Don’t Believe the Hype!

Posted on 24. Jun, 2011 by JD.

Another classic track by no other than Public Enemy. True legends in the hip hop game, and pioneers of music. One of my all time favorites from back in 1985. I was fortunate to grow up during this time period in hip hop.  I feel sorry for you ears if you are under 25 and do not know about P.E. That is it.

Music video by Public Enemy performing Don’t Believe The Hype. (C) 1988 The Island Def Jam Music Group

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Shut’ Em Down! Shut’ Em Down! P.E. in Full Effect

Posted on 24. Jun, 2011 by JD.

Such good music from another time in music, another time in hip hop.  Public Enemy is one of the all time best in music. PERIOD.

Where are the revolutionaries?

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Blink 182 Drummer Travis Barker Explains Why He Made A Hip-Hop Album

Posted on 22. Apr, 2011 by Brian.

Travis Barker hasn’t had any trouble getting props from hip-hop elite. His recently released album, “Give A Drummer Some,” is actually a hip-hop album that includes features from the genre’s biggest names–Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Game, Lupe Fiasco, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, and E40.

The Blink 182 member said he was humbled by the support that also includes contributions from rockers Slash, Tom Morello, and Steve Aoki.

Through Travis is a longtime fan of rap, and grew up listening to the likes of Whodini, Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy, and the Beastie Boys, he is still surprised that he make an album dominated by rap.

Travis was in the midst remixing several rap tracks when he started working on the album, so the timing was natural. “Can A Drummer Get Some,” the first song he recorded for the album, ended up being the lead release.

Travis doesn’t think the direction of his solo album is reflective of the music he and his Blink 182 bandmates will take with their next project, due out later this year.

In an exclusive interview with Hip Hop Media Training, Travis also talks about his late friend, DJ AM, who died of a drug overdose in 2009, a year after being critically injured in a plane crash. Travis, who was also aboard the flight and suffered severe damages, explains how he got endured 16 surgeries.

Travis is lending his creative ear and guidance in a new music competition, Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record. As the judge for the online contest, Travis will select the winner from the pool of entrants, and will produce a 3-song EP for the winner.

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Public Enemy: Welcome to the Terrordome

Posted on 21. Apr, 2011 by JD.

This song by far is so much more hard core than anything being released today.  I truly feel sorry for young hip hop fans today.  I hope the new generations of hip hop fans search out and find artists such as Public Enemy.  Fear of a Black Planet was a major album in my life.  So many good tracks. Classics.

Welcome to the Terrordome Vid: Fear of a Black Planet. Dej Jam Records. 1990

This is the official trailer for the upcoming documentary about the ground-breaking Public Enemy celebrating 20 years of Rap, Rock and Revolution. Featuring interviews with Talib Kweli, KRS One, Ice Cube, The Black Eyed Peas, Jonathan Davis, Scott Ian, Henry Rollins, Tom Morello, The Beastie Boys and more. Distributed by Cinevision International.

Artist Biography

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Public Enemy rewrote the rules of hip-hop, becoming the most influential and controversial rap group of the late ’80s and, for many, the definitive rap group of all time. Building from Run-D.M.C.’s street-oriented beats and Boogie Down Productions’ proto-gangsta rhyming, Public Enemy pioneered a variation of hardcore rap that was musically and politically revolutionary. With his powerful, authoritative baritone, lead rapper Chuck D rhymed about all kinds of social problems, particularly those plaguing the black community, often condoning revolutionary tactics and social activism. In the process, he directed hip-hop toward an explicitly self-aware, pro-black consciousness that became the culture’s signature throughout the next decade.

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Musically, Public Enemy was just as revolutionary, as their production team, the Bomb Squad, created dense soundscapes that relied on avant-garde cut-and-paste techniques, unrecognizable samples, piercing sirens, relentless beats, and deep funk. It was chaotic and invigorating music, made all the more intoxicating by Chuck D’s forceful vocals and the absurdist raps of his comic foil, Flavor Flav. With his comic sunglasses and an oversized clock hanging from his neck, Flav became the group’s visual focal point, but he never obscured the music. While rap and rock critics embraced the group’s late-’80s and early-’90s records, Public Enemy frequently ran into controversy with their militant stance and lyrics, especially after their 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back made them into celebrities. After all the controversy settled in the early ’90s, once the group entered a hiatus, it became clear that Public Enemy was the most influential and radical band of their time.

Chuck D (born Carlton Ridenhour, August 1, 1960) formed Public Enemy in 1982, as he was studying graphic design at Adelphi University on Long Island. He had been DJing at the student radio station WBAU, where he met Hank Shocklee and Bill Stephney. All three shared a love of hip-hop and politics, which made them close friends. Shocklee had been assembling hip-hop demo tapes, and Ridenhour rapped over one song, “Public Enemy No. 1,” around the same time he began appearing on Stephney’s radio show under the Chuckie D pseudonym. Def Jam co-founder and producer Rick Rubin heard a tape of “Public Enemy No. 1″ and immediately courted Ridenhour in hopes of signing him to his fledgling label.

Chuck D initially was reluctant, but he eventually developed a concept for a literally revolutionary hip-hop group — one that would be driven by sonically extreme productions and socially revolutionary politics. Enlisting Shocklee as his chief producer and Stephney as a publicist, Chuck D formed a crew with DJ Terminator X (born Norman Lee Rogers, August 25, 1966) and fellow Nation of Islam member Professor Griff (born Richard Griffin) as the choreographer of the group’s backup dancers, the Security of the First World, who performed homages to old Stax and Motown dancers with their martial moves and fake Uzis. He also asked his old friend William Drayton (born March 16, 1959) to join as a fellow rapper. Drayton developed an alter ego called Flavor Flav, who functioned as a court jester to Chuck D’s booming voice and somber rhymes in Public Enemy.

Public Enemy’s debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, was released on Def Jam Records in 1987. Its spare beats and powerful rhetoric were acclaimed by hip-hop critics and aficionados, but the record was ignored by the rock and R&B mainstream. However, their second album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, was impossible to ignore. Under Shocklee’s direction, PE’s production team, the Bomb Squad, developed a dense, chaotic mix that relied as much on found sounds and avant-garde noise as it did on old-school funk. Similarly, Chuck D’s rhetoric gained focus and Flavor Flav’s raps were wilder and funnier. A Nation of Millions was hailed as revolutionary by both rap and rock critics, and it was — hip-hop had suddenly became a force for social change.

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As Public Enemy’s profile was raised, they opened themselves up to controversy. In a notorious statement, Chuck D claimed that rap was “the black CNN,” relating what was happening in the inner city in a way that mainstream media could not project. Public Enemy’s lyrics were naturally dissected in the wake of such a statement, and many critics were uncomfortable with the positive endorsement of black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan on “Bring the Noise.” “Fight the Power,” Public Enemy’s theme for Spike Lee’s controversial 1989 film Do the Right Thing, also caused an uproar for its attacks on Elvis Presley and John Wayne, but that was considerably overshadowed by an interview Professor Griff gave The Washington Post that summer. Griff had previously said anti-Semitic remarks on-stage, but his quotation that Jews were responsible for “the majority of the wickedness that goes on across the globe” was greeted with shock and outrage, especially by white critics who previously embraced the group. Faced with a major crisis, Chuck D faltered. First he fired Griff, then brought him back, then broke up the group entirely. Griff gave one more interview where he attacked Chuck D and PE, which led to his permanent departure from the group.

Public Enemy spent the remainder of 1989 preparing their third album, releasing “Welcome to the Terrordome” as its first single in early 1990. Again, the hit single caused controversy as its lyrics “still they got me like Jesus” were labeled anti-Semitic by some quarters. Despite all the controversy, Fear of a Black Planet was released to enthusiastic reviews in the spring of 1990, and it shot into the pop Top Ten as the singles “911 Is a Joke,” “Brothers Gonna Work It Out,” and “Can’t Do Nuttin’ for Ya Man” became Top 40 R&B hits. For their next album, 1991′s Apocalypse 91…The Enemy Strikes Black, the group re-recorded “Bring the Noise” with thrash metal band Anthrax, the first sign that the group was trying to consolidate their white audience. Apocalypse 91 was greeted with overwhelmingly positive reviews upon its fall release, and it debuted at number four on the pop charts, but the band began to lose momentum in 1992 as they toured with the second leg of U2′s Zoo TV tour and Flavor Flav was repeatedly in trouble with the law. In the fall of 1992, they released the remix collection Greatest Misses as an attempt to keep their name viable, but it was greeted to nasty reviews.

Public Enemy was on hiatus during 1993, as Flav attempted to wean himself off drugs, returning in the summer of 1994 with Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age. Prior to its release, it was subjected to exceedingly negative reviews in Rolling Stone and The Source, which affected the perception of the album considerably. Muse Sick debuted at number 14, but it quickly fell off the charts as it failed to generate any singles. Chuck D retired Public Enemy from touring in 1995 as he severed ties with Def Jam, developed his own record label and publishing company, and attempted to rethink Public Enemy. In 1996, he released his first debut album, The Autobiography of Mistachuck. As it was released in the fall, he announced that he planned to record a new Public Enemy album the following year.

Before that record was made, Chuck D published an autobiography in the fall of 1997. During 1997, Chuck D reassembled the original Bomb Squad and began work on three albums. In the spring of 1998, Public Enemy kicked off their major comeback with their soundtrack to Spike Lee’s He Got Game, which was played more like a proper album than a soundtrack. Upon its April 1998 release, the record received the strongest reviews of any Public Enemy album since Apocalypse ’91…The Enemy Strikes Black. After Def Jam refused to help Chuck D’s attempts to bring PE’s music straight to the masses via the Internet, he signed the group to the web-savvy independent Atomic Pop. Before the retail release of Public Enemy’s seventh LP, There’s a Poison Goin’ On…, the label made MP3 files of the album available on the Internet. It finally appeared in stores in July 1999.

After a three-year break from recording and a switch to the In the Paint label, Public Enemy released Revolverlution, a mix of new tracks, remixes, and live cuts. The CD/DVD combo It Takes a Nation appeared in 2005. The multimedia package contained an hourlong video of the band live in London in 1987 and a CD with rare remixes. The new album New Whirl Odor also appeared in 2005. The “special projects” album Rebirth of a Nation — an album with all rhymes written by Bay Area rapper Paris — was supposed to be released right along with it, but didn’t appear until early the next year. The odds-and-ends collection Beats and Places appeared before the end of 2006. Featuring the single “Harder Than You Think,” How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul??? arrived in the summer of 2007. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

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Krayzie Business: Krayzie Bone Officially Leaves Bone Thugs After 20 Years

Posted on 15. Apr, 2011 by Brian.

(AllHipHop News) After 20 years as a member of veteran Cleveland, Ohio Hip-Hop act Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Krayzie Bone has announced he is leaving the group to pursue a solo career and other projects.

The rapper made the official announcement via a YouTube clip that was released to the Internet early this morning (April 14th).

“I will no longer be a part of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony,” Krayzie Bone revealed. “Due to uncontrollable circumstances, it’s basically time for me to move on and just start embarking on different endeavors I’ve already had planned in my life. Just trying to go to a whole other level in the music game, I am trying to grow and become greater at what I do.”

According to Krayzie Bone, he will focus on his label, The Life Entertainment, and develope new artists through a recently announced, upcoming project titled Cleveland is the City Vol. 1.

“It’s been a great 20 year run with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, I have nothing to complain about,” Krayzie Bone said. “If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be right now, so its much love, for what Bone Thugs-n-Harmony has done for me. But its that time in my life to where I finally closed this chapter and opened up a new chapter in my life to start exploring these options out here.”

The news of Krayzie’s departure from Bone Thugs-n-Harmony comes on the heels of an explosive, two-part interview with AllHipHop.com, in which the rapper aired out all of his grievances with the group over the past 20 years.

Group member Bizzy Bone also responded in an extremely revealing two-part interview that details Bone’s history, his relationship with the group and why he initially  left one of the best-selling acts in Hip-Hop history.

During the course of his career, Krayzie Bone and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony have collaborated with a number of artists, including Tupac Shakur, Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace, Big Pun, Mariah Carey, E-40, Kurupt and Chamillionaire, who took home a Grammy in 2007 with Krayzie Bone for the hit single “Ridin’.”

As for Krayzie Bone, he thanked fans for their years of support.

“I thank all the fans for supporting me with Bone for over 20 years and I hope that y’all will continue to support me on these future endeavors that I embark on. It aint nothing but love, I love y’all, thanks for everything you’ve done.”

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