FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
Part Thirteen: Public Enemy
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AS it is the sixtieth birthday of Public Enemy’s Chuck D…
PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
today (1st August), I thought it was high time I included the group in A Buyer’s Guide! I am a big fan of the Long Island-formed band, and I have been following their work for a while. I would count It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back among my twenty favourite albums, and they just put out an album, Loud Is Not Enough (under the name Public Enemy Radio). To celebrate one of the most influential and powerful Hip-Hop groups ever, I have selected the four essential albums that everyone needs to own; one that is underrated and deserves wider appreciation; their current album, in addition to a useful book that is worth reading. Whether you are new to Public Enemy or have been with them since the start, I hope this guide provides…
YOU with some useful tips.
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The Four Essential Albums
Yo! Bum Rush the Show
Release Date: 10th February, 1987
Labels: Def Jam/Columbia
Producers: Rick Rubin (exec.)/Bill Stephney/The Bomb Squad
Standout Tracks: You’re Gonna Get Yours/Timebomb/Yo! Bum Rush the Show
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Public-Enemy-Yo-Bum-Rush-The-Show/master/50985
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0YI9ihAQIC63jyDuP5d6DN
Review:
“Sometimes, debut albums present an artist in full bloom, with an assured grasp on their sound and message. Sometimes, debut albums are nothing but promise, pointing toward what the artist could do. Public Enemy's gripping first album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, manages to fill both categories: it's an expert, fully realized record of extraordinary power, but it pales in comparison with what came merely a year later. This is very much a Rick Rubin-directed production, kicking heavy guitars toward the front, honing the loops, rhythms, and samples into a roar with as much in common with rock as rap. The Bomb Squad are apparent, but they're in nascent stage -- certain sounds and ideas that would later become trademarks bubble underneath the surface. And the same thing could be said for Chuck D, whose searing, structured rhymes and revolutionary ideas are still being formed. This is still the sound of a group comfortable rocking the neighborhood, but not yet ready to enter the larger national stage. But, damn if they don't sound like they've already conquered the world! Already, there is a tangible, physical excitement to the music, something that hits the gut with relentless force, as the mind races to keep up with Chuck's relentless rhymes or Flavor Flav's spastic outbursts. And if there doesn't seem to be as many classics here -- "You're Gonna Get Yours," "Miuzi Weighs a Ton," "Public Enemy No. 1" -- that's only in comparison to what came later, since by any other artist an album this furious, visceral, and exciting would unquestionably be heralded as a classic. From Public Enemy, this is simply a shade under classic status” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Public Enemy No. 1
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Release Date: 28th June, 1988
Labels: Def Jam/Columbia
Producers: Chuck D/Rick Rubin (exec.)/Hank Shocklee
Standout Tracks: Bring the Noise/Don’t Believe the Hype/Night of the Living Baseheads
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Public-Enemy-It-Takes-A-Nation-Of-Millions-To-Hold-Us-Back/master/30296
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3PxXiYU3PjymOEE22PewGZ
Review:
“Nation of Millions netted Public Enemy the elusive American audience and platinum sales their debut couldn’t, and it changed the face of rap music. The hip-hop landscape of ‘89-’90 was dotted with sample-heavy sons of Nation. Chuck sent early copies of the album out west to Dre and Ice Cube, and N.W.A.’s landmark Straight Outta Compton cropped up like a gangsta rap rejoinder to the Bomb Squad ethos. (Cube would later tap the team for production on his post-N.W.A. solo debut AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted.) De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising and the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique added a playful, psychedelic charm to the proceedings. Nation’s message of black self-sufficiency resonated through the proudly Afrocentric art of A Tribe Called Quest, X Clan, Brand Nubian and more. Beyond the ’80s, the music of Nation of Millions would continue to find new life in unexpected places: Weezer’s 1996 comeback single “El Scorcho” nicked its “I’m the epitome of public enemy” barb from “Don’t Believe the Hype,” and Jay-Z’s 2006 post-retirement salvo “Show Me What You Got” is a nod to Nation’s “Show ‘Em Whatcha Got” – Pitchfork
Choice Cut: She Watch Channel Zero?!
Fear of a Black Planet
Release Date: 10th April 1990
Labels: Def Jam/Columbia
Producers: Chuck D/Eric "Vietnam" Sadler/Hank Shocklee/Keith Shocklee
Standout Tracks: Welcome to the Terrordome/Fear of a Black Planet/Revolutionary Generation
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Public-Enemy-Fear-Of-A-Black-Planet/master/30255
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0aFNb4RDk2hmKKLa0bzXNz
Review:
“At the time of its release in March 1990 -- just a mere two years after It Takes a Nation of Millions -- nearly all of the attention spent on Public Enemy's third album, Fear of a Black Planet, was concentrated on the dying controversy over Professor Griff's anti-Semitic statements of 1989, and how leader Chuck D bungled the public relations regarding his dismissal. References to the controversy are scattered throughout the album -- and it fueled the incendiary lead single, "Welcome to the Terrordome" -- but years later, after the furor has died down, what remains is a remarkable piece of modern art, a record that ushered in the '90s in a hail of multiculturalism and kaleidoscopic confusion. It also easily stands as the Bomb Squad's finest musical moment. Where Millions was all about aggression -- layered aggression, but aggression nonetheless -- Fear of a Black Planet encompasses everything, touching on seductive grooves, relentless beats, hard funk, and dub reggae without blinking an eye. All the more impressive is that this is one of the records made during the golden age of sampling, before legal limits were set on sampling, so this is a wild, endlessly layered record filled with familiar sounds you can't place; it's nearly as heady as the Beastie Boys' magnum opus, Paul's Boutique, in how it pulls from anonymous and familiar sources to create something totally original and modern. While the Bomb Squad were casting a wider net, Chuck D's writing was tighter than ever, with each track tackling a specific topic (apart from the aforementioned "Welcome to the Terrordome," whose careening rhymes and paranoid confusion are all the more effective when surrounded by such detailed arguments), a sentiment that spills over to Flavor Flav, who delivers the pungent black humor of "911 Is a Joke," perhaps the best-known song here. Chuck gets himself into trouble here and there -- most notoriously on "Meet the G That Killed Me," where he skirts with homophobia -- but by and large, he's never been so eloquent, angry, or persuasive as he is here. This isn't as revolutionary or as potent as Millions, but it holds together better, and as a piece of music, this is the best hip-hop has ever had to offer” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: 911 is a Joke
Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black
Release Date: 1st October, 1991
Labels: Def Jam/Columbia
Producers: Gary G-Wiz The Bomb Squad (exec.)/The Imperial Grand Ministers of Funk
Standout Tracks: Nighttrain/Can't Truss It/Bring tha Noize
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Public-Enemy-Apocalypse-91-The-Enemy-Strikes-Black/master/30225
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2UqKqZofb9pdapHk4HzRUo
Review:
“When Chuck calls out, ”Here comes the drums!” on ”Truss,” he invokes the music’s African rhythmic base. Between the syncopated verses are melodic interludes that spell the song’s march. This contrast between African and European musical modes parallels the ambivalent feelings that are part of the black American experience.
Apocalypse ’91 gives us PE’s hardest-hitting music ever. Hank Shocklee’s Bomb Squad production turns the rhetoric into kinetic sensations. Keening noises rise out of steamroller grooves. Two tracks, ”Lost at Birth” and ”Rebirth,” reassemble key sounds and words from PE’s past into edgy, jazz-metal abstractions.
At a time when some West Coast rappers concentrate on unfocused anger and profanity, this album finds Public Enemy theorizing about black discontent with a close-up, street-life focus, while insisting that rap be more than the whine of crybabies or thugs. Apocalypse ’91 has an emotional and intellectual sweep, advancing political awareness along with fellow feeling, enlightenment with pleasure” – Entertainment Weekly
Choice Cut: Shut ‘em Down
The Underrated Gem
How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?
Release Date: 7th August, 2007
Labels: SlamJamz/Redeye
Producers: Gary G-Wiz/Amani K. Smith/Flavor Flav
Standout Tracks: Black Is Back/Harder Than You Think/Amerikan Gangster
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3jnhHyPedm6hlPStXitAsK
Review:
“Starting in a remarkably upbeat mood, HYSSTASPWSTS turns darker when the state of modern R’n’B gets its come-uppance on tracks like “Sex Drugs And Violence “ (featuring the conscious rhymes of a guesting KRS-One), “Frankenstar” or “Amerikan Gangster”. The days of Hank Shocklee’s Bomb Squad may be gone, but Gary G Wiz’s production incorporates enough funk, psychedelic rock and rib-crushing beats to make Public Enemy’s sound almost as insistent as their halcyon days.
Even the man who seemingly single-handedly tried to destroy his band’s legacy, Flavor Flav, reins in his japery and turns in two absolutely fine self-promotional tracks as well as an compelling autobiographical tale on “Bridge Of Pain”. By “The Long And Whining Road” (where Chuck even namechecks his favourite Dylan tracks) the whole vibe’s turned slightly surreal. “Eve Of Destruction” - Barry Maguire’s protest song updated for today’s middle eastern conflict - should convince any doubters that PE still have plenty of thought-provoking moves left.
The sleevenotes address the age-old concerns of any artist who’s suffered at the hands of an industry bent on restricting the output and distribution of musicians’ work. This may obscure the deeper message of PE that resides in the grooves, but in the end this album speaks for itself. A whole generation may just now pay lip service to the legacy of Chuck D etc. but HYSSTASPWSTS stands tall on its own terms” – BBC
Choice Cut: Eve of Destruction
The Latest/Final Album
Loud Is Not Enough (As Public Enemy Radio)
Release Date: 1st April, 2020
Label: The SpitSLAM Record Label Group
Standout Tracks: Food as a Machine Gun/Man Listen/The Kids Ain’t Alright
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Enemy-Radio-Loud-Is-Not-Enough/release/15028551
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0oilBN99CQEXZYMRZrQOCj
Review:
“Enemy Radio is composed of Chuck D, DJ Lord Aswod, and Oakland-based rapper and educator Jahi Torman. It’s supposed to signify a return to Public Enemy’s “two turntables, a mic, and a massive sound system” roots. Jahi has known the crew since 1999 and has recorded music with the crew since the mid-2010s; he’s the frontman for PE2.0, the “next generation” of Public Enemy.
Sonically, Loud Is Not Enough is more Yo! Bum Rush the Show (1987) than Fear of a Black Planet (1990). The beats, produced entirely by David “C-Doc” Synder (a.k.a. the Warhammer), still feel like they’d fit on a Public Enemy album, but they’re often more stark, while still hitting hard. In terms of subject matter, Chuck D and Jahi stay true to their conscious roots, seeking to inspire others to action, as well as educate the younger generation. The project is tight and compact, running at about 32 minutes, but the crew says a lot in a short time period.
The album ends on a fairly melancholy note with “The Kids Ain’t Alright.” It’s fairly pessimistic in its outlook on the future, with Chuck lamenting as he watches this generation’s youth fall into traps set by society. Daddy-O, of Stetsasonic fame, ends the song by decrying the decay of the culture surrounding hip-hop music. “We called Latifah ‘Queen’; you call Megan ‘bitch,’” he notes.
Just as much as any other time in Public Enemy’s existence, the culture needs Chuck D. He’s older and wiser, but still able to examine threats to the oppressed with potent messages and delivery. I’m certainly hoping that as time goes on, whatever viral marketing idea Chuck used in the hopes of hyping Loud Is Not Enough fades into the background, so that the album itself can get the respect it deserves” – Albumism
Choice Cut: STD (Slavery Transmitted Disease)
The Public Enemy Book
Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (33 1/3)
Author: Christopher Weingarten
Publication Date: 21st June, 2010
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Synopsis:
“Christopher R. Weingarten provides a thrilling account of how the Bomb Squad produced such a singular-sounding record: engineering, sampling, scratching, constructing, deconstructing, reconstructing - even occasionally stomping on vinyl that sounded too clean. Using production techniques that have never been duplicated, the Bomb Squad plundered and reconfigured their own compositions to make frenetic splatter collages; they played samples by hand together in a room like a rock band to create a "not quite right" tension; they hand-picked their samples from only the ugliest squawks and sirens.
Weingarten treats the samples used on Nation Of Millions as molecules of a greater whole, slivers of music that retain their own secret histories and folk traditions. Can the essence of a hip-hop record be found in the motives, emotions and energies of the artists it samples? Is it likely that something an artist intended 20 years ago would re-emerge anew? This is a compelling and thoroughly researched investigation that tells the story of one of hip-hop's landmark albums” – Rough Trade