Entertainment For Lively Minds
Public Enemy
Posted by Chimney Singing... on 9 October 2009 - 9:36am.
As my ipod did its shuffle thing through a painful hangover this morning, I was reminded of the total brilliance of Public Enemy. One of the first albums I bought as an 11 year old was 'Fear of a Black Planet' and time does not dull the impact of the wisdom, fierce intelligence and authority of Chuck D and the full on assault of the Bomb Squad production. Chuck D could tell me that water was dry and I'd believe him. I think I love him a little bit. It's incredible how ahead of their time they were, lyrically and musically...
The hangover has eaten my ability to articulate my thoughts so excuse the burblings. Actually I think I'm still shitfaced so here's an overlooked Word-friendly gem from their later period
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Tune
*what* a voice.
Great as this is,
I'd suggest it's not representative of the incendiary sonic assault associated with the Enemy, which made them such a seminal group (rock journo cliches coming in thick and fast!)
Exhibit A:
I met Chuck D a few years ago
He called me sir. With that voice. Made my decade.
In the late 80s/early 90s we used to go to parties and get down to the PEs who, lyrically, were the polar opposite of the piano tinged house music also getting played out at the same parties. The strange world of middle England party music.
Saw Public Enemy headlining Saturday night at Reading in 1992.
Still the best gig I've ever been to.
Incendiary sonic assault, Mikhail?
Good call - let's have some of that
Saw them at Reading
In the early nineties and they were excellent. They were perhaps one of the few headliners with their own uniformed security force patrolling the stage.
/Users/trevelyan/Desktop/Public+Enemy.gif
The uncannable rhyme animal
I met Chuck D in 2002 while working with a film-maker who was commissioned to make a short about the Triptych Festival. I was somewhat surprised and overwhelmed to be asked to conduct an interview with Chuck D about his thoughts on file-sharing and his trip to Glasgow.
You can see the video at http://www.vimeo.com/604210 (interview starts at 04.30) and remember to watch out for my small, terrified face to the left of the screen.
And here's the man on Newsnight