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Canongate Books - Myrie Russell

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138 pages

English

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Public Enemy are one of the greatest hip-hop acts of all time. Exploding out of Long Island, New York in the early 1980s, their firebrand lyrical assault, the Bomb Squad's innovative production techniques, and their unmistakeable live performances gave them a formidable reputation. They terrified the establishment, and have continued to blaze a trail over a twenty year period up until the present day. Today, they are more autonomous and as determined as ever, still touring and finding more ingenious ways of distributing their music. Russell Myrie has had unprecedented access to the group, conducting extensive interviews with Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Terminator X, Professor Griff, the Shocklee brothers, and many others who form part of their legacy. He tells the stories behind the making of seminal albums such as their debut Yo! Bum Rush the Show, the breakthrough It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back, and multi-million selling Fear of a Black Planet. He tackles Professor Griff's alleged anti-semitic remarks which caused massive controversy in the late eighties, the complexities of the group's relationship with the Nation of Islam, their huge crossover appeal with the alternative audience in the early nineties, and the strange circumstances of Flavor Flav's re-emergence as a Reality TV Star since the turn of the millennium.

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Publié par	Canongate Books
Date de parution	25 septembre 2009
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781847676115
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0400€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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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

Introduction
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.

1
Origins of Public Enemy
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 prospect. They made the powers that be nervous in ways that even the likes of NWA and Tupac could never have imagined. PE were largely responsible for creating the conditions that led to hip-hop being feared by the establishment in the first place. But they might not have been such a tight unit if it hadn’t been for the hundred square miles that form Long Island.
Like any section of the eternally influential New York City, Long Island has produced its fair share of famous sons and daughters. Among them are the Murphy brothers, Eddie and Charlie; the basketball player Dr J and Mariah Carey. Long Island’s other musical offspring include classic hip-hop pioneers like De La Soul and Rakim. Newer artists include Chrisette Michelle and Nyckz. But would it be too outlandish to claim that PE are the sixth borough’s most important band?
Long Island certainly owes a debt to hip-hop’s version of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, if only for the simple fact that, were it not for them, it would never have become known as ‘Strong Island’ (soon after PE made their presence felt, ‘Strong Island’ by JVC Force hit big on its way to becoming a hip-hop classic) and, as a result, wouldn’t have been able to attain the local pride that previously only existed elsewhere across the rotten apple. New York, like any other city, has its own localised regional rivalries. Such a nickname – similar to Brooklyn’s Crooklyn, Money Earnin’ Mount Vernon or, perhaps most famously, the Boogie Down Bronx – was needed because Long Island was, and (to a degree) still is, perceived as ‘soft and country’ by other New Yorkers. It has a reputation as a quiet suburban place. It’s the place you go to escape the everyday grind and grit of the city. Long Island’s reputation as a ‘nice place’ meant that those parents who had high hopes for their children flocked there. Such a move has always held particular appeal for ambitious young black couples who wanted to escape the trials and tribulations in places like Brooklyn and Queens. Years before Carlton Ridenhour became Chuck D, the incendiary lead rapper of PE, his parents were one such couple.
Long before they considered making Long Island home Mr and Mrs Ridenhour resided in the black cultural and business mecca of Harlem. ‘They lived on 151st, they’re both from the same block and their birthdays are a day apart,’ Chuck says. The harsh realities of supporting a family meant that they had to leave uptown and up sticks to Queens where Mrs Ridenhour’s parents lived. The support from the extended family helped seal the deal. Consequently, Carlton Ridenhour was born in Flushing, Queens, on August 1, 1960. The future sports fan was born right next to Shea Stadium. Coincidentally, Richard Griffin, aka Professor Griff, who would grow to become PE’s Minister of Information as well as one of their most controversial figures and best producers, was born on exactly the same day. But unlike Chuck, his family already lived in Long Island.
‘Queens was affordable for a young black couple. I mean, my parents were young so they moved around… in affordable housing,’ Chuck hastens to add. ‘We moved to about eight or nine places in Queens before we settled in one spot.’ Chuck’s grandparents’ house and the infamous Queensbridge Projects, the biggest housing projects in the entire United States, were just two of these eight or nine spots. But Chuck’s family eventually left Queens altogether. It’s tempting to wonder for a split second what kind of hip-hop Chuck might have made had he grown up in Queensbridge. But he was just nine when his family moved out to Long Island. It was a move that wasn’t popular with the young Chuck. Leaving Queens for the country was a stark and refreshing contrast, even though it was only a short drive across an imaginary line.
‘I remember clearly thinking, "Ohh, we about to move to the country," and then all of a sudden after a fifteen-minute drive we were in Roosevelt. The only major difference is a border.’ The short journey wasn’t the only thing that surprised nine-year-old Chuck. ‘I was in fourth or fifth grade, so I just thought it was incredible that we were coming to a town with a house that we could call our own. It was an influx of white folks moving out and black folks moving in.’ During the second half of the twentieth century, America watched many formerly predominantly white towns and cities slowly become black. ‘All of the black folks came from all of the other parts of New York City. That migration just happened ’68, ’69, ’70, ’71, ’72. My people moved out ’69.’
In the years immediately following Martin Luther King’s assassination in April 1968 Roosevelt changed from being a mixed town into a virtually all-black town. ‘It was a little tense,’ Keith Shocklee, an int