journalist and Frankfurt scene chronicler Alexander Antonakis in 2018. As early as age 16—in the early 1970s—he began DJing, starting at *Das Ding*, a student nightclub in Cologne. “Back then, former sports commentator Wolf-Dieter Poschmann worked the door,” he recalls in the linked article. “Then I DJed at *Piccionaia*—at the time, one of the best clubs in the city.”
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After completing his training, he was drawn to Düsseldorf, where he performed at the opening of the trendy club Malesh and became its resident DJ. It was at Malesh that he was discovered by the two founders of Dorian Gray, Gerd Schüler and Michael Presinger.

The two club impresarios sought to emulate New York’s Studio 54, where the city’s rich and beautiful danced to disco music. Months before their opening, Schüler and Presinger traveled across Germany to scout DJs and gather ideas for their temple of nightlife located within the Frankfurt Airport.

One night, Gerd Schüler and Michael Presinger—along with Tom Esselborn, the owner of the Tiffany in Mannheim—stood beside Blum’s DJ booth, as Blum recalled in 2018. Impressed by his skills and musical taste, they sought to recruit him for the Dorian Gray. However, Blum initially declined out of loyalty to his employer at the time. Yet, things were destined to turn out differently.

In a trendy Düsseldorf bar, Blum got into an altercation with a plainclothes police officer. Blum knocked the officer off his stool—for he was, in fact, also a master of karate and judo. With the law now hot on his heels, Blum finally accepted the offer from the Gray’s owners and moved to Frankfurt—initially taking up residence in the former apartment of the "high-class courtesan" Rosemarie Nitribitt on Stiftstraße, as he recounted to Antonakis.

At midnight on November 28, 1978, the Dorian Gray celebrated its spectacular opening for invited guests. It was teeming with celebrities and scenesters. Everyone had succumbed to disco fever; for the first record, Blum spun "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" by Sylvester.

April 12 - n3Eo | 3 Comments

The Bronx born rapper and DJ helped introduce hip-hop to the mainstream and was also accused of child sexual abuse

The American rapper and DJ Afrika Bambaataa has died aged 67. The musician died in Philadelphia at around 3am local time due to complications from cancer, TMZ reported.

The Hip-Hop Alliance, a group headed by musician Kurtis Blow, wrote: “Today, we acknowledge the transition of a foundational architect of hip-hop culture, Afrika Bambaataa. As the founder of the Universal Zulu Nation, Afrika Bambaataa helped shape the early identity of hip-hop as a global movement rooted in peace, unity, love, and having fun.”

The group acknowledged the allegations of child sexual abuse made against the singer.

“At the same time, we recognize that his legacy is complex and has been the subject of serious conversations within our community. As an organization committed to truth, accountability, and the preservation of Hip Hop culture, we believe it is important to hold space for all voices while continuing to uplift what empowers and protects the people.”

The Bronx native played a key role in shaping hip-hop in the 1980s, notably with the 1982 hit Planet Rock. He collaborated with a range of artists including John Lydon, George Clinton and James Brown.

Born Lance Taylor, he formed the hip-hop collective Universal Zulu Nation in the late 1970s, inspired by “father of hip-hop” DJ Kool Herc as well as the solidarity of the Zulu people of southern Africa.

In 1982, Bambaataa began playing electronic music as part of the group Ebn Ozn. He was inspired by European electronic groups such as Kraftwerk, the German band that he famously sampled in Planet Rock. The single became a club hit, and helped to establish electro funk as a genre.

In 1985, he helped to create the landmark album Sun City as part of Artists United Against Apartheid, a group of musicians who teamed up to protest apartheid in South Africa. Other musicians involved included Bob Dylan, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Joey Ramone, Run-DMC, Lou Reed and Bonnie Raitt.

Bambaataa continued releasing albums throughout the following decades. In 1986, Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force’s Planet Rock collected his previous singles, and found him collaborating with hip-hop artists such as Melle Mel and Trouble Funk. He released his final album Dark Matter Moving at the Speed of Light in 2004.

In later life, the musician was accused of child sexual abuse and trafficking. In 2016, multiple Bronx men accused Bambaataa of molestation. The musician denied the accusations in a statement, saying they “are baseless and are a cowardly attempt to tarnish my reputation and legacy in hip-hop at this time”.

A man who said he was a former bodyguard for Bambaataa, Shamsideen Shariyf Ali Bey, said: “I’ve walked in on stuff where I say: ‘What the ♥♥♥♥ is going on.’ He travels with late teens. Those are the ones he takes overseas with him. When I went with him on tour in the states, I would stay in one room and he would have boys in the room with him.”

In May 2025, an anonymous plaintiff accused Bambaataa of four years of sexual abuse, which started in 1992 when the plaintiff was 12 years old. The musician lost the civil case by default after he failed to appear in court.