“Don’t Worry, Flavor- Vision Ain’t Blurry” IT ALMOst DIDN’T HAPPEN. Chuck D was an increasingly dense collection of sonic arguably remains a high-water They Even Had It On The News already 26 when Def Jam’s Rick Rubin alarms that would become their trademark. mark for rap music. Made during first heard the taped single “Public Each track combined a staggering number what is regarded as the golden age Enemy No. 1” by Chuck D and Spectrum of samples—beats, grooves, sound effects of hip-hop, when clearing samples VOL. PE25 ROOSEVELT, LONG ISLAND, 1987-2012 NO $ELL OUT City. So when Rubin called to sign him, and piercing sound bites that infused the was not as heavily monitored, The Chuck told the hip-hop label maestro that music with as much urgency as the lyrics. Bomb Squad created a massive he was too old, noting that the recently Encouraged by Rubin, other Def Jam collage of sound that reached BROTHERS signed LL Cool J was only 16, and that he artists had found success combining rap beyond the scope of pop music and SHIT HITS was instead considering his options as a and rock; PE took it further, sampling into the avant garde. Chuck’s raps GONNA WORK graphic designer. But after six months of and collaborating with heavy-metal were increasingly political, taking a The hip-hop group, Public Enemy. relentless attempts by Rubin (and despite acts like Slayer and eventually Anthrax. sharp bead on society’s ills, racism THE FAN! IT OUT the ambivalence of Rubin’s partner at Def Tracks like “Louder than a Bomb” and and the self-inflicted wounds of the African Black the next year. Energized by the Jam, Russell Simmons), Chuck agreed to “She Watch Channel Zero?!” incorporated American community with an intellectual tribulations and discord, the album was as UH, YOUR BAD SELF – Help me break this down from sign, but not as a solo artist. He would only aggressiveness in the music and lyrical flow power that was undeniable. Here was a man focused and hard-hitting as ever, responding Chuck D Pushes the off the shelf/Here’s a music servin’ you so use it/Papa’s got a brand new funk. Get down (party for your right)/Huh, let’s get it on/ release albums as a member of a group that appealed to rock fans yet still maintained who spoke truth to power, who called out his to constant media scrutiny with tracks like Like we said before/They say the brothers causin’ trouble/ Button That Blows Up Hate to bust their bubble/’Cause we rumble/From our lower level/To condition your condition/(We’re gonna do a song)/ including Flavor Flav, DJ Terminator X the funk. Classic cuts highlighting Chuck own people, who showed no sympathy for “More News at 11” and “A Letter to the New That you never heard before/Make you all jump along to the Government the education/Brothers gonna work it out/And stop chasin’/ and Flav’s opposites-attract interplay like weakness and demanded attention. Further, York Post”; “By the Time I Get to Arizona” Brothers, brothers gonna work it out. and a production team called The Bomb You got it...what it takes/Go get it...where you want it? Come get it...get involved/ ‘Cause the brothers in the Squad, to be named—after that initial the media-skewering “Don’t Believe the he did it in a mainstream format that reached was an unsubtle threat against Arizona street are willing to work it out. So many of us in limbo/How to get it on, it’s quite simple/3 stones from the sun/ We need a piece of this rock/ song—Public Enemy. Hype,” the militant narrative “Black Steel a massive audience of young minds. governor Evan Mecham for not recognizing Our goal indestructible soul/Answers to this quizzin’/To COLD, COLD LAMPIN – Um lampin, um lampin, um cole cole the Brothers in the streetSchools and the prisons/History lampin/I got loowies boy, um not trampin. shouldn’t be a mystery/Our stories real history/Not his story/ Their 1987 debut, Yo! Bum Rush the in the Hour of Chaos” and the breathless, With the inclusion of the single “Fight the Martin Luther King Day holiday. I just came from Da-crib ya know/Um on da go-throw ya tank We gonna work it one day/Till we all get paid/The right way in into metro/Live lyrics from the bank of reality/I kick da flyest dope full, no bull/Talkin’, no walkin’, drivin’, arrivin’ in style/Soon Show, introduced the world to the booming breathtaking rhyme prowess display “Bring the Power” in the Spike Lee film Do the Right Throughout the ’90s and the 2000s, maneuver technicality/To a dope track, you wanna hike git out ya you’ll see what I’m talkin’ ‘bout/’Cause one day/The brothers backpack/Um in my Flav-mobile cole lampin/I took dis g upstate cole gonna work it out/Brothers, brothers gonna work it out. lampin/Ta da poke-a-nose, we call da hide-a-ways/A pack of franks and You got it ... what it takes/Go get it... where you want delivery of Chuck D and the helium-pitched the Noise” established the group as hip- Thing, Public Enemy reached its largest the band continued to tour and release a big bag of Frito Lays. it?/Come get it...get involved/’Cause the brothers in the Flavor-Flav on a hype tip/Um ya hype drink, come take a big street/Are willing to work it out/Let’s get it on... we are sip/Um in position, you can’t play me out da pocket/I’ll take da dopest willin’/Let’s get it on, let’s get it on ... we are willin’/Let’s hype man, Flavor Flav, who darted and hop’s most exciting new entity. audience yet. However, controversy soon albums but they never seemed as urgent beat you got and I’ll rock-it/Like chocolate, even vanilla - chocolate, get it on, let’s get it on, let’s get it on ... we are willin’/Now strawberry, sasperella/Flavors are electric - try me - get a shock-a/Didn’t we are ready if you are ready. weaved like a pilot fish around Chuck’s Equally important to the group was followed when Professor Griff, a member as in their prime. Increasingly, the primary I tell you to leave Flavor Flav alone knock-a/A clock on my chest proves In 1995, you’ll twist to this/As you raise your fist to I don’t fess/I’m a clock-a, rock-a rockin’ wit-da-rest/Flavor in da house the music/United we stand, yes divided we fall/Together by Chuck-D’s side/Chuck got da Flavor-Flav don’t hide/P.E. crazy, Crazy we can stand tall/Brothers that try to work it out/They get more shark-like presence. The album also their image—Chuck D as a black-cap- of the S1W with the title of “Minister of subject matter of hip-hop returned to self- P.E. - makin’ crazy loowies for the shoppin spree. mad, revolt, revise, realize/They’re super bad/Small chance a Ya eatin death cause ya like gittin dirt from da graveyard - ya put smart brother’s/Gonna be a victim of his own circumstance/ gravy on it/Den ya pick ya teeth with tomb stone chips/And casket cover Sabotaged, Shellshocked, rocked and ruled/Day in the life showcased the group’s appreciation for rock, wearing, no-nonsense street-hardened Information” who often represented PE in the aggrandizement instead of calls to action, clips - dead women hips ya do da bump with – bones/Nutin but love of a fool/Like I said before to live it low/Life take you time, bones/Lifestyles of the Live-en-dead/First ya live den ya dead - died time yo go slow/Look here, not a thing to fear/Brother to trying ta clock what I said/Now I got a murder rap cause I bust ya cap brother not another as sincere/Teach a man how to be father/ both in its aggressive beats and delivery but intellectual and Flavor Flav as his comic foil, press, was reported in the Washington Times pushing Public Enemy to the fringes like with Flavor - pure Flavor. To never tell a woman he can’t bother/You can’t say you We got Magnum Brown, Shoothki – Valoothki/Super-calafraga- don’t know/What I’m talkin’ ‘bout/But one day ... brothers also on tracks like “Sophisticated Bitch,” whose flamboyant persona and attire were to have made anti-Semitic remarks in an aging, scolding relatives. Chuck D penned hestik-alagoothki/You could put dat in ya don’t know what I said book/ gonna work it out. Took-look-yuk-duk-wuk/Shinavative ill factors by da Flavor Flav/ Get down (party for your right)/Huh, let’s get it on/ Come an ride da Flavor wave Like we said before/They say the brothers causin’ trouble/ which featured the heavily distorted guitar of highlighted by the ever-present oversized interview. The incident, in addition to Flavor his autobiography and continues to serve as In any year on any givin day/What a brova know - what do Flavor Hate to bust their bubble/’Cause we rumble/From our lower say/Why do dis record play dat way/Prime time merrily in da day/ level/To condition your condition/(We’re gonna do a song)/ Right now dis radio station is busy/ brainknowledgeably wizzy/Honey That you never heard before/Make you all jump along to Vernon Reid.