From a political pov it's obvious that they'd never make a biopic of public Enemy ala "Straight outta Compton". Cos NWA were offensive and said fuck the police but they weren't really radical at all, in fact they presumably helped Stoke racial fear/hatred of black people living in areas like Compton - I'm wary of saying this but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the perception that someone like Chuck D would have towards them and gangsta rap.
I find efil4zaggin a profoundly depressing album. I suppose it's just deliberately shocking and silly, really, but it still comes across as the most retrograde sort of music imaginable. I guess it set the tone for the Chronic and Doggystyle, though - nihilistic in the main, with the odd pause for reflection.
Of course there's more to Public Enemy than Chuck D. We could have a thread all about Flava Flav by himself, I'm sure. A real living cartoon, that one.
Don't forget The Bomb Squad. The beats are the best thing about PE, imo.
d'ya think the same is occurring with Iraq/Afg vets here and in US?Vietnam vets were directly responsible for injecting a strain of fascism into American life I think. That is the sense I got from watching Rubble Kings. This synergised with street gangs on the one hand and crypto religious orders like NoI on the other.
Their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, was released in 1987 to critical acclaim. The album was the group's first step toward stardom. In October 1987, music critic Simon Reynolds dubbed Public Enemy "a superlative rock band"
d'ya think the same is occurring with Iraq/Afg vets here and in US?
sadlty i think it is
Vietnam vets were directly responsible for injecting a strain of fascism into American life I think. That is the sense I got from watching Rubble Kings. This synergised with street gangs on the one hand and crypto religious orders like NoI on the other.
idk "playing" at militancy - well for Chuck D at least - but the rest of this I totally agree withI was always with NWA - they had a whole moral panic happening when they first came out
whereas PE were always a bit more obviously playing at militancy NWA were just bad lads with dirty mouths