Contents
Introduction
1: Origins of Public Enemy
2: Spectrum City Come to Life
3: The Graduation to WBAU
4: Still on the Come-up
5: It’s the Flavor
6: 510 South Franklin Avenue
7: Public Enemy Number One
8: Johnny Juice in the House
9: The Birth of Public Enemy
10: Work to Do
11: Yo! Bum Rush the Show
12: You’re Gonna Get Yours
13: The Show Goes on the Road
14: Rebel Without a Pause
15: The Enemy in Europe
16: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
17: Making the Video
18: Fight the Power
19: So Much Trouble
20: Even More Trouble
21: After the Storm
22: The Bomb Squad Blows Up
23: AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted
24: She’s Driving Me Out of My Mind
25: Talking MLK
26: Greatest Misses
27: Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age
28: Chuck Goes it Alone
29: Publicenemy.com
30: DJ Lord on the Ones and Twos
31: The baNNed
32: Jam Master Jay RIP
33: The Enemy and Reality TV
34: Is She Really Going Out with Him?
35: Rebirth of a Nation
36: Twenty Years and Counting
Chuck D’s Selected Public Enemy Discography
Photography Credits and Permissions
Acknowledgements
Index
Public Enemy is without doubt one of the greatest hip-hop groups of all time. And according to many music connoisseurs, be they pundits or punters, Public Enemy is the foremost hip-hop group of all time bar none.
If the eighties were about hip-hop introducing itself and the nineties about the culture establishing itself as a force to be reckoned with, then the new millennium is about it enjoying its success while continuing to evolve. Public Enemy were crucial to hip-hop’s development. They were responsible for making hip-hop lyrics more progressive and politically aware. No other act within hip-hop music has ever dealt with politics as forcefully as Public Enemy. The production of The Bomb Squad elevated the music to new sonic heights.
As Adam Yauch – better known as MCA from The Beastie Boys – puts it in the sleeve notes to 2005’s Power to the People and the Beats: Public Enemy’s Greatest Hits, ‘No one has been able to approach the political power that Public Enemy brought to hip-hop. I put them on a level with Bob Marley and a handful of other artists – the rare artist who can make great music and also deliver a political and social message. But where Marley’s music sweetly lures you in, then sneaks in the message, Chuck D grabs you by the collar and makes you listen.’ They present undiluted black anger so articulately and stylishly that even those beyond their core audience can’t help but take notice and be affected. Public Enemy have been responsible for creating and maintaining a powerful sense of black pride for an entire generation; but a quick glance at any crowd at a Public Enemy concert will reveal fans of all backgrounds.
Public Enemy were one of the first hip-hop groups to have a dedicated following among rock fans – this is the legacy of their tours and collaborations with groups like Anthrax, The Sisters of Mercy and U2. They are one of the most powerful examples of popular music being able to effect social change. ‘The reason we made albums is to say something, to push the envelope of music, and our challenge is to see if we can perform them or not,’ is how Chuck D sums it up. ‘If we can’t perform them then we’ve lost our challenge.’
Public Enemy are one of those classic bands whose music is continually discovered by new generations. Their second album, 1988’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, is hip-hop’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, its Kind of Blue. In short, the leading example of brilliance in its field. Their stage show is one of the best in the hip-hop business. Over the years it has evolved to include live musicians the baNNed, who add a new element to Public Enemy’s noise.
Public Enemy are alive in the spirit of newer-school rappers like Dead Prez, Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Immortal Technique and Kanye West. It is no exaggeration to surmise that they are the closest thing the current generation has had to a Malcolm X or a Marcus Garvey. Similarly to the two freedom fighters, they made a lot of people question that which they had previously accepted with no complaints or qualms.
When it comes to politics and protest songs Public Enemy are the most respected hip-hop group and Chuck D its most respected intellectual. Those who tire of the more hedonistic, materialistic stance, which much of the more commercially successful hip-hop has taken, constantly look to Chuck and Public Enemy as the ideal of what rap music can do for the black community and race relations in general. Public Enemy are among the first hip-hop groups who have enjoyed long and fruitful careers. They are a band who cannot be ignored.
Unless you were tuned in at the time, it’s difficult to appreciate the extent to which Public Enemy shook up the world, inspiring love and hate in equal measures. Today, when no taboo has been left unbroken, it’s almost impossible to shock the masses any more. But when PE exploded on to the hip-hop scene they were an extremely frightening
