24 years ago this month Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" was released. In '92 Tommy Boy did a 10-year anniversary project. An unknown at the time, DJ Shadow was asked to contribute a remix.

Edited excerpt from an interview with DJ Shadow in 33 1/3's book on ...Endtroducing:

The next thing I know, a guy named Albee from Tommy Boy is asking me to remix Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock," which is one of the most influential records ever made, bar none. I accepted because I didn't want to blow this chance at an inroad with Tommy Boy. This was the first time I had set foot in a real studio on my own. Tommy Boy gave me a dub of the original 2-inch reel. I had no idea what reels were. This was all so new to me. I had no idea how we were going to do it. There was an engineer. Fortunately, he was able to help navigate. I didn't know how to sync things up. I didn't know how I was going to do it. Tommy Boy gave me $750 up front, and that was going to pay for food, gas and studio rental for that one day. I had to go in and do it all in one day. I was terrified. But we got through it. And the result, I thought, was OK. I mean, back then, I felt like everything I did was OK. But I was crushed because I sent the result to Albee at Tommy Boy, and then I couldn't get him on the phone for two weeks, and then, when I did get him on the phone, he goes, "Uh, yeah, I got it, I got it. You know, we were all real disappointed." I just go, "Oh, what? Really? What do you mean?" And he's like, "Yeah, it just wasn't happening." I was crushed. It was also when I learned a major, major lesson: never do anything just for the money.

So, gathering dust on a shelf somewhere is DJ Shadow's remix of "Planet Rock". While DJ Magic Mike's remix below is great stuff, everything else on the 10-year anniversary remix album is not. So was Shadow's remix really that bad? We'll probably never know. Recently there was a panel discussion about the making of "Planet Rock". It sounds like it was both boring and had some great moments. We'll probably also never know who “Man with 808” was.

Afrika Bambaataa - "Planet Rock (Bass In The Planet Mix)" (iTMS)