Public Enemy

If the N.W.A are rap’s Sex Pistols, then Public Enemy are undoubtedly the genre’s answer to The Clash. Chuck D’s mob even go one better than Joe Strummer’s by having never released an album as soul destroying as “Cut The Crap”. That and they’re still together, stronger than ever, although that might be unfair on The Clash seeing as Strummer is, y’know, dead. Anyway, Public Enemy weren’t called “the black CNN” for nothing; they are a fiercely intelligent group and are not and have never been afraid to show it, crafting tracks that crackle with riotous fury and sheer intensity.

They’re not a group for the faint of heart or the soft of head and that’s pretty much a direct result of the groups meeting while at Adelphi University in Long Island, New York. A graphic design student and rookie rapper called Carlton Ridenhour met Hank Shocklee while they both worked at the university’s student radio station. They bonded over a shared love of hip-hop and politics, which they combined when Ridenhour, under the name Chuckie D, rapped over a beat that Shocklee made called “Public Enemy No. 1”.

The track got some radio play among other Long Island colleges, and soon the tape fell into the hands of Rick Rubin, he of Def Jam Records fame, who courted Ridenhour with the intention of signing him to Def Jam. Although he was reluctant at first, the man who would later be called Chuck D started to envision a new kind of hip-hop group, with a hard, harsh and heavy sound backed up with a political manifesto espousing total social revolution.

He knew just the people to contact as well. He enlisted Shocklee to recruit a team of producers, Norman Lee Rogers would DJ under the name Terminator X, Richard Griffin would choreograph their dance troupe “The Security Of The First World” under the name Professor Griff, and finally he recruited his old friend William Drayton to join as a fellow rapper. Drayton created the Flavor Flav persona to act as a laughing, jeering and joking counter point to Chuck D’s intense seriousness, and with that, Public Enemy was born.

Thanks to Rubin’s help, the group made their live debut opening for The Beastie Boys when they were at the peak of their popularity, on the License To Ill world tour. Come 1987, their debut album “Yo! Bum Rush The Show” was released but it wasn’t until their second album, “It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back” that they truly came into their own. The album sold well and even gave them a hit single in the form of “Don’t Believe The Hype”. For a time they were the world’s most dangerous band and simultaneously one of its most critically acclaimed, being the only band in the NME’s half a century history to top their albums of the year list twice and in successive years as well, with “…Nation of Millions…” and its follow up “Fear Of A Black Planet”.

Ever since then, they’ve been hailed as one of the most vital groups of all time, let alone among rap artists, and while their commercial clout might have disseminated given time their intensity, power and influence never have. They can still blow the roof off any venue they play and come highly recommended.