Good God, Don't You Guys Miss Public Enemy?

My brother was cutting my hair on Saturday afternoon and we got to talking about how horrible hip hop is today. I and some of the other guys there agreed that so much is lacking. I had my bro pop in some old P.E. in order to put an exclamation point on the topic. It was a pleasant and head-nodding reminder of how much I loved me some Public Enemy back in the day. Chuck D's voice was just killer. You'd sound like a fool trying to imitate him. Flav was the perfect comic foil and hype man. Chuck's lyrics were so picturesque at times it was almost frightening. Add to that Terminator X. WHAT!
When they dropped these albums,




Ahh, nobody could touch them!!!!
Where are all the hip hop groups/artists out there who have something to say? They sure aren't on the radio. I remember Chris Rock commenting about this in Rolling Stone. He said something like: "We're in the middle of a war, and all folks have to say on a record is 'everybody in the club gettin' tipsy'. Art sucks right now".
When I read that, I found myself nodding my head in agreement, then shaking it in disappointment.
In order for everyone to get a feel for what I'm saying (especially folks who need some P.E. 101) check out the first verse of Welcome To The Terrordome. Tell me this did not get you hyped!


I got so much trouble on my mind
Refuse to lose
Here's your ticket
Hear the drummer get wicked
The crew to you to push the back to Black
Attack so I sat and japped
Then slapped the Mac(Intosh)
Now I'm ready to mike it
(You know I like it) huh
Hear my favoritism roll "Oh"
Never be a brother like to go solo
Lazer anastasia maze ya
Ways to blaze your brain and train ya
The way I'm livin', forgiven'
What I'm givin' up
X on the flex hit me now
I don't know about later
As for now I know how to avoid the paranoid
Man I've had it up to here
Gear I wear got 'em goin' in fear
Rhetoric said
Read just a bit ago
Not quittin' though
Signed the hard rhymer
Work to keep from gettin' jerked
Changin' some ways
To way back in the better days
Raw metaphysically bold
Never followed a code
Still dropped a load
Never question what I am God knows
Cause it's comin' from the heart
What I got better get some
(Get on up) hustler of culture
Snakebitten
Been spit in the face
But the rhymes keep fittin'
Respects been givin' how's ya livin'
Now I can't protect a pad off defect
Check the record
An reckon an intentional wreck
Played off as some intellect
Made the call, took the fall
Broke the laws
Not my fault they're fallin' off
Known as fair square
Throughout my years
So I growl at the livin' foul
Black to the bone my home is your home
So welcome to the Terrordome

I feel ya. The best thing groups like PE can do is get all their stuff re-issued and show the new generation how it's done. I already got my 16 year old son bobbin' his head to It Takes A Nation of Millions.....Today's hip-hop is a joke and I don't know how many times we gotta say that.

OdysseyMiles said:

Waldo Jeffers had reached his limit.

My shop! www.cafepress.com/spacequake

minneapolisgenius said:

TheOrgerFormerlyKnownAs said:

I feel ya. The best thing groups like PE can do is get all their stuff re-issued and show the new generation how it's done. I already got my 16 year old son bobbin' his head to It Takes A Nation of Millions.....Today's hip-hop is a joke and I don't know how many times we gotta say that.

OdysseyMiles said:

minneapolisgenius said:

oh my God is that Bob Ross in your avatar??!

You better believe it, babe.

Waldo Jeffers had reached his limit.

My shop! www.cafepress.com/spacequake

I don't care what anybody says; nobody in hip hop ever had the artistic and social impact of Public Enemy. They were Gil Scott Heron and The Last Poets set to hard Funk and just some whirlwind sonic chaos that could never be categorized. Yet, non-Blacks in sometimes the least integrated areas still showed up at their gigs.

The Bomb Squad many times took obscure elements to make sonic collages from well-known records and a lot of people couldn't place it, although they knew they'd heard it SOMEWHERE before. Chuck's voice cut thru it all while his flow was as consistent as melted butta, and Flava Flav's songs were the contrast of comic relief. And how 'bout them S1W's? They were like the Black Panthers as dancers doing military drills.

During the late '80s-very early '90s Hip Hop as a whole showed growth, later on that growth was stunted by gangsta rap, "bling bling", etc...

Supernova said:

strange...today on MTV I saw a video from PE with Moby....anyone else in Europe see it?
I'm sure the shit is too controversal for the Amercian audience. Has alot to do with the war and the governement.



by the way...Odyssey..I love your avvie!!! I love Bob Ross..in the land of happy little trees!!!

They have a best of coming in September, along w/ a DVD of ALL their videos, with commentary by Chuck!!!

Then, later on is a reissue of Nation of Millions with a DVD (possibly 2 cds, but not sure, it's coming as Uni's Sound + Vision, which is usually 2cd's and a dvd.

Can't wait!!!

Supernova said:

minneapolisgenius said:

OdysseyMiles said:

This is one of my favorite albums of all time.



I should've added it to my top 20 list come to think of it.

for me, it's all about THIS ALBUM RIGHT HERE:

But PE are still about, right?!

98's 'He Got Game', although slept on by most, is absolutely brilliant! 'There's a Poison' wasn't too bad either.

CinisterCee said:

minneapolisgenius said:

This is one of my favorite albums of all time.



I should've added it to my top 20 list come to think of it.

It Takes A Nation.. was actually in my list.

Waldo Jeffers had reached his limit.

My shop! www.cafepress.com/spacequake

FiveFootNine said:

strange...today on MTV I saw a video from PE with Moby....anyone else in Europe see it?
I'm sure the shit is too controversal for the Amercian audience. Has alot to do with the war and the governement.



by the way...Odyssey..I love your avvie!!! I love Bob Ross..in the land of happy little trees!!!

FiveFootNine said:

strange...today on MTV I saw a video from PE with Moby....anyone else in Europe see it?
I'm sure the shit is too controversal for the Amercian audience. Has alot to do with the war and the governement.



by the way...Odyssey..I love your avvie!!! I love Bob Ross..in the land of happy little trees!!!

Anxiety said:

for me, it's all about THIS ALBUM RIGHT HERE:

OdysseyMiles said:

TheOrgerFormerlyKnownAs said:

I feel ya. The best thing groups like PE can do is get all their stuff re-issued and show the new generation how it's done. I already got my 16 year old son bobbin' his head to It Takes A Nation of Millions.....Today's hip-hop is a joke and I don't know how many times we gotta say that.

YES. You are teaching him the real deal right there. I got a letter from the government/the other day...

I never was a big fan of Public Enemy so I don't miss them. But I do agree that it would be nice to see a bit more variety in the lyrics of today's rap. How many times can a guy rap about bitches and money?

Co-sign O-Miles and 'Nova and er'body else.

"Nation of Millions" was the Nevermind and Sgt. Pepper's of hip-hop, and its signature track, "Rebel without a Pause," is one of the most influential pop music tracks of the last 20 years. With an enlightened, fiery MC, the ultimate "hype man," a devastating DJ and a groundbreaking production team, PE (and several other legends) took hip-hop from fad to art form. But unlike other great acts of the time -- Boogie Down Productions, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest -- Nation of Millions was hip-hop's declaration of independence. It showed that true hip-hop artists could take rhyming and scratching to artistic heights. It is one of the most important albums of the last 2 or 3 decades, IMHO.

And Fear was more than a worthy follow-up. With tight production, great, topical lyrics, it managed to be militant and unifying at the same time. While it spoke on controversial issues like racial violence, race politics, the persecution of black celebrities and the negative images emanating from Hollywood, it also called for the elimination of race and pled for unity. Few acts other than PE could speak so fervently for black power AND integration at the same time, with the same force. "Fight The Power" could very well be Hip-Hop's anthem.

These 2 records alone establish a rich legacy for hip-hop that many of today's neo-minstrels have squandered by perpetrating every negative stereotype PE fought to erase. Some of that work has its place in the genre, but imagine if everybody on the East Coast emulated NWA and Too Short in the late 80's and early 90's? Had that happened, hip-hop would have died a long time ago. Thankfully, from the late 80's to the mid-90's, many artists built the foundation for the hip-hop that, lord willing, will survive this current haze. PE was one of those legends.

Good thread!