Public Enemy is one of the most influential rap groups to date. While most rap of the 1980s addressed the same subjects as rock— partying, women, relationships, and fashion—Public Enemy pioneered a more confrontational style rooted in social and political issues.
Chuck D formed the group in 1982 while attending Adelphi University on Long Island. He was a disc jockey on the college radio station WBAU, where he met Hank Shocklee and Bill Stephney. Shocklee had begun assembling some tracks for his radio show, and convinced Chuck D (who had spit rhymes at parties as a teenager) to rap over the top. The demo, "Public Enemy #1," was played on WBAU and Rick Rubin, the co-founder of Def Jam Records, heard the track and wanted to sign Chuck D to a contract. The young collegian was reticent until he conceived of a new kind of rap group that directly engaged the problems of the African American community while introducing new, sophisticated musical backgrounds. DJ Terminator X and the Bomb Squad, Public Enemy's production team, employed cutting-edge digital techniques to blend samples from a number of sources— including real sounds like sirens—to create chaotic backgrounds that had audible links to funk and R&B but weren't recognizably lifted from any one song.
Public Enemy, however, was more than a rapper spitting rhymes over beats. On many levels the group challenged societal stereotypes of African American culture. Chuck D brought his childhood friend William Drayton into the group as a fellow rapper. As Flavor Flav, Drayton served as a sort of jester; he wore oversized sunglasses, an alarm clock on a chain, and provided absurdist rhymes that served as counterpoint to Chuck D's serious and sometimes militant lyrics. The Security of the First World Dancers were also an important part of Public Enemy; they performed militarized parodies of the carefully choreographed stage moves of Motown groups like the Temptations while holding fake Uzis.
The militant images presented by Public Enemy, as well as the confrontational nature of their music, were meant to be provocative. It is no surprise that they were controversial. After the release of their first album, It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Chuck D declared rap the "CNN of black America," in that they addressed issues that were important to the African American community. However, some older white listeners assumed he meant that all of their songs were factually based, and they were uncomfortable with the group's calls for revolt against the status quo and its endorsement of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakan. Both black and white teenagers, though, embraced the group, which crossed over to a popular, mainstream audience with Fear of a Black Planet. This success established that rap could be confrontational and challenging and still be accepted as by the record-buying public.
|
 |
|
|
Run-DMC, KRS-One and Boogie Down Productions, Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash
Must Haves:
 "Fight the Power"
"Public Enemy #1"
"Shut 'Em Down"
"By the Time I Get to Arizona"
"9-1-1 is a Joke"
NWA, Ice-T, Ice Cube, Body Count, Arrested Development, and all gangsta rap
|
|
