Though I don't care much for gangsta rap, some of the beats from Public Enemy are actually good like in "Don't Believe The Hype" 8)

Who knew one of the members whould later become an obnoxious reality show personality  ::)

Though I don't care much for gangsta rap,

Public Enemy aren't really "gangsta" rap. Their music is socially conscious, but not gangsta.

  I like Public Enemy.  The beats are as infectious as the hardest rock.  Satish is right - Public Enemy was the first rap outfit to take up a political message.  Chuck D is a poet...

Public Enemy aren't really "gangsta" rap. Their music is socially conscious, but not gangsta.


What you said.  PE's the antithesis of gangsta rap.  Public Enemy, having historically supported Farrakhan, is more anti-gang than Bill Cosby.  But you don't have to endorse Farrakhan's genocidal mania to enjoy good music.

"We got too - too - too much posse."
  - Too Much Posse, 1987, Flava Flav ranting about the inanity and stupidity of gang culture.

"Caught, now in court 'cos we stole a beat, this is a sampling sport!"
  - Caught, can we get a Witness, 1989, a protest against the RIAA lawsuits that effectively killed sampling in the late 80s.

"I learn, we earn, got no concern, instead we're burned - where the hell is our return?
  Plain and symp, the system's a pimp, but I refuse to be a ho.  Who stole the soul?"
  - Who Stole the Soul, 1990, as much a protest against the music industry as it was against white dudes like me :)

"How can you say to me, 'yo mah nigga', cursin' up a storm with yo' finger on the trigger?'"
  - Yo N-word-igga, 1991, taking dead aim at NWA, who brought gangsta rap into the mainstream.

And that's just the old Public Enemy. 

"If I can't change the people around me, I change the people around me."
  - Generation Wrekkked, 1997 -- As in "If you can't change your friends' self-destructive behavior, it's time to get new friends."

And that's just the middle-aged stuff... Chuck's current material is even more vitriolic.

Say what you will about the guy's politics, but Chuck D's been consistently on the side of the artist against the record labels.  One of the things he understood (and that few other artists of the time did) was that sampling was at the core of what made hip-hop great. The lyrics are the important part of the track, but if you take out the ability to sample and loop beats from other artists, there's no music left. 

When you had the entire universe as the playground from which you sampled, you could be choosy about where you got your samples, because someone might come up with better samples than you.  The winning teams were those who could deliver the full package of talented and creative DJs, samplers, and lyricists.  The lawsuits against sampling drove the clever folks out of the industry -- and for proof, I offer the past ten years of mainstream rap/hip-hop:  when you can't sample, you might as well put the drum machine on autoplay.  After all, anyone can do that.  And the problem with mainstream rap/hip-hop was that as soon as "anyone could", well, "everyone did". 

As for anyone who thinks that rap can only be done to the tune of a boring drum machine on auto-loop... seek ye the Danny Saber remix of Generation Wrecked from the soundtrack of the 1997 movie Nowhere.  That backbeat wouldn't have sounded out of place on a Chemical Brothers album.  You could have played it in any electro club and nobody would have batted an eye.

And almost 10 years earlier, you could have played She Watch Channel Zero, from 1989's Nation of Millions, in any metal or industrial club.  Quickly now, was that Public Enemy sampling Slayer's Angel of Death?  And when KMFDM did it in Godlike, were they sampling Slayer or Public Enemy?

Public Enemy raise the bar of where rap music can go. Prior to PE rap thru the lyrics always had a party backdrop. They were always political though some disagreed with their lyrics. At least they were socially conscious of what's going on around them. Their second  release "It takes a nation of millions to hold us back' I considered a classic. Compared to what is hip hop today I would love to go back to 1987-88. 8-P

As for anyone who thinks that rap can only be done to the tune of a boring drum machine on auto-loop... seek ye the Danny Saber remix of Generation Wrecked from the soundtrack of the 1997 movie Nowhere.  That backbeat wouldn't have sounded out of place on a Chemical Brothers album.  You could have played it in any electro club and nobody would have batted an eye.



Agreed. Their greatest period was short-lived ('87 - '92) but were EXTREMELY influencial on ALL musicians.  After break-dancing and Beastie Boys' "License To Ill" faded in 85-86, Public Enemy SINGLE-HANDEDLY brought Rap (not Hip-hop) to the masses again in '89-'90. 

Don't Forget this amazing anthem to stay out of jail - Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos

Don't Forget this amazing anthem to stay out of jail - Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos


Dear Chuck D.:

We're suckers.

Sincerely,
The Government.

Karma for the reminder.  I'm a son of white privilege... but that didn't stop me from having it on repeat during exam time at University.  Nor did it stop me from having a copy burned to CD for the commute home from a job I hated.  Nor does it stop me from having a copy on an MP3 player for long-distance, late-night road trips. 

That track is the Rap equivalent to AC/DC's "Jailbreak".  I love both tracks and keep them available for any appropriate situation.  Even if the only time I've ever actually used it was from being sufficiently courteous, deferential, (and white!) to a police officer that he didn't write me a speeding ticket that we both knew damn well I deserved.

53 miles an hour', y'all.  And - I - was - gone.

Love Love Love old school rap, especially Public Enemy. I can't stand the new style of rap - it's all bravado and, when you really look  at it closely, anti-Black. It's sad. I don't know what went wrong with rap. I was so into it when it first cropped up.

I'm the bassist for a melodic hardcore punk band and I love wearing my Public Enemy shirts on stage. I get a lot of props and comments on them from kids at shows. Public Enemy has a lot of fans in the punk world.

You Can't Spell "CRAP" without "RAP"  ;D ;D