Public Enemy rewrote the laws of hip-hop, becoming one of the most influential and controversial rap groups of the late 1980s. To a huge number of listeners, they are the most influential rap group of all time.
The band based their music on Run-DMC street beats and Boogie Down Productions gangsta rhymes. They pioneered hardcore rap that was musically and politically revolutionary.
Lead rapper Chuck D's recognizable baritone voice has become a hallmark of the group. In their songs, the band touched on all sorts of social issues, especially those that concerned black representatives.
In the process of promoting their music, stories about the problems of black people in society became the hallmark of rappers.
While the early Public Enemy albums released with Bomb Squad earned them a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the artists continued to release their canonical material until 2013.
The band's musical style
Musically, the band was as revolutionary as their Bomb Squad. When recording songs, they often used recognizable samples, the howl of sirens, aggressive beats.
It was hard and uplifting music made even more intoxicating by Chuck D's vocals.
Another member of the band, Flavor Flav, became famous for his appearance - comical sunglasses and a huge watch hanging from his neck.
Flavor Flav was the band's visual signature, but it never took the audience's attention away from the music.
During their first recordings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the band often received mixed reviews from audiences and critics due to their radical stance and lyrics. This especially affected the group when their album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) made the group famous.
After all the controversy was settled in the early 1990s, and the group went on hiatus, it became clear that Public Enemy was the most influential and radical group of its time.
Formation of the Public Enemy group
Chuck D (real name Carlton Riedenhur, born August 1, 1960) founded Public Enemy in 1982 while studying graphic design at Adelphi University in Long Island.
He was a DJ at student radio station WBAU where he met Hank Shockley and Bill Stefney. All three shared a love for hip hop and politics, which made them close friends.
Shockley collected hip hop demos, Ridenhur perfected Public Enemy's No. 1 first song. Around the same time, he began appearing on radio shows under the pseudonym Chuckie D.
Def Jam co-founder and producer Rick Rubin heard the Public Enemy No. 1 cassette and immediately approached Chuck D, hoping to sign the band to a contract.
Chuck D was initially reluctant to do so, but developed the concept of a literally revolutionary hip hop group that was based on extreme beats and socially revolutionary themes.
Enlisting the help of Shockley (as a producer) and Stefni (as a songwriter), Chuck D formed his own team. In addition to these three guys, the team also included DJ Terminator X (Norman Lee Rogers, born August 25, 1966) and Richard Griffin (Professor Griff) - the group's choreographer.
A little later, Chuck D asked his old friend William Drayton to join the group as a second rapper. Drayton came up with an alter ego Flavor Flav.
Flavor Flav, in the group, was a court jester who entertained the audience during Chuck D's songs.
Group's first entry
The debut album of Public Enemy Yo! Bum Rush the Show was released by Def Jam Records in 1987. The powerful beats and excellent pronunciation of Chuck D were highly appreciated by hip-hop critics and ordinary listeners. However, the record was not so popular as to get into the mainstream movement.
However, their second album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was impossible to ignore. Under Shockley's direction, Public Enemy's (PE) production team, Bomb Squad, developed the band's unique sound by incorporating some funk elements into the songs. Chuck D's reading has improved and Flavor Flav's stage appearances have become more comical.
Rap critics and rock critics called It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back a revolutionary record, and hip-hop unexpectedly became the impetus for further social change.
Contradictions in the work of the group
As the group Public Enemy became very popular, its work was criticized. In a notorious statement, Chuck D said that rap is "black CNN" (an American television company) telling what is happening in the country, and in the world, in a way that the media could not tell.
The band's lyrics naturally took on new meaning, and many critics weren't thrilled that black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan approved of the band's song Bring the Noise.
Fight the Power, the soundtrack to Spike Lee's controversial 1989 film Do the Right Thing, also caused an uproar for "attacks" on the famous Elvis Presley and John Wayne.
But this story was forgotten due to an interview for The Washington Times in which Griffin spoke about anti-Semitic attitudes. His words that "Jews are responsible for most of the atrocities that occur around the globe" were met with shock and outrage from the public.
White critics, who had previously praised the band, were particularly negative. Faced with a serious crisis in creativity, Chuck D came to a standstill. First, he fired Griffin, then brought him back, and then decided to completely dissolve the team.
Griff gave another interview in which he spoke negatively about Chuck D, which led to his final departure from the group.
New album - old problems
Public Enemy spent the rest of 1989 preparing their third album. She released the album Welcome to the Terrordome as her first single in early 1990.
Once again, the hit single sparked relentless controversy over its lyrics. The line "still they got me like Jesus" was called anti-Semitic.
Despite all the controversy, in the spring of 1990, Fear of a Black Planet received rave reviews. Several singles, namely 911 Is a Joke, Brothers Gonna Work It Out and Can, made the top 10 pop singles. Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man was a top 40 R&B hit.
Album Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black
For their next album, Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black (1991), the band re-recorded Bring the Noise with thrash metal band Anthrax.
This was the first sign that the group was trying to unite its white audience. The album was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews upon its fall release.
It debuted at No. 4 on the pop charts, but Public Enemy began to lose grip in 1992 while touring and Flavor Flav constantly got into legal trouble.
In the fall of 1992, the band released the Greatest Misses remix compilation as an attempt to maintain their musical viability, but were met with negative reviews from critics.
After the break
The band went on hiatus in 1993 while Flavor Flav was overcoming drug addiction.
Returning in the summer of 1994 with the work Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age, the group was again subjected to severe criticism. Negative reviews were published in Rolling Stone and The Source, which significantly affected the perception of the album as a whole.
The album Muse Sick debuted at No. 14 but failed to produce a single hit single. Chuck D left Public Enemy while on tour in 1995 as he severed ties with the Def Jam label. He created his own label and publishing company to try and reimagine the band's work.
In 1996, he released his first debut album, The Autobiography of Mistachuck. Chuck D has revealed that he plans to record a new album with the band next year.
Before the record was released, Chuck D assembled the Bomb Squad and began work on several albums.
In the spring of 1998, Public Enemy returned to writing soundtracks. He Got Game didn't sound like a soundtrack, but like a full length album.
By the way, the work was written all for the same Spike Lee. Upon its release in April 1998, the album received excellent reviews. Those were the best reviews since Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black.
The Def Jam label refused to help Chuck D bring music to the listener via the Internet, the rapper signed a contract with the network's independent company Atomic Pop. Prior to the release of the band's seventh album, There's a Poison Goin' On..., the label made MP3 files of the record to post online. And the album appeared in stores in July 1999.
Early 2000s to the present
After a three-year hiatus from recording and moving to the In Paint label, the band released Revolverlution. It was a combination of new tracks, remixes and live performances.
The CD/DVD combo It Takes a Nation appeared in 2005. The multimedia package contained an hour-long video of the band's concert in London in 1987 and a CD with rare remixes.
The studio album New Whirl Odor was also released in 2005. The album Rebirth of the Nation, with all the lyrics written by the Bay Area Paris rapper, was supposed to be released with him, but it didn't appear until early next year.
Public Enemy then entered a relatively quiet phase, at least in terms of recordings, releasing only the 2011 remix and rarities compilation Beats and Places.
The band returned in 2012 with huge success, releasing two new full-length albums: Most of My Heroes Still Don't Appear On No Stamp and The Evil Empire Of Everything.
Public Enemy also toured extensively throughout 2012 and 2013. Their second and third albums were re-released over the next year.
In the summer of 2015, the band released their 13th studio album, Man Plan God Laughs. In 2017, Public Enemy celebrated the 30th anniversary of their debut album Nothing Is Quick in the Desert.
