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.
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
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 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 “.
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!
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 💜
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.
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.”
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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!!
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..
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.
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!
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’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.”
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.
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
Public enemy was incredibly important in the day and their message is timeless, unfortunately, as we can see in current situations. Thank you for giving them their air time. There are some excellent recommendations for more of their music below. 🙏👍 I can't help but be reminded of an Isley Brothers song from the same time period called, "fight the power." It's worth a listen. 😉 Love your sensitivity and genuine reactions 💕
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.
After this, the powers that be were scared, and decided to start only promoting gangster rap and help fill their billionaire friends, newly privatized prisons...
Yeah. Us liberal white kids like the stories about drugs, guns and hoodlums. That way we can go on a sonic carnival ride to the hood, get a thrill at being so edgy, then go home to our comfortable existence. We get to pat ourselves on the back and believe we understand that world and the ongoing damage caused by racism and injustice. But a group demanding a seat at our table or even their own table on a level with ours. That's too far.
I''m jealous that you get to hear this for the first time. You've stumbled on one of the best rap groups of all time.
“Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps” genius lyric and Chuck D, Delivers
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
- 911 is a joke
And FAR better.
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.
@@jimdiggs6959 YES
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.
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
💯💯 Kelvin
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.
Prophets for sure!
He doesn't do alit of the same artist in a short period of time
Shut 'Em Down gets criminally overlooked (as does A'91 as an album on the whole). That beat is FUCKING FILTHY.
"Shut'em Down" is my favorite PE song. That hits hard, real hard.
Definitely Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos
A movie reaction to Do the Right Thing is a must. Incredible film.
the pigs killed Radio Raheem!
💯. Rip Bill Nunn(Radio Raheem).
Yes! Yes! Yes!
"I wanna see some brothers on that wall!"
Do the Right Thing is in my top 5 films of all time. I have much respect for Spike Lee.
Is no one going to mention the utter irony that a video for a song called Fight The Power is blocked for copyright?
It's staggering. Sobering. Sad af.
because major record labels
Chuck D has the best flow in Hip-Hop!
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.
Couldn't of said it better myself
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.
@@freethinker-- bro, I was/am a middle class white boy from NZ. This was the most real, visceral and honest music I had ever heard. Still is.
I stopped listening to rap a few years after this...it just wasn't the same.
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.
This is rap in its prime. The golden era for sure.
Flava Flav is a musical prodigy who plays over a dozen instruments. You should check out more Public Enemy, you won't be disappointed!
Was just gonna write exactly this but I actually had the pleasure to see them perform and Flav was amazing on al those instruments
What made Public Enemy stand out was the subtle funk element, James Brown samples are genius 😎
Really? I never knew!
This is another one of those great songs that it doesn't matter what genre of music you usually listen to you definitely love this as well
Yeah,my first Public Enemy album sat alongside Led Zeppelin,Jimi Hendrix,Kate Bush and U2✌️
@Rose Madder I wonder what my mum though when I went from playing 'Since I've been loving you' to 'Can I get a witness' full blast😎
@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 🤭
@Rose Madder 😂 that's what happens when i don't put on reading glasses 🤓
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 “.
still happening? it has always been this way
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!
Check out a UK rapper Dave (Santan Dave).
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
Not generally a rap fan, but I always liked and respected Public Enemy. Saw them live several years ago and it was great.
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 💜
Ronald Regan and the “War in drugs” was happening. Rappers were having a hard time saying what they wanted to say without being banned. ✊🏽
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.
I love to see your reaction to Public Enemy / Anthrax “Bring the Noise”
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.”
The dude has talent he can play piano! And he is a lyricist he just doesn’t do it REAL HIP HOP
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!
"What we need is awareness, we can't get careless!"
That is a helluva bar!
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...
Conscious Rap - the true voice of Rap.
@@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.
This generation of black young people needs an anthem to wake them up to the continuing fight for justice. FIGHT THE POWER!!
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.
This rap is still relevant at this moment. This rap will always be my favourite by them
I was blessed to see them in concert back then.👊🏽
PE was such a socially ahead of its times group, their message still burns strong all these yrs laters as does this beat and video...
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!
Thank you! Reagan started the destruction of this Country that we are dealing with now. Love Thom Hartmann!
Their album Apocalypse 91 is still one of my favourite albums
Chuck D also appears on Janet Jackson's track New Agenda. Dropping knowledge all the time.
Public Enemy are political activists who fight against racism and oppression and injustice. Listen to 'Can't Trust It' or 'Don't Believe the Hype' ✌️
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!
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.
I saw Public Enemy 35 years ago. Great live show!!!
The first time I heard Public Enemy was in 1988. Immediately bought their album. That was in The Netherlands when I was 14 years old.
Eric B & Rakim - Juice (Know The Ledge) next!
Public’s enemy is my favourite group!
Saw them in concert in 1988 I think it was.
I’m in one of their videos, (for about 2 seconds) 😂😂😂
it wasnt about freedom of speech, it was about black folks standinh up and fihjtimg back against oppression....all their music was for the most part
Greatest hype man EVER right there. Public Enemy are legends. They paved the way for Rage Against the Machine. Their message is still relevant today.
Flavor Flav was P.E.s hypeman and that’s what he did! He brought a lot of fun to hip hop
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.
It was an instant classic from the jump 🫡
Australian here- this band resonated with us too. Fucking brilliant
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!!
Chuck's voice hits with the power of thunder and his lyrics have the gravity of lightning. Always been my favorite MC.
These guys sing with a message!
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..
'By the Time I Get to Arizona.' Epic. (That SHI+ been going on for Centuries!)
One of the most important hip hop songs ever written.
This song was actually in a 80s Spike lee movie soundtrack on Do The Right Thing soundtrack is great plus the movie.
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.
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!
In spirit, this is punk rock. Fight the powers that be
the instrumental all by it's self is a fckn beast,
A proud participant of the 92' L.A. riots
I be.✊🏼
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.
Yessssssss Public Enemy. Flavor Flav probably the best hype man ever, "Yeah, boyeeeeee!"
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.”
This is your first time hearing Public Enemy⁉️
What a band. One the greatest Punk Bands of all time...
.
One of greatest songs in rap
“Don’t worry be happy was a number 1 jam,damned if I say it you can slap me right here.”
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.
Excellent track, so many classics on their albums - still relevant.. Flava Flav's catchphrase - "What time is it?"
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.
This is back when hip hop was actually relevant.
Hip-hop was intentionally watered down and made materialistic when the black power movement and public enemy started to gain ground
@@annother3350 yep, and it's such a shame too.
Powerful track from an amazing film.
This song raises the spirits of our ancestors 🔥
The stuff that's going on now in the USA Chuck D talked about it 30 years ago and it's still relevant.
we must always fight the power!
Public Enemy - "Louder than a bomb" is another great one
Actually I meant "Louder than a bomb JMJ Telephone Tap Groove"
U can hear Flavor Flav rap on the the song "911 is a joke" same theme.
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
Why is a monastery privileged? it sounds like my idea of hell
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.
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.
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.
hugely underappreciated Public Enemy track: Shake yo Booty!
In one pole of the top 100 thing it was, songs voted on by other rappers as the best rap/hip hop song of all time.
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 came out in 89… same summer as the Central Park 5. NYC was tense with racism bubbling up.
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.
We knew the other artist the song choices this was the best out of them
Love the old skool rap 🤟
Flavor Flav used to live in the area where I worked, in 44 Pct area, 1000 Grand Concourse. They were big in the Bronx.
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
Would be interesting to see you do a full movie reaction to "Do The Right Thing" on your other channel.
A headbanger for sure❤️
Public Enemy-Bring the Noise Public Enemy-Don't Believe The Hype Public Enemy-Burn Hollywood Burn Public Enemy-She watch channel zero
I'd also love a "do the right thing" reaction.
You should watch Do The Right Thing. Also listen to He Got Game for the Buffalo Springfield sample.
I am thoroughly convinced that Chuck D's is the voice of God.
Public enemy was incredibly important in the day and their message is timeless, unfortunately, as we can see in current situations. Thank you for giving them their air time. There are some excellent recommendations for more of their music below. 🙏👍
I can't help but be reminded of an Isley Brothers song from the same time period called, "fight the power." It's worth a listen. 😉 Love your sensitivity and genuine reactions 💕
Yes yer right! I grew up with this. I'm White and don't give a shit about Colours. This was Dope and right!
I think this was chosen because it’s ICONIC!!!!
There was an attempt at mass censorship at the time look up the price led by tipper gore.
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.
After this, the powers that be were scared, and decided to start only promoting gangster rap and help fill their billionaire friends, newly privatized prisons...
nailed on Sir
Yeah. Us liberal white kids like the stories about drugs, guns and hoodlums. That way we can go on a sonic carnival ride to the hood, get a thrill at being so edgy, then go home to our comfortable existence. We get to pat ourselves on the back and believe we understand that world and the ongoing damage caused by racism and injustice.
But a group demanding a seat at our table or even their own table on a level with ours. That's too far.
Wow u went way back lol another classic song dat will never die
Phenomenal iconic song.
If you have not seen the movie ":Do the the Right Thing:", you are missing out. This song makes the greatest intro of all time.