Recommendations of the Editorial team
Nobody has even more politicized the hip -hop as public enemy. I put them on the same level as Bob Marley and a handful of other people who make great music and at the same time have a political and social message. But where Marley’s music gently lifts you up and the message then puts on the back, grab Chuck D while collar and forces you to listen.
I still know how I heard “Rebel Without a Break” for the first time. We were on tour with run-DMC, and one day Chuck D put on a tape that had just finished. For the first time, they had combined these screeching wind players with this incredibly fat beat – I had never heard anything like this before.
When later “IT Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back” came out, I kept hearing “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”. The statement that the prison system in the United States today has many parallels to slavery was just as amazing as music: the Isaac-Hayes-Sample and Chuck DS rhymes about the outbreak from captivity. This is often the case with them, you feel like you are in a film.
PE has completely changed the scene musically. Nobody made hip -hop with pure noise and atonal synthesizers, no mixed things from James Brown and Miles Davis, nobody had been so hard until then. They were also the first rap force to really concentrate on their albums-you can listen to “Nation of Millions” or “Fear of a Black Planet” from start to finish, these are not just a few arbitrarily thrown-out songs.
For me, Chuck D is the most important MC in hip -hop. As far as his MC talent is concerned, he is clearly one of the best. His power and rhythms in lines such as: “Yes/ the Rhythm, The Rebel/ Without A Pause/ I’m Lowering My Level”, nobody can get there.
Public Enemy made hip -hop that was more than just entertainment
And when you consider what he actually says, then nobody can hand him the water anyway. He and Flavor Flav are an unbeatable team. Chuck is so straight and direct, and Flav contributes this wild, unpredictable element. They complement each other perfectly.
Public Enemy made hip -hop that was more than just entertainment. You have encouraged many people to believe that you can change things with music.