As a rap group, NWA took all the glory. But Public Enemy was just as big. If not, bigger in those days. In my opinion both "It takes a nation of millions to hold us back" and "Fear of a black planet" don't get the attention they deserve nowadays. If you decide to react to more Public Enemy, start with: - Don't believe the hype - Black steel in the hour of chaos - Night of the living baseheads - Welcome to the terrordome - Rebel without a pause
Public Enemy is the greatest rap group/act in history. In the late 80s and early 90s, most rap groups and acts knew they weren't going to compete with Public Enemy sonically. NWA were also game changers, taking gangsta rap mainstream along with Ice T - but no other group had a three album run as strong as PE between '88 and '91.
NWA is no Public Enemy and in the early 90's there would have been no comparison, but when Hiphop became a weapon against our development, PE was no longer relevant in gang culture.
Ooooh, is it time for a Public Enemy deep dive? Then I have some suggestions: "Rebel Without a Pause," "Bring the Noise," "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos," "Prophets of Rage," "Welcome to the Terrordome," "Shut 'Em Down," and "He Got Game." I saw Public Enemy play a free show at Betsy Head Park in Brooklyn back in 2016, and they sound just as good now as they did in 1989.
This is one of the most iconic protest songs ever made, the song is talking about social injustice then and what's still going on more than 30 years later.
It is brilliant..I had never heard of politics and race issues in hiphop before them..and damn they did it so well.. That music clip was Spike Lee..multi award film maker almost always dealing with race issues..…S.1.Ws looking all black panther..haha. They were an awesome group
This is during a time when wrap actually meant something. Rap came from struggle and was meant to say something profound and encouraging to the people. How I miss those days…
Yep, PE weren't here to tell stories. They were up there demanding empowerment and real change. All a bit threatening really, which is probably why the most important hip hop act of their time has been so conveniently forgotten in favour of NWA's gangsta posturing.
Agreed mate,I may have been a teenage white British kid but coming from a poor family and poor education, listening to Public Enemy had a positive effect on me.
Chuck D. & Flava Flav representing East Coast Hip Hop! Man, that was serious rilvary. 😳 Public Enemy was the 4th Hip Hop Artists inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame behind Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Run-DMC, & Beastie Boys. N.W.A. was next. Fantastic group! ✌❤🎵
LOL why the FUCK is it called the ROCK & ROLL hall of fame if they include rappers in it??? Seems silly to me. If you ask me, it would be better to just have several hall of fame categories with the different genre's.
@Rose Madder haha,I do remember playing Lil Louis 'French Kiss' only on my headphones,don't think my parents would appreciate hearing a woman having an organism 🤭
They were speaking out on things that are still happening in the world. Another good song by them is “Don’t Truss It”. Also this song was the theme to the classic Spike Lee movie “Do The Right Thing “.
If I recall correctly it was the same time they started with the parental advisory labels on rap and rock, even dragging artists before government hearings. It was a crazy time and just coming off the Satanic panic.
Public Enemy-911 Is A Joke Public Enemy-Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya, Man Public Enemy-Brothers Gonna Work It Out Public Enemy-Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos Public Enemy-Can't Truss It
This track ends where maybe you should take a listen to, Don't Believe the Hype. I love this old school stuff, and the messages are still as strong now as they ever were. Keep it going 💜
Public Enemy is legendary. Bring the Noise with Anthrax is one of my favorites. Cant Truss it, Party for Your Right to Fight, Can’t Do Nuthin for You Man, Don’t Believe the Hype, Fear of a Black Planet…so many good songs. Bring conscientious rap back!
Watch the movie Do The Right Thing. This song was on the sound track. Came out 1989-90. Flav doesn’t rap, he’s the hype man. PE is a political/conscious rap group. Flav released his own album years later…check out “911 is a joke.”
Tribe called quest, Jungle Brothers, Brand Nubian, and De La Soul, were known as the "Native tongues" all of it conscious hip hop. Tribe called quest: Check the rhyme... Brand Nubian: One for all, & all for one... De La Soul: Potholes in my Lawn...
@@charliegeorge9393 Rapping is what an MC does, meaning "Microphone Controller". Hip Hop is a culture within itself. (But you are correct) I was one of the fortunate ones to experience that era, where it started. New York City...Born, and Bred.
More PE! Can't Truss it, is a good one from them. They were entertaining as hell and raised a lot of relevant questions. Flava Flav was the hype and comic relief for Chuck D, who was deadly serious, but had amazing flow, cadence and bars. Great reaction!
I'm curious, how do you know Chuck D as a personality without having heard Public Enemy? They were HUGE in '89 when Spike Lse used this song for the intro for his movie DO THE RIGHT THING! What happened in the 80s? REAGAN! After it seemed as if people of various ethnic groups were starting to make some progress, President Reagan was elected and seemed determined to return the country to before FDR was elected in the 1920s! It's astonishing how much damage he caused and how we're still dealing with it today! Read SCREWED by Thom Hartmann who sums it up nicely!
Such an important group and song. Game changer. I thought of this last summer during the protests. My generation was fighting for the same things in the late 80s and early 90s.
Public Enemy's DJ is Terminator X. He made a solo project called "Terminator X and the Valley of the Jeep Beets." It's a low-key classic. Please check it out if you haven't.
Dude, just wanna say how much I enjoy your videos. You always have such a kind, gentle, positive vibe. There’s so much negativity all over, it’s nice that every time I see one of your Thumbnails come through, I can catch something positive. Keep it up, man!
This song put it down for the new young and upcoming group of brothers and sisters who had a voice regarding the injustice they were facing in society. Hip Hop gave them this platform and they took advantage of it. Public Enemy spoke out about freedom of speech, racism, oppression, police brutality, This lead to kneeling during the National Anthem and birth of BLM. When this rap dropped during the movie Do The Right Thing, everyone in the theaters stood up and started marching and chanting. Plus Roise Perez dance step just hyped it up even more!!
Met him once in a motorway service area in the UK. He was walking off a tour bus to get a KFC meal. We exchanged pleasantries, nice enough guy. Amazing no one else seem to recognise him!
Yes..Yes..Yes!. These guys were HUGE. The second Hip Hop Album I ever purchased in my generation. Educated me in so many ways. I was very into lyrics from birth never missed reading to every track. Brilliant. Was some cussing but at respectable limits and had some clean versions. Most parents when I grew up.. wouldn't allow us to play NWA that young. Chuck D is one of the most brilliant Lyricist's. He is an incredibly educated man. His personality and artistry is dignified. Flavor Flav was also more powerful than people realized. Changed my childhood.
The emblem on the clock & stage is their logo. It's a B Boy, aka rapper in a rifle's cross hairs. If you react to only one other P.E. video, please check out "By The Time I Get To Arizona." It was about New Hampshire & Arizona being the last two states not to acknowledge Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday as a holiday. Very deep lyrics, imagery & a hell of a beat. Truly an iconic video.
I remember when that stuff about Elvis in this song freaked some people out. That's the best kinda rock, punk, hip hop 'tude. Righteous anger. Great music.
So hip-hop in the late 80s and early 90s was very diverse. There were many different topics being thrown around, from party jams, gang culture, uplifting black culture and black pride. Public Enemy was big on uplifting black culture and pride in who we are. Most of their albums focused on giving power to the people. During this time, they weren't the only groups doing it. X-Clan, Brand Nubian, Poor Righteous Teachers were other groups that were doing it to name a few.
This is Ed koch's new york at the time of this song. In nyc it was a very violent time, horrible poverty conditions, Crack is running rampant, totally destroying families, tremendous police brutality
This track was released in 1989 (as you hear at the beginning of the song). There was nothing specific that P.E. was protesting, more like a combination of things such as civil rights, freedom of speech, equality, government control, etc.
it was with this piece that hip hop caught me, at the cinema by surprise when I went to see do the right thing, in subtitled version at the time because I am French, it was a revolution for me no more rock pop for a good ten years, it was the beginning of the golden age of rap..
Did anyone already say that you should watch Spike Lee’s movie Do the Right Thing? This song figures prominently in the movie. This song is a hip-hop CLASSIC.
I’m so happy you are listening to Public Enemy. Chuck D is masterful! Please listen to more !! “By the Time I Get to Arizona,” “Shut ‘Em Down,” “ Bring the Noise” (with Anthrax), “Welcome to the Terrordome.”
Love to see the younger generation listening to what I listen to when I was 16. I’m now 48 years old and this song STILL has a strong grip on what is happening today as well as 1989.
I went to a boy's monastery boarding school in England, and as a 12 year old I used to listen to this non-stop. It was my own call to arms. Privileged? Perhaps, but boy did it hit the mark
Chuck D. Now says that he actually had no idea how George Michael and Elvis were in real life and just went with what he heard. Because: - He said that George Michael had no business being at the Soul Train awards and winning the award for best album, because of him being white. But when he met George Michael, the latter was going "I was voted in thanks to a black audience, what was I supposed to do, refuse it?" - And he said "Elvis was a hero to most but done nothing for me, straight up racist." When in reality Elvis donated a lot of money to the black community, had black musicians in his band and insisted they'd be paid the same amount as his white musicians and when promoters would say "We will only let you play if you leave the black musicians at home!" he'd tell them "Then I will NOT play!" You reacted to Living Colour before (Cult of personality) they had a song called "Elvis is dead" which is about people selling his image and making millions off his name. In that song they quoted Chuck D. Directly "Elvis was a hero to most, but that was besides the point, a black man taught him how to sing and then he was crowned king." In that same song, a contemporary of Elvis, Little Richard shows up and puts the record straight: Elvis was NOT racist.
I was in LA in 2007 for my honeymoon and my wife and I went to a bowling joint. We started bowling and looked to my left and Flavor Flav was bowling in the next lane and we got a photo with him boyeeeee
One of greatest rap songs of all time.As Chuck D said,it once took a nation of millions to hold us back,now it takes a nation of millions to hold their suitcases.
They actually released a rerecording of this last year with a bunch of guests and I'd say it's almost as good. Nas and Rapsody killed it on their verses but everyone was great.
"Flavor Flav explains that he wears the clock to embody how precious time is. in June 1994, he turns up six days late for an NME interview with the words , "Sorry I'm late, G".Photographer Kevin Cummins replies : "Well, you are the c..t with the clock round his neck"" John Harris - Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll
If you want to know what this song was about when it came out in the 80s, all you have to do is watch the movie DO THE RIGHT THING by Spike Lee, which featured this song.
They have so many songs. My brother used to listen to them all the time. Flavor flav...so many songs you can listen to that were mentioned by others below.
