Public Enemy: Past and Present

 

            Public Enemy formed in Long Island, New York in 1982.  The band was started by three good friends who were students at Adelphi University located in Long Island.  Carlton Ridenhour, Bill Stepheny, and Hank Shocklee shared a love of hip-hop and politics which gave them a vision for a new direction in hip hop.  In 1987, they released their first album “Yo! Bum Rush the Show”.  In 1988, they released the revolutionary album “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back”, which performed much better in the charts than their previous release.  The album “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” is considered by many to be one of the most significant hip hop albums of all time.  The album contains politically charged lyrics with controversial statements with the aim to uplift the black youth.  It is a varied record with mixed elements of funk, jazz, and rock that produced a new sound that is “in your face” and is often described as militant. 

           

            The New York Times named “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” to their list of 25 most significant albums of the last century. In 2003, the TV channel VH1 named “It Takes a Nation of Millions..” the 20th greatest album of all time. It was ranked 93rd in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. It was also named the second greatest album in Spin Magazine's listing of the 100 greatest albums released since the magazine's founding in 1985 (Radiohead's Ok Computer was number one). It was the top ranked hip-hop album in the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time; number 48.  

 

Front, L to R: Flavor Flav. Chuck D, Prof. Griff. Rear: Terminator X (center) with two members of Security of the First World.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            Public Enemy were pioneers in many ways.   They were pioneers of a new “hardcore” hip hop using poetic rhymes that was politically revolutionary.  Chuck D rhymed about many social problems, especially those in the black community, while condoning reveloutionary tactics and social activism.  In the process, he directed hip-hip toward self aware black consciousness. 

            Terminator X elevated DJing to a more refined art. Some of his most innovative scratching tricks can be heard on the song "Rebel Without A Pause".

            They were the first rap-group having extended world tours, which led to huge popularity and influence in Hip-Hop communities in Europe and Asia. They also changed the Internet's music distribution capability by being the first group to release MP3 albums, a format virtually unknown at the time.”

            Public Enemy were also pioneers by collaborating with the heavy metal band, Antrax, in 1991.  The rock and rap collaboration was nothing new as Run D.M.C collaboration with Aeorosmith in 1986 producing the song “Walk This Way”.   Public Enemy’s collaboration with Anthrax produced more of an alien genre of rap/rock mix which gave birth to the bands “Rage Against the Machine” and “Linkin Park”.

 

 

More Recently

 

            Public Enemy’s recent release, “Fear of a Black Planet”, was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress.  It included the song “911 is a joke”, which criticized emergency response units for taking more time to service people in the black community than those in the white community.

 

            They still continue to perform and write, though with some attrition. Terminator X took early retirement and was replaced by Atlanta native DJ Lord as the group's main DJ. Chuck D and Professor Griff are also members of a band named Confrontation Camp, a funk/rock band. Chuck D's lecture series on "Rap, Race, Reality & Technology" has been used as the basis for his lyrics on "We Are Gathered Here", an album by the group Fine Arts Militia - which he is a member of.

 

            In 2004, Flavor Flav appeared on the VH1 reality show The Surreal Life, and can now be seen on the VH1 program Strange Love. His portrayal on that show, however, has been the subject of much dispute, especially between fans and the other members of the band. Many fans and Chuck D himself have publicly lambasted Flavor for his actions on the show, including being indignant to his children and his ex-wife. Flavor also recently appeared on UK reality TV show "The Farm". Oddly enough, maybe as a show of their respect for all types of music, PE was scheduled to perform the cancelled hardcore and metal festival, Hellfest '05 and would have shared the stage with heavy bands including Between the Buried and Me, Ed Gein, From a Second Story Window, Ion Dissonance, Pig Destroyer, and Suffocation.

 

            In September of 2005, Flavor Flav reunited with Public Enemy to record a rap protest song, Hell No We Ain't All Right!, criticizing policy issues surrounding the response to Hurricane Katrina, and the George W. Bush administration in particular.