Public Enemy- Greatest band ever!

[halftime]

I've not posted on here before but always read it with interest & thought I'd add to this thread...

I spent some time with hank shocklee when he came over to speak at the in the city music conference (in manchester) when I used to work there in 2004/05..

Out of the people I've met in the "industry" he came across as a genuine passionate genius who was really just in the studio having fun with his friends - recording hours & hours of beats/vocals/loops/mixes then spending just as long trying to find the 2 or 3 seconds that they could then build something around...

Sound guy and still as keen nowadays...

(x 1000000 for all music he & the rest of PE inspired people to make..)

 

[barry_abs]

I spent some time with hank shocklee when he came over to speak at the in the city music conference (in manchester) when I used to work there in 2004/05

wow!! hank's a legend.. two of my fave PE tracks are "who stole the soul" and "war at 33 1/3".. hanks 'bring the noise' style at its finest, for me..

 

[Diggedy Derek]

For those who reckon PE only made two good albums, I'd urge you to listen to Bum Rush The Show, which is brutally succinct. It almost feels more militant because it's so sparse. Although Terrordome is a frightful mess, their White Album I guess, there's some fabulously strange abstract things on there. And personally I think Apocalypse 91 has some strong moments on it, especially the opening and "Can't Truss It". It had become a bit knowingly anthemic at that time, but Chuck D's authority makes things like "Shut 'Em Down" work, even if the lyrics were getting a bit bloated somehow.

But that reminds me, I was meaning to start a thread about Chuck D. In many ways, I don't think he's all that great an MC. Sure, he's fabulous on the big tracks, but a lot of them time, he flows in a really over dense jumbled style. Trying to read his lyrics from the booklet is a joylesss experience on many tracks- his verses are just a choppy torrent of rhetoric.

Of course the anthems are great, but there's a surprising amount of filler in his lyrics sometimes. So much so that on Nation Of Millions, the more straight ahead bounce of Flav's "Cold Lampin' With Flavor" comes almost as a relief.

 

[barry_abs]

Trying to read his lyrics from the booklet is a joylesss experience on many tracks- his verses are just a choppy torrent of rhetoric.

yeah, i know what you mean.. i can't say i've ever understood the bits of chuck-d songs between the primary message ("don't do drugs", "why should i want to fight for a country that oppresses black people", etc.)

reading his lyrics is often worthless.. you start off thinking "yeah, let's see where chuck d's really coming from" and end up none the wiser..

let's face it - it's not WHAT he said, it's HOW he said it!

"blah blah blah FIGHT THE POWER [punch air]

blah blah blah 80% PRISON POPULATION BLACK

blah blah THE MEDIA IS FEEDING YOU LIES blah blah etc."

 

[Lewis]

I stumbled across a recent edition of the norton anthology of african american literature in the university library a few months ago. Was surprised [pleasantly] to find that the editors had [somewhat clumsily] appended Chuck Ds lyrics from a couple of ...Nation... tunes into a section on modern/urban black voices. Quite tokenistic i thought, think the only other hip hop entry was flash - 'the message'. Public enemy are a funny one because they seem to be one of the only hiphop/rap acts who will routinely turn up; in Q lists, blase lit crit, guitar-based record collections and who could conceivably be considered as a 'band'.

Anyway I agree that the lyrics don't read particularly fluently, bit too verbose and self referential to work nicely as poetry, which is how they were essentially presented. Great satire/invective tho, and such a distinctly powerful voice more than compensates for any limitations. Surely the best hip hop act there's been.

 

[Edward]

yeah, i know what you mean.. i can't say i've ever understood the bits of chuck-d songs between the primary message ("don't do drugs", "why should i want to fight for a country that oppresses black people", etc.)

reading his lyrics is often worthless.. you start off thinking "yeah, let's see where chuck d's really coming from" and end up none the wiser..

let's face it - it's not WHAT he said, it's HOW he said it!

"blah blah blah FIGHT THE POWER [punch air]

blah blah blah 80% PRISON POPULATION BLACK

blah blah THE MEDIA IS FEEDING YOU LIES blah blah etc."

I'm glad to hear someone else say this out loud!
I always thought it was a load of gobbledygook
"soul on a roll but you trreat it like soap on a rope" etc etc.

But utterly fantastic and I've never cared about lyrics anyway. It's all about the voice and the beats for me.

Public enemy are a funny one because they seem to be one of the only hiphop/rap acts who will routinely turn up; in Q lists, blase lit crit, guitar-based record collections

I'm not a fan of those kinds of writing but in this case you may have answered your own question here:

Surely the best hip hop act there's been.

 

[Grievous Angel]

I spent some time with hank shocklee when he came over to speak at the in the city music conference (in manchester) when I used to work there in 2004/05..

Out of the people I've met in the "industry" he came across as a genuine passionate genius who was really just in the studio having fun with his friends - recording hours & hours of beats/vocals/loops/mixes then spending just as long trying to find the 2 or 3 seconds that they could then build something around...

He's a big fan of Loefah too.

 

[DJ PIMP]

He's a big fan of Loefah too.

Who isn't? Magic ears.

 

[Don Rosco]

yeah but live performance aside, they still didnt play instruments. they didnt appropriate the traditional rock format. and when they did (in the last ten or so years), they became much MUCH lamer to see live.

They didn't need instruments, they had fake Uzis. Guitars, my arse!

I spent some time with hank shocklee when he came over to speak at the in the city music conference (in manchester) when I used to work there in 2004/05..

Out of the people I've met in the "industry" he came across as a genuine passionate genius who was really just in the studio having fun with his friends - recording hours & hours of beats/vocals/loops/mixes then spending just as long trying to find the 2 or 3 seconds that they could then build something around...

There's a couple of good video interviews done for Red Bull. He seems like a lovely fella.

http://redbullmusicacademy.com/LECTURES.95.0.html?act_session=184

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;

My first time was 'You're gonna get yours' off this Def Jam Sampler album which I bought for a beastie boys track. Good God, I didn't know where to look. Completely alien, and utterly, utterly gripping. Picked up 'Yo! Bum rush the show' shortly before 'Nation' came out. What a double whammy! I was all alone though - I got some slagging in school for wearing a bomber jacket with a big public enemy backpatch - 'Nice Pubic Entity jacket, ye sap!'

The thing was though, they actually made me think I really loved Hip Hop, but, in hindsight, what I really liked was mad energetic beats and weird noises. Luckily hardcore turned up.

 

[qwerty south]

it's all about their first album (with a song about a car and a song about a bitch).

 

[Edward]

The thing was though, they actually made me think I really loved Hip Hop, but, in hindsight, what I really liked was mad energetic beats and weird noises. Luckily hardcore turned up.

lightbulb goes on above my head....

 

[baboon2004]

Was conversing about PE the other night - in what alternative universe did 'Don't Believe The Hype' enter the charts at number 9? Thankfully, that universe was this universe .