Public Enemy

It's 1987, and on the other side of the Atlantic the conservative wave is marching steadily on in its unstoppable rise, amid global promises, imminent wars in the pipeline, and a lifestyle proudly promoted as lavish and cynical. Ultra-liberal economic policy seems to be enjoying a new, supposed golden age, once again throwing into stark relief the glaring gap between wealthy neighborhoods, ever more brazen in their obscene display of wealth, and inner-city ghettos, left in conditions diametrically opposed to those of the ruling class.

Harlem and New York's outer boroughs thus become the cradle for entire generations of young Black men outraged by white American society. An outrage rooted deep in Black culture, with roots reaching back to the bloody years of struggle waged by the historic Black Panther movement just a few years earlier. Urban posses, originally formed with the spirit of peacefully denouncing their own shameful oppression through the rap movement, undergo a violent, dramatic evolution. Music takes on an importance that goes well beyond mere sensory entertainment, fully assuming the delicate role of an all-encompassing vehicle for human protest.

The poetic and philosophical teachings of Gil Scott-Heron and Last Poets first, and later the instrumental and sonic innovations of Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five, merge as one in the hip-hop churned out en masse in the early Eighties by what would later be dubbed the old school. A period in which the musical and lyrical metamorphosis of rap music was at its most fervent. A first, radiant era that would come to an end with the release of Run Dmc's pivotal third album, that 1986 landmark "Raising Hell," still regarded today as the defining watershed in the history of the movement in its broadest sonic sense.

New talent was popping up pretty much everywhere in those years. Colleges and universities sometimes became training grounds for thousands of hyped-up MCs and intriguing beatmakers hailing from the most far-flung ghettos of the metropolis. Carlton Ridenhour, known as Chuck D, was at the time a graphic design student at Adelphi University, but above all he was the acclaimed DJ of radio station WBAU. Around him and his revolutionary ideas began to orbit MCs William Jonathan Drayton, aka Flavor Flav, and Richard Griffin, known as Professor Griff (who would later become the group's spokesman with the honorary title of Minister of Information), as well as the incomparable DJ Norman Lee Rogers, aka Terminator X.

They were quickly spotted by Rick Rubin, producer at the seminal Def Jam Records. The name chosen by charismatic leader Ridenhour was as forceful as it was telling: Public Enemy. Their debut album, "Yo! Bum Rush The Show", was released in the first days of 1987 and immediately showcased the collective's astonishing ability to fuse instrumental backing tracks that seemed simple on the surface but were actually shaped by blending the most disparate samples around, together with take-no-prisoners lyrics that left no room for escape. Adding further shine to the whole thing was the involvement behind the boards of the Bomb Squad (made up of Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee and Eric "Vietnam" Sadler), the production crew set up specifically by Carlton with the aim of creating tracks packed with ideas, meticulously crafted down to the smallest detail, in some ways unique within the rap landscape of the time.

The record earned solid critical and commercial success, effectively standing alongside two other major genre releases from those same months, "Licensed to Ill" by the Beastie Boys and "Radio" by LL Cool J, and it contains several gems in the history of rap music: "You're Gonna Get Yours", "Sophisticated Bitch" and the title track itself. Shortly after, the group would also unleash the explosive single "Fight The Power", featured on the soundtrack to Spike Lee's film, "Do The Right Thing".

But it's with the follow-up, "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back", that everything falls perfectly into place, starting with the opening declaration "Countdown To Armageddon", which features master Gil Scott-Heron's primordial slogan: "This time around, the revolution will not be televised". The following "Bring The Noise" lays bare the irascibility of the great Chuck D, who, through a whole series of invectives and double meanings, decides to fire back pointedly at the criticism (though largely positive) leveled by journalist John Leland, guilty of having used the word "noise" to describe certain traits of Public Enemy's music in his review of their debut LP.

The chemistry between Chuck and Flav is disarming, as they trade verses and irreverent slang back and forth, while the beats show off in a funky groove scratched with sparing yet utterly masterful skill by Terminator X.

However, on "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back" the rebellion is first and foremost social, and "Don't Believe The Hype" becomes the manifesto in which they announce to the world their stance, their disapproval, through irreverent words that leave little room for the comfortable illusions peddled daily and systematically by the US mass media. Hype, and everything that becomes a momentary trend, is thus the first pitfall one must never stumble into: "Don't believe the hype, it's a sequel/ As an equal can I get this through to you/ My 98 booming with a trunk of funk/ All the jealous punks can't stop the dunk/ Coming from the school of hard knocks/ Some perpetrate, they drink Clorox/ Attack the Black, because I know they lack exact/ The cold facts, and still they try to Xerox/ The leader of the new school, uncool, never played the fool, just made the rules". The rhythm is lifted from Melvin Bliss's "Synthetic Substitution" and the fiery "Escape-Ism" by his majesty James Brown. The track would become a genuine anthem, flooding the streets of the Big Apple for years, popping up on every corner from the massive boomboxes carried on the shoulders of the most die-hard neighborhood fans.

"Cold Lampin' With Flavor", on the other hand, highlights Flavor Flav's no-sense madness, backed by a synthesized siren used by the Bomb Squad as a rhythmic instrument, while on the unforgettable "Terminator X To The Edge of Panic" the famous "Flash's Theme" by Queen, taken from the soundtrack to the film "Flash Gordon", is first sketched out and then scraped away, before another hiss accompanies Chuck D's verbose turmoil, in a frenzied, schizoid succession of scratches and overlapping lines.

The dynamite-laced invectives keep coming thick and fast on "Louder Than Bomb", with Chuck increasingly cast as commander-in-chief, or more simply as the one trying to recruit new political minds to help seize power and finally put an end to white oppression.

The irresistible funky guitar riff from the Bar-Kays' "Son Of Shaft" is magically sampled on the indomitable "Caught, Can We Get A Witness?". But it's the following "She Watch Channel Zero?!" that reaches even greater heights, borrowing the riff from Slayer's "Angel Of Death" and boldly mixing it with the rhythmic backbone of "Funky Drummer" (James Brown again) into a one-of-a-kind blend; while Chuck and Flav, once more drawing on the teachings of poet Scott-Heron, warn their community's brothers and sisters of the dangers stemming from excessive exposure to the countless soap operas broadcast nonstop into American homes, thus resisting the brainwashing inflicted by their world, one they describe as entirely fictional and disconnected from real life.

But the most celebrated gem of Public Enemy's masterful debut is without a doubt the famous "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos". The looped keyboard, the impossibly funked-up rhythm and the words condemning the entire military and political establishment, combined with the unforgettable video shot in prison, would set the template for the following two decades. Everything is simply in the right place, and every element helps trace out the modern ideology of hip-hop, in which revolt becomes the ultimate awakening through which to unleash one's verbal thunderbolts, while at the same time serving as the musical staff on which to best shape one's own drive. Flavor Flav's written words would also become gospel for millions of young rappers scattered across the globe.

The closing "Party For Your Right To Fight" is, by contrast, a blatant "twist" on the Beastie Boys's hugely famous hit ("Fight For Your Right To Party"), through which Public Enemy set out to clarify the far more political and rebellious nature of their own parties, in contrast to the throwaway irreverence and purely white-bread carefreeness put on display by Mr. Rubin's other noble creation.

Two more decidedly important and well-inspired LPs would follow, "Fear Of A Black Planet" and "Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black", but above all came internal squabbles and sudden collapses in friendship (often tied to Griffin's personal issues), from which Public Enemy would never fully recover, slowly losing their inspiration and at times even their ideals.

At the same time, "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back", alongside its "contemporaries" "Strictly Business" by EPMD, "Critical Beatdown" by Ultramagnetic MC's and "Paid In Full" by the duo Eric B. & Rakim, remains, in every sense, a cornerstone of hip-hop music, helping to irreversibly fuel a musical and social phenomenon that continues to expand to this day.

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16/08/2015