Public Enemy: Classic or Dud?

Pretty fucking unreal live show, even in their mid-40s. Two thumbs way way up

They were amazing at Primavera - I was in tears, it was almost too much. Incomparable with other gigs, just...wow.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/02/AR2009120201455.html

correction

A Nov. 26 article in the District edition of Local Living incorrectly said a Public Enemy song declared 9/11 a joke. The song refers to 911, the emergency phone number.

LOL

fuck "Hazy Shade of Criminal" is so hot; you can hear something ending, it's true; but the mix is like when you hook a video camera to a television and shine the former into the latter: it sounds as deep as infinity, noises going down down down in shrinking focus, like you'd understand the significance of the song if you could just hear it a little closer

"The mistake made with P.E., though, is in seeing them as hip-hop perfected"

well yeah. pre-internet, (in the uk at least) nation was like the citizen kane of rap albums, the album most likely to come in at number one for best rap albums ever, or most likely to feature in best albums ever lists in rock mags (along with 3 feet high), which made it sort of daunting, but these days, with all the golden age coverage on the net that from what ive seen ranks others like rakim or krs more highly, pe seem almost underrated. obv not cool to see them as 'hip hop perfected' at the expense of everyone else, but they do kinda achieve a lot of if not all of hip hop (of that time at least)'s 'ideals', ie political but still funky, sampling pushed to the limits, etc etc.

There was a point (late 80s, early 90s) where I dismissed a lot of great hip hop for not being as ground-breaking/political/high bpms as Public Enemy. Got over that tho.

yeah, for a long time, well maybe until they started to fall off around 93/94, i think they WERE seen as hip hop perfected. which is understandable. though maybe more understandable if you were at least into other hip hop.

the "performing Fear Of A Black Planet in full" tour contains at least as many Nation Of Millions songs as Black Planet songs

Probably a better idea than a new Public Enemy album in 2011, admittedly.

that's a link, btw

I met Chuck D at CBGBs once. I told him I liked PE before Scott Ian told me to. I don't think he believed me though.

http://archivedmusicpress.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/public-enemy-live-at-the-brixton-academy-and-other-live-reviews-12th-december-1987.jpg

^grimey simey poopooing them in 87

There was a point (late 80s, early 90s) where I dismissed a lot of great hip hop for not being as ground-breaking/political/high bpms as Public Enemy. Got over that tho.

understand the consternation, but understandable. a lot of rockist-inspired guilt surrounding PE these days.

well yeah. pre-internet, (in the uk at least) nation was like the citizen kane of rap albums, the album most likely to come in at number one for best rap albums ever, or most likely to feature in best albums ever lists in rock mags (along with 3 feet high), which made it sort of daunting, but these days, with all the golden age coverage on the net that from what ive seen ranks others like rakim or krs more highly, pe seem almost underrated. obv not cool to see them as 'hip hop perfected' at the expense of everyone else, but they do kinda achieve a lot of if not all of hip hop (of that time at least)'s 'ideals', ie political but still funky, sampling pushed to the limits, etc etc.

― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Monday, January 24, 2011 5:54 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark

i don't know why everyone saying something is great is 'daunting' tbh!

nor do i remember people saying it did everything rap could ever do, just that it's fucking amazing.

at the same time, that's a very good review by reynolds. i *think* he'd written nice things about their recorded output before.

not really cool with his assumption about "arbitrarily assumed", just disregarding any idea abt why that might not be so, for instance being kings & queens of memphis and uruk is p first world and a legit counter to imposed low self-esteem

like not saying afrocentricity was the point, or doesn't cause headaches of its own but u know, u can investigate things beyond just assuming its arbitrary

also no idea what the shit abt wedding rings is, which is not good

my guess is that there was a tabloid furore around PE playing hammersmith (which is where the bit at the start of 'nation' comes from), and that PE said it was bullshit and the media lie, and that simey is saying, well yeah they do but i also witnessed some shitty behaviour [from PE fans, we are meant to infer -- potentially dodgy territory, though when i've been in that neck of the woods it's been p clear who is going to a gig and who isn't]

is it clear the type of rings ppl are stealing in the next traincar?

i guess some engagement/sovereign/______ rings could have got caught up too

that or simon reynolds '87 was just into lying about shit

i'm not sayin i'm just sayin [via sr]

First paragraph describes most hip hop shows for the past 25 years.

the "performing Fear Of A Black Planet in full" tour contains at least as many Nation Of Millions songs as Black Planet songs

I take this back: counting Contract On The World Love Jam as play-on music, they did nine out of the 20 songs on Fear, and only seven off Nation Of Millions. At least the latter included Cold Lampin' WIth Flavor, since he wasn't in the country in time for the actual Nation Of Millions In Full show two years ago.

um, that's not exactly "playing "Fear" in full is it, 9 out of 20...

yeah, my point

at least they didn't do Meet The G That Killed Me 3 or 4 times in a row like when I actually saw them on the Tour Of A Black Planet

(they did do it though)

ick (still like that album but damn that track is a dealbreaker)

What the fuck? Why are they even doing that song? I saw them in late 1990, and they didn't do it...but then, given the 90 minute delay after openers Sonic Youth, and the 40-minute Flav solo section in the middle (because Chuck had the flu), they didn't do much of anything.

apparently griff is holding a roundtable discussion tonight at the bar down the block from me

Did you go? Was there exciting news about the Illuminati and Jewish money power?

the new Mojo (brian jones cover) has a little oral history thing with Public Enemy, most of the interesting stuff is the very early days of the WBAU shows and the Spectrum City mobile DJ unit they were before they were a proper group...

aaanyway, not often you hear a genuinely new tidbit about a band like this, but Hank or Keith drops one in a quote in the article...in the early days, before Chuck had really evolved into the groups MC...he said that Eddie Murphy used to get onstage at their shows and do kinda jokes/rapping/MCing/etc!

CRAZY! :)

"Brothers Gonna Work It Out" ended up being my favorite single of theirs, kind of to my surprise because I was such a "Bring The Noise"/"Fight The Power" head

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/public-enemys-private-photographer/

^^ The RUN-DMC pic in that set is nuts. I'd like to hear an album from them in those clothes.

PE = classic.

Are people buying and digesting the albums they make now? I always wonder.

Fassfood is a lot of fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0eOkWEAheE

I have never seen an authoritative account of what happened to the Bomb Squad and why they basically stopped working around '94. For such a groundbreaking production crew, this has always befuddled me.

BOOM, BASS IN YOUR FACE:
Here is that Chuck D & Hank Shocklee Interview

also I think you can still find the Tape Op interview with Shocklee mentioned in there for free, all you have to do is reg for the site. It's pretty eye opening.

I knew that the legalities of sampling probably had something to do with it, but I always suspected there must have been some personal stuff going on as well...? There are plenty of producers who kept working as styles shifted, just seems weird to me that they basically gave up.

https://twitter.com/MrChuckD/status/495741143918071809/photo/1

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BuE58ZfIIAA025Q.jpg

Not so corny anymore huh?

Wow, I just saw that on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Monday.

Hearing whispers of a secret (short) gig at Rough Trade East tomorrow at 6:30

weird & cool: http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/entertainment/329701271.html

That's insane!

Time for me to exit, Terminator Brex-it.

KEXP in Seattle is playing every (discernible) recording sampled on Nation of Millions right now:

https://www.kexp.org/

That album is at least 80% the soundtrack to Wattstax don't @ me