Public Enemy

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Public Enemy are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They’ve got a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award, platinum records and sold-out concerts in nearly every country in the world. But their biggest honor isn’t something to put on a shelf or hang on a wall. It’s their ability to stand up to speak out against social injustice. To shine a glaring, jarring spotlight onto the plight of the oppressed and to call for change.

Manufacturing and selling rebellion is easy. An angry scowl here, a clenched fist there, and suddenly you have the appearance of revolt. Living a life of authentic insurrection, however, is an entirely different thing. Public Enemy embody rebellion, long revealing things as they really are, but also demanding how they should be.

Public Enemy have proven that rebellion is more than the sound of a musical genre, the culture of a social class, or the color of a skin; it is an unmovable, unmistakable state of mind and heart. PE are hellbent on creating change where it is needed most. Determined to give voice to those who have long been ignored, unafraid to question institutional injustices, and intent on challenging any and all obstacles to social justice, Public Enemy have resisted with unprecedented intensity and eloquence.

Public Enemy’s classic albums are the soundtrack to hip-hop’s rise as a form of social and political commentary. Their debut record, Yo! Bum Rush The Show, was named Album of the Year by NME, with Rolling Stone claiming that the release “heralded hip-hop’s great leap forward” and The New York Times calling Public Enemy “the voice of a community.” Their sophomore effort, 1988’s It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, was, and still is, one of the most important records ever made. The New York Times added it to their list of 25 Most Significant Albums of the Last Century, crediting the record with setting “a newer, prouder agenda for hip-hop” in which rap was at its “most politically and musically dangerous.”

Fear of a Black Planet featured Public Enemy’s signature song, “Fight The Power,” used by Spike Lee in his film Do The Right Thing. Rolling Stone magazine called it “the ultimate anti-establishment rallying cry.” The album also included the powerful “911 Is a Joke” and “Welcome To The Terrordome.” Apocalypse 91…The Enemy Strikes Black carried on the group’s legacy, hitting #4 on the album chart and going platinum. The record included “By the Time I Get To Arizona,” an emotional demand that America confront race relations after the state’s governor refused to recognize the new Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday.

By 1999, Public Enemy became one of the first acts to become completely independent from the major record label system, recording for Chuck D’s own Slam Jamz record label. That same year, Terminator X retired from the group and DJ Lord took over the turntables.

The group continued to tour the planet year after year and in 2012 Public Enemy’s “Harder Than You Think” went to #1 on the UK urban and indie singles chart and to #4 on the official UK singles chart, their tenth Top 40 hit in England and their highest charting single ever.
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