Public Enemy

It’s been 30 years since seminal rap collective Public Enemy first exploded into the world with their iconic debut album Yo! Bum Rush The Show in 1987. 

A uniquely aggressive, politically-charged brand of hip-hop that ran counter to the largely inoffensive party vibes of other rap artists from the same era like the Beastie Boys and Big Daddy Kane. Yo! Bum Rush The Show, and the records that followed it in It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back and Fear Of A Black Planet, became at once one of the defining sounds of East Coast hip-hop as it found its footing in the turn-of-the-decade musical landscape and set the bar and the tone for similarly confrontational and hard-edged groups like N.W.A. and Body Count to follow in their footsteps.

Now in the twilight of their careers, it was never a foregone conclusion that Public Enemy’s vocal faces in Chuck D and Flavor Flav would get together for another album after 2015’s fourteenth studio effort Man Plans God Laughs; Chuck currently getting flammable supergroup Prophets Of Rage off the ground for their debut record and Flav having been relatively quiet in the intervening years. It was a surprise then to receive confirmation of what has heretofore been a secret project from Public Enemy, their fifteenth studio album Nothing Is Quick In The Desert and its official release date next week.

There’s obviously little known about the album at this stage, only a confirmation that it exists and a cryptic statement from Chuck D: “The record business is appearing like a desert, but the music has a life if you look at it right.” The feeling though is that it’s going to be as combustible a Public Enemy record as we’ve ever seen. The Independence Day release date is clearly no coincidence, and you can bet that the United States’ deteriorating sociopolitical climate will be a deeply-explored topic. Donald Trump has assumed presidency since PE’s last album and police brutality and racism are still as rife as ever across America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PaoLy7PHwk

 

Public Enemy have made a career of lining similar issues right in their crosshairs and never being afraid to pull the trigger and, if what we’ve heard from Chuck D’s involvement with Prophets Of Rage as well as the latest album from their contemporaries in Body Count is anything to go by, expect Nothing Is Quick In The Desert to be hard-wired with truth bombs, the kind whose impact would have been maximised by a shock album drop. Anything less would be a disappointment.

It’s unlikely we’ll get a taste of the record before it arrives, reportedly as a free digital download next week, but now seems like no better time for a brand new Public Enemy album and we’ll be waiting on tenterhooks to see what they’ve got in store for the world.

Image: Public Enemy

When Kevin Wells lined up for an autograph with rap legends Public Enemy, he didn’t realise just how unusual his night was about to become.

A gig supporting The Prodigy, a missing taxi and a free Ford Focus all aligned, to give Kevin Wells the story of a lifetime. Wells was lining up to have some merchandise signed at a record store in Sheffield when one of the group’s entourage shouted out “Does anyone have a car, we’re running late?”

Wells obliged, and before long Flavor Flav, Chuck D and two of their entourage were piling into his Ford Falcon.

“We had a right laugh,” he told local paper, The Sheffield Star. “We were chatting away, but the phone was constantly going as their management were clearly worried.”

They needn’t have been though, as the Sheffield local photographer worked the backstreets and navigated the notorious traffic. Yet he probably wished the traffic would prolong the journey a little longer.

“I had a compilation CD I’d made in the car,” Wells told The Guardian. “It was on low but suddenly when Bohemian Rhapsody came on, one of the entourage at the front shouted ‘Bo Rap! Waynes World!’ and they all started headbanging in the back of the car.”

“I kept looking in the rear view mirror and I could see Flava Flav with his sunglasses on and his big clock and I couldn’t believe it.”

Naturally, security at the venue had a little trouble believing that the middle aged Wells in a Ford Focus was carrying the multi-millionaires in his car, but once they show their IDs, they were ushered through.

Ironically, Wells says he wasn’t the biggest fan of their music. However, since the fateful car trip, he says he’s a massive fan of Flavor Flav and Chuck D, and he’s bought the new CD.

Good on you Kevin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPHO5Brsd3E

Last week we posted about a 1980s anti-drug PSA from rappers Run DMC, specially released in support of the US initiative National Prevention Week, aimed at raising awareness about, and treatment of, drug and alcohol abuse.

Now, a second PSA has also emerged, this time from Public Enemy. Originally premiered back in 1987, the video was re-premiered on Ambrosia For Heads.

The clip featured Chuck D, Flavor Flav and Professor Griff, dressed in all-white outfits, talking about how drugs destroy your brain, and about how drug addicts are “pushing up daisies.” Their sentiments are positive and forward-thinking, similar to how Run DMC’s PSA professed the importance of going to school, staying off the streets, and avoiding gangs and drug users. Flav recalls how many of his friends are either dead or in prison as a result of drug use, and that kids shouldn’t go down the wrong track, before it’s too late to turn back.

Unfortunately Flav didn’t exactly take his own advice, once admitting to having spent more than USD$5.6 million on drugs in six years. He was also arrested just last week for multiple charges, including DUI and possession of marijuana. Substance abuse, domestic violence and attempted murder all plague his past, but in spite of this, we can still take his message and learn from it.

Public Enemy are now considered one of the most influential hip hop groups of all time. Back in 1987 however, they had only released their debut album Yo! Bum Rush The Show a few months earlier. It wasn’t until 1988 that they released the mammoth, game-changing It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back.  

National Prevention Week is run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in the US (SAMHSA.) Check out their website for more information, advice and educational tools.