Did rap pretty much live and die with Public Enemy for anyone else?

[Paragon]

Did for me. I'm no party music snob, but no one ever approached art in rap before or since the way P.E. did. Sonically, lyrically, politically...they had it all.

I bring this up because I just received this CD from my CD club, which I highly recommend to P.E. newcomers and/or old fans:



Great cross-section of their best stuff.

[daligirrl]

1. I agree with you sweetie. . .

KRS-1 was another goodie. There isn't much out there these days that can compare. It was a really sweet bubble during that time for socially conscious rap. I also remember "Furious Lords of the Underground". They had a rap called, "Television, the Drug of the Nation".

[Paragon]

4. LOL - you're sort of close

"Television, the Drug of the Nation" was done by a group called The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, led by Michael Franti - who later formed Spearhead. The Heroes' only made one CD, but it's a classic:

[daligirrl]

8. Doh! Thanks for the correction. . .

And I have it. . . I'm going to have to dig through my CD's now. I'm glad you started this thread. I still have "Fear of a Black Planet" and "The Empire Strikes Black" in my car. I love Chuck D like crazy. I was fortunate enough to see him and Cornel West together at an African Unity conference a couple of years ago. Are you familiar with the Furious Lords of the Underground?

[Paragon]

10. I could always Google them, but...

...why don't you tell me about your experience? Always nice to get a personal touch and/or a story.

I don't think I've heard of them before.

[daligirrl]

12. They were big in college radio

back in the early 90's. Nothing comes up on google, but they were rap/thrash. It was probably kind of local to me. Southern, Atlanta, Nashville. I saw them in person a couple of times. They were a mixed group, racially. But very socially conscious.

[bigwillq]

2. Mainstream radio/tv ruined the art of rap

But I feel they're some really good groups/rappers out there-

The Roots
Outkast (Although their last CD, which was still very good, went too mainstream)
Jay-Z (At times)
NAS
Rakim
Eminem (to an extent)
There some more but I need to think some more.
Of course 2-PAC (R.I.P) was a legend in my book

Jadakiss' WHY, I feel is one of the better songs lyrically to come out in the last few years.

[Deja Q]

3. Agreed.

PE not only defined rap, they re-defined it. It is music, it is art, it is underrated by many.

They had social messages that didn't involve killing anybody but stated their rightful anger.

[noise626]

5. I would wholeheartedly agree....

...IN fact, I would go so far as to say that Public Enemy was the most important rap group in music and their album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is a masterpiece. Not only was the lyrical content deep, challenging and provocative, but the production work of the Bomb Squad was so far ahead of it's time that even today, you can listen to their work and learn something from it.

Spectacular work. I saw them on the tour they did with Anthrax and was floored by the energy Chuck D, Flav and the S1Ws displayed. I even got to meet Prof. Griff :)

Oh man, now I gotta go listen to it again :D

pax
ant

[Paragon]

6. The liner notes in the CD I mentioned above are great

They said that Chuck D & Hank Shocklee's goal when they first started P.E. was to meld Run-D.M.C. with The Clash, and I'd say they succeeded.

Whoever wrote the liner notes even interpolated that old line about The Clash, saying that P.E., during its time, was "the only band that mattered".

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

7. PE had something few artists of any genre have:

Unimpeachable integrity. I am not a hiphop fan, and even I know that. That integrity cuts across genres and cements ones place in whatever pantheon exists for musical acts. And in the mind of the public, for the greater public generally knows integrity when it is presented to them.

[daligirrl]

11. I agree about the integrity. . .

There is one more band I mention every time I get. . . though not rap. Fishbone. See my sig line. They deserve a separate thread.

[Magrittes Pipe]

9. No.

That said, PE is my all-time favorite rap group.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

15. Oh...Hedges...I'm gettin all riled up again....give me my roid rage meds!!

[enigmatic]

13. Public Enemy...

I still think Public Enemy's "Yo, Bum Rush the Show" was the best rap album ever made, though Run-DMC's "Raising Hell" and Eric B. and Rakim's "Paid In Full" are classics, too..

np: "Public Enemy No.1"- Public Enemy

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

16. IMHO - It Takes A Nation of Millions is Hip Hop's crowning jewel

[enigmatic]

19. That's a good one, too..

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

14. Ok - I'm not entering the Hip Hop warzone again but I'll say this:

Public enemey stands as Hip Hops most powerful and enduring group - they always will. Chuck D will always be the Godfather of Hip Hop - the greatest voice of the art form. That being said - Hip Hop is alive and vibrant.

I am very sick and tired of people who are periferaly interested in the genre who proclaim its death and how it died then, and blah blah blah.

There is a world of powerful and intelligent Hip Hop for people who are interested enough in it to dig deeper than what the mainstream is offering.

If you are one of these people I offer this link:
http://www.sandboxautomatic.com

[Paragon]

17. Most people's rap lexicon IS the mainstream

And for a glorious few years, they were in that mainstream, alive and vibrant.

I said rap "pretty much" lived & died with P.E. -- there are a handful of other groups I loved, too: The Pharcyde, A Tribe Called Quest, the aforementioned Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.

I could mention more, but glorifying P.E. was pretty much my point.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

22. Oh - then that's cool!

I get a little shell shocked from the trenches!

- peace

[Magrittes Pipe]

18. Do it! Do it!

Then you will get banned, and I won't have to put up with your shit anymore. :evilgrin:

[TroubleMan]

20. Like PE?....listen to Mos Def and Talib Kweli (Blackstar)

Check out these lyrics to "Thieves in the Night":

"Give me the fortune, keep the fame," said my man Louis
I agreed, know what he mean because we live the truest lie
I asked him why we follow the law of the bluest eye
He looked at me, he thought about it
Was like, "I'm clueless, why?"
The question was rhetorical, the answer is horrible
Our morals are out of place and got our lives full of sorrow
And so tomorrow comin later than usual
Waitin' on someone to pity us
While we findin beauty in the hideous
They say money's the root of all evil but I can't tell
YouknowhatImean, pesos, francs, yens, cowrie shells, dollar bills
Or is it the mindstate that's ill?
Creating crime rates to fill the new prisons they build
Over money and religion there's more blood to spill
The wounds of slaves in cotton fields that never heal
What's the deal?
A lot of cats who buy records are straight broke
But my language universal they be recitin my quotes
While R&B singers hit bad notes, we rock the boat
of thought, that my man Louis' statements just provoked
Caught up, in conversations of our personal worth
Brought up, through endangered species status on the planet Earth
Survival tactics means, bustin gats to prove you hard
Your firearms are too short to box with God
Without faith, all of that is illusionary
Raise my son, no vindication of manhood necessary

Not strong
Only aggressive
Not free
We only licensed
Not compassioniate, only polite
Now who the nicest?
Not good but well behaved
Chasin after death
so we can call ourselves brave?
Still livin like mental slaves
Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice
Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice


Yo, I'm sure that everbody out listenin agree
That everything you see ain't really how it be
A lot of jokers out runnin in place, chasin the style
Be a lot goin on beneath the empty smile
Most cats in my area be lovin the hysteria
Synthesized surface conceals the interior
America, land of opportunity, mirages and camoflauges
More than usually -- speakin loudly, sayin nothin
You confusin me, you losin me
Your game is twisted, want me enlisted -- in your usary
Foolishly, most men join the ranks cluelessly
Buffoonishly accept the deception, believe the perception
Reflection rarely seen across the surface of the lookin glass
Walkin the street, wonderin who they be lookin past
Lookin gassed with them imported designer shades on
Stars shine bright, but the light -- rarely stays on
Same song, just remixed, different arrangement
Put you on a yacht but they won't call it a slaveship
Strangeness, you don't control this, you barely hold this
Screamin brand new, when they just sanitized the old shit
Suppose it's, just another clever Jedi mind trick
That they been runnin across stars through all the time with
I find it's distressin, there's never no in-between
We either niggaz or Kings

We either bitches or Queens
The deadly ritual seems immersed, in the perverse
Full of short attention spans, short tempers, and short skirts
Long barrel automatics released in short bursts
The length of black life is treated with short worth
Get yours first, them other niggaz secondary
That type of illin that be fillin up the cemetary
This life is temporary but the soul is eternal
Separate the real from the lie, let me learn you
Not strong, only aggressive, cause the power ain't directed
That's why, we are subjected to the will of the oppressive
Not free, we only licensed
Not live, we just excitin
Cause the captors.. own the masters.. to what we writin
Not compassionate, only polite, we well trained
Our sincerity's rehearsed in stage, it's just a game
Not good, but well behaved cause the ca-me-ra survey
most of the things that we think, do, or say
We chasin after death just to call ourselves brave
But everyday, next man meet with the grave
I give a damn if any fan recall my legacy
I'm tryin to live life in the sight of God's memory
Like that y'all


A lot of people don't understand the true criteria of things
Can't just accept the appearance
Have to get the true essence


They ain't lookin around

Not strong
Only aggressive
Not free
We only licensed
Not compassioniate, only polite
Now who the nicest?
Not good but well behaved
Chasin after death
so we can call ourselves brave?
Still livin like mental slaves
Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice
Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice
Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice
Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice


Stop hidin, stop hidin, stop hidin yo' face
Stop hidin, stop hidin, cause ain't no hidin place
* repeat 2X*

[kwolf68]

21. PE ruled

As a Metal/Punk kid in the 1980s, when I first saw Public Enemy I knew this was something new and dangerous....and boy did I love it. I don't know what CD is better..."It Takes A Nation of Millions" or "Fear of a Black Planet"...

Completely brilliant. Chuck D is a master MC and is one of the most important musicians to come out in 25 years.

Although I will say, "The Message" by Grand Master Flash is the greatest rap song in history, never to be replaced.