{"id":8939,"date":"2013-02-06T17:03:52","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T00:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=8939"},"modified":"2013-02-06T17:04:49","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T00:04:49","slug":"public-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2013\/02\/public-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"PUBLIC ENEMY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"PUBLIC ENEMY<\/strong><\/h1>\n

For founder Chuck D, rap has always been much more than just rhymes<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n

Chuck D would be spending his time clinking champagne glasses now that Public Enemy is to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But the man who led the charge to revolutionize hip-hop has always been on a serious mission. Those who knew him as a student at Adelphi University recall his passionate debates about politics, philosophy and music, some of which he shared in rap. Those raps caught the ear of Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin. Chuck D initially rejected the opportunity to become an entertainer, but finally plotted a hip-hop course\u2014with such revolutionary concepts as backup dancers with Uzis and friend Flavor Flav as his onstage comic foil\u2014that further tantalized listeners.<\/p>\n

Yet for all his success, Chuck D says Public Enemy has only begun its mission. \u201cI think this genre is fantastic, and now with social networking, we can take it\u00a0to another level,\u201d he says. \u201cThe thing that\u00a0kept Public Enemy together for\u00a025 years is that we\u2019re able to see the world\u00a0from a bigger perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many would agree. Ever since the self-professed \u201cprophets of rage\u201d released their 1987 debut Yo! Bum Rush the Show<\/em>, the group has been all about uniting the hip-hop community and encouraging other artists to follow suit. When 1988\u2019s\u00a0It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back<\/em> was hailed as a hip-hop masterpiece,\u00a0Public Enemy rarely embraced celebrity. Instead, the group continued to lead other hip-hop artists toward music Chuck D defined as \u201cCNN for black culture,\u201d championing often unpopular\u00a0causes and viewpoints.<\/p>\n

But that news signal waned as record companies focused on superstar DJs, and the DJs in turn enjoyed the celebrity lifestyle. Chuck D hopes to take the genre back to the people. That\u2019s why the band produced two albums this year with little fanfare: Most of My Heroes Still Don\u2019t Appear on No Stamp <\/em>and The Evil Empire of Everything<\/em> were both released near the end of 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have our own company. We don\u2019t need anyone else,\u201d says Chuck D. \u201cWe feel that the big artists should have been doing this every year. Once the art form turned, everyone wanted to make a killing. But that\u2019s diametrically opposed to our responsibility to the community and the music. We want to help a new generation build this form into another form, another infrastructure.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re performing now, we\u2019re relevant now and we use the past as a precedent. We can help build the next generation of music and performers.\u201d\u00a0\u2013Nancy Dunham<\/p>\n

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PUBLIC ENEMY For founder Chuck D, rap has always been much more than just rhymes Chuck D would be spending his time clinking champagne glasses now that Public Enemy is to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But the man who led the charge to revolutionize hip-hop has always been on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[3547,6009],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8939"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8939"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8943,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8939\/revisions\/8943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}