One of the first truly influential British hip hop records. Following a journey to New York, Malcolm McLaren discovered the burgeoning hip hop scene and decided to put his own take on the sound. It was one of the first hip hop records to employ scratching, as Trevor Horn states:

The thing about scratching back in 1982, 1983, or whenever it was I did McLaren was that it was unheard-of over here. And actually ‘Buffalo Girls’ is the first rap record ever. The only other record with scratching before ‘Buffalo Girls’ that I know of was Grandmaster Flash’s ‘On The Wheels Of Steel’, which is where he’s just using a record and dubbing it — but not performing on top of it and having rapping and singing all on the same thing. So ‘Buffalo Girls’ was the first record and, believe me, it was no easy thing to work out. We were on it for weeks! It was one of those daft ideas. We had the World’s Famous Supreme Team but the World’s Famous Supreme Team were very conservative. I showed them the Fairlight — I thought their heads would explode, but instead their eyes went blank and they just wanted decks. Once I started to say ‘digital Mellotron’ — phew, it was a non-starter!

Not only was it sonically forward thinking, but the music video that accompanied it was the first to introduce a British audience to what hip hop is supposed to look like. The scratching, the breakdancing, the fashion, the rapping, and the graffiti – straight from the birthplace of hip hop, New York.

A version on Malcolm’s Duck Rock album features a unique intro from The World’s Famous Supreme Team.