Public Enemy- Greatest band ever!
- Thread starter Woebot
- Start date
swears
preppy-kei
I think he said that he'd made Landcruising an hour long because that was the average length of A PE album, and it was just right.
Obviously a big influence on UR's image and attitude, yes.
Didn't Derrick May call jungle's hip hop-influenced style a "bastardisation" of techno? I always got the impression that first generation techno scene disliked hip hop generally. But that's all second hand from what I've read about it, so I could be misinformed.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Well, Jeff Mills' mixes when he was on WJLB in Detroit were a perfect fusion of hip-hop and house/techno, so Carl Craig is obviously erring on the side of talking shite...
crackerjack
Well-known member
Do you not think he was commmenting more on the Detroit scene's general attitude to hip hop rather than his own view? CC always struck me as being more open-minded than Mad Mike or May, say, but then I'm not a huge follower of the man, so happy to be proved wrong.
swears
preppy-kei
Yeah, probably.
isnt the resason why they were in the NME in the 80s but dont feature in any lists of the greatest these days because of what were known as the "NME hiphop wars" ? ie the attempt by some of the writers to feature a lot of black music vs those who wanted to keep to the traditional guitar band format.
The black music supporters lost because the average NME reader didnt want to read about hiphop, house, soul etc and so the readership plummetted.Hence the reason why it is now unashamedly white guitar music only..or so I've been told...
The black music supporters lost because the average NME reader didnt want to read about hiphop, house, soul etc and so the readership plummetted.Hence the reason why it is now unashamedly white guitar music only..or so I've been told...
crackerjack
Well-known member
That's entirely correct. The hip hop supporters like Stuart Cosgrove were sacked and the NME became New Morrissey Express. This led to the utter farce of a magazine that purported to be on the cutting edge of music championing the likes of Carter USM and Kingmaker while the rest of the nation was giving up guitars for house, techno, hip hop and hardcore.
Curse Britpop for coming along and saving their worthless arse.
the nme is just a specialist mag now. its a indie rock specialist magazine. i thought people might like that more - more 'tribal'. ie, its the mag for indie kids, kerrang is for metallers, hhc is for hip hop heads, etc. isnt this a good thing? everyone has their own mag and their own voice, rather than one big blur, which is kinda what makes music a bit boring at the moment - the fact the consensus for so many records/artists is just the bloody same right across the board.
crackerjack
Well-known member
I know what you're saying Gumdrops, but the NME has a reach and marketing power way beyond those others. I'd have more respect for it if it billed itself as New Indie Express rather than affecting an interest in most relevant forms of yoof music.
crackerjack
Well-known member
I should also add I'm an old bastard who remembers it in the 80s when it was an essential read written by people with a real passion. I'm bitter that it turned into a corporate cocksuck doing the bidding of its marketing dept.
bruno
est malade
the only time i've sat down to read the nme was once at the british institute, they were all cut up (by pulp fans, i think). nothing interesting except for the concert listings, which brought tears to my eyes (seefeel gigs and so on).
as to pe i agree with woebot, they were brilliant.
as to pe i agree with woebot, they were brilliant.
Aye, me as well, it was great in the 80s. It was really left wing also ....I fondly remember the rants by Seething Wells...I also remember the dodgy aspects of PE politics and views on women being castigated by NME writers.
Funnily enough the first time I ever brought it was because they had a big Def Jam logo on the cover.
28 Gun Nice Boy
Well-known member
Probably the greatest musical epiphany of my life was when I was eleven years old and I saw the video to 'Night Of The Living Bassheads' on Rapido, Def 2. That was so powerful, although I've not seen it since and I'm not sure what impact it would have now.
See - I'm an old bastard too!
See - I'm an old bastard too!
Noah Baby Food
Well-known member
Yes, round about 2000 the NME were calling hip hop and r & b the most exciting musical forms around, they were also writing about the more 'commercial'/'street' end of it like Nelly and Ja Rule, rather than the more 'indie' stuff you'd think they'd write about (Anticon, Def Jux etc). They were also big champions of So Solid. The Strokes and the White Stripes really changed all that, also Steven Wells and the like leaving, and mag began the downslide into the commercial indie hair-product-sponsored comic it is today. and i ain't just bitter coz they gave my old act a 3/10 review!
I actually remember one of the writers admonishing a reader who'd written in complaining about Pay As U Go Cartel's "Champagne Dance" being on Top Of The Pops. It was in the form of a 'rap', which went something like "Over twenty years since the birth of rap/Still white guitar fans talking crap". See, I remember that! (sad photographic memory boy...)
ALTHOUGH...Wiley album got quite a gushing 8 out of 10 review the other day. (disclaimer: I do not buy the fucking thing, there are copies in the staff room at my work!)
This is getting off the topic of PE I guess... but it is relevant.
(Slight aside but similar point: The absolute worst thing urban music did in this country was that "Grindie" effort a couple of years ago...Scorcher MCing on a fucking Larrikin Love track? and "Shout out to the Kaiser Chiefs....don't tek man for no FASSY!" etc. It's like, we don't have the integrity to do it on our own terms, let's let these public schoolboys take the piss out of us and fuck our music up the arse...and it IS a pisstake...ironic 'brapping' and 'gang signs'...this shit takes music (and race and class perceptions) back about 30 years.)
I actually remember one of the writers admonishing a reader who'd written in complaining about Pay As U Go Cartel's "Champagne Dance" being on Top Of The Pops. It was in the form of a 'rap', which went something like "Over twenty years since the birth of rap/Still white guitar fans talking crap". See, I remember that! (sad photographic memory boy...)
ALTHOUGH...Wiley album got quite a gushing 8 out of 10 review the other day. (disclaimer: I do not buy the fucking thing, there are copies in the staff room at my work!)
This is getting off the topic of PE I guess... but it is relevant.
(Slight aside but similar point: The absolute worst thing urban music did in this country was that "Grindie" effort a couple of years ago...Scorcher MCing on a fucking Larrikin Love track? and "Shout out to the Kaiser Chiefs....don't tek man for no FASSY!" etc. It's like, we don't have the integrity to do it on our own terms, let's let these public schoolboys take the piss out of us and fuck our music up the arse...and it IS a pisstake...ironic 'brapping' and 'gang signs'...this shit takes music (and race and class perceptions) back about 30 years.)
When Nation of Millions came out I bought it by reputation and attempted to listen to it but experienced some kind of aural shock. It was too hard and abstract for me to get a handle on - I'd never heard anything like it (too black, too strong). I shelved it for some 6 months and came back to it by chance and was blown away. It was absolutely an epiphany; I worshiped PE for the next 5-6 years.
Still my fave hiphop album - crank it up, it just sounds so good.
Still my fave hiphop album - crank it up, it just sounds so good.
barry_abs
lil' beyutch
this became the seminal intro of all time.. i quite liked the Illmatic intro too but nothing raises the neckhairs like the former..
PE had a big effect on me.. had all the albums/dvds.. tagged their logo everywhere.. i loved the bomb squad sound - "wall of noise", like noah said.. for me, it shitted on everything else at the time (dre/nwa, geto boys aside)..
what about professor griff leaving though? he was a militant fucker.. understandably bitter though, living in america! it wasn't long before that white yank devils were lynching black people for farting out of tune.. pricks..
definately one of the most influencial bands ever.. especially in rap music..