Public Enemy - Fight The Power

ORIGINATION Fear of a Black Planet CD
LAST LISTENED TO last night
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT pretty bloody high
RATING ★★★★★

I was first intoduced to Public Enemy at the height of their powers at the beginning of the '90s. On a trip to Italy in '91 I picked up a copy of It Takes a Nation of Millions. Most likely it was because I had spending money and decided I would rather use it on music, than on some local tat. It was a bold, provocative album and it still is, however it is its successor that I listen to more often these days.

For me, Fear of a Black Planet is bolder, louder, longer and packs more hits. Biggest and boldest of all is the closing track, Fight The Power, which is both one of their funkiest tunes and their most relentless. Deceptively simple sounding, it is as intensely-woven as any Bomb Squad track, a bold mix of beats and samples that keep rolling and bouncing on and on, funky and tough. Over it Chuck D's rap is conscious, unyielding, calling for something more than peacefull acceptance of how things are. It flows smoothly, hitting on the beats, interspersed with some of jester Flav's less wacky interjections, giving Chuck pauses to catch his breath.

There is a fire here, of young bloods looking to kick down the old. Do they really think Elvis was a racist? Or are they rabble-rousing, beating on sacred cows? With PE and Chuck, you just never can tell.

Monday morning mess

The shock of an early alarm and a head full of fuzz confused issues too much this morning. I ended up with a big old mess of random snatches of music. The biggest and most continuous snatch was from AC/DC's Rocker, but this was interspersed with a near equally large dose of Public Enemy's Welcome To The Terrordome, both of which would merit a decent mention in their own right. However, there where so many other bits and random pieces kicking around that it doesn't seem fair to pick out just the two. There was bits of the Beastie Boys The Biz Vs The Nuge, for example and even a part from Chris Morris' Pixies spoof Motherbanger which was a real shot from out of nowhere.

Ultimately, there was just too much random noise for anyone's head on a monday morning. No way to start a week.

Public Enemy - 911 Is A Joke

ORIGINATION Fear Of A Black Planet
LAST LISTENED TO last month
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT not all that high
RATING

At the end of the ‘80s, their were few groups as influential as Public Enemy. Their mix of politically strong rapping with a funky, dense sound collage practically re-wrote hip hop over night, as well as having effects felt throughout rock. Their focal, at least on record, was (and still is) Chuck D, the main rapper. Live, however, Flavor Flav, the second rapper and partly comedic sidekick tended to take the centre stage, with his demented demeanour and penchant for wearing large clocks (to signify what time it was).

In 1990 they released their third album, Fear Of A Black Planet. It was both a critical and commercial success. On 911 Is A Joke, Flav takes centre stage, with a rap spotlighting the deficiencies in the emergency services when it came to helping those in poorer neighbourhoods. Whilst it doesn't have the two-voice interplay that was one of PE's trademarks, it lacked for nothing in its punch. The rap is every bit as hard hitting as Chuck D's, albeit coloured by Flav's skewed take and rhymes. It is also musically one of the high points on an album that has barely a weak second.