Say Something Derogatory About Public Enemy

Don't get me wrong, I respect Public Enemy. I LOVE Tribe. And yes I am of the caucasian persuasion. But I do find it unfortunate that rap music has been assimilated into mainstream culture so deeply and I think that PE may be one of the big reasons why it has, because white people loved them so much.

Also, they keep talking up their big plans for future projects, and never seem to follow through with them. And of course it's never their own fault when they don't.

And for somebody as exquisitely word-conscious as Chuck D., you'd think he'd be a little more careful about nasty double-entendres like "Swindler's Lust," or at least not act so disingenuous when they're pointed out.

But damn, they made one unbelievable album.

-- Tom (ebros@netcomuk.co.uk), March 09, 2002.

Well SOMEONE doesn't program their tracklists into their CD player...

(I'm assuming "your favorite stuff" = lots of crack)

... Too black! Too strong! Too black!! Too strong!!

I do my best. All the good answers were taken, anyway.

Just recently, Chuck took back his attack on Elvis ("Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me..." etc.) saying "the king" was actually a friend to the oppressed masses etc. etc. or some shit. Made me sad to see Chuck pandering like that. Stick to your guns, man.

Chuck D's homophobia put me off him as a person back in the early 1990s. I'd hope by now he's let that go...

Yeah, I'd really love to see some reporter take him to task on some of the ickier points of PE's youth ("Meet The G That Killed Me", constant referring to white ppl as "devils", reference to godamn freemasons.) I'd like to see if he still stands by them.

Just recently, Chuck took back his attack on Elvis ("Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me..." etc.) saying "the king" was actually a friend to the oppressed masses etc. etc. or some shit. Made me sad to see Chuck pandering like that. Stick to your guns, man.

He said nothing even remotley like that, and he bloody well should apologise for calling a man who acknowedleged his black sources more than any other white rock star ever, and got called a "white nigger" on frequent occasions for it, a racist. Here's what ChuckD really said:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Public Enemy frontman Chuck D derided Elvis Presley on the group's 1989 anthem "Fight The Power," but it turns out his feelings for Presley are a little more complicated than the song suggests.

"As a musicologist -- and I consider myself one -- there was always a great deal of respect for Elvis, especially during his Sun sessions. As a black people, we all knew that," the rapper said.

"My whole thing was the one-sidedness -- like, Elvis' icon status in America made it like nobody else counted. ... My heroes came from someone else. My heroes came before him. My heroes were probably his heroes. As far as Elvis being 'The King,' I couldn't buy that."

Chuck D spoke to Newsday about Presley's legacy for a 25th anniversary story on the singer's death.

On "Fight the Power," he said of Presley, "Elvis was a hero to most/But he never meant (expletive) to me, you see/Straight up racist that sucker was, simple and plain."

As for whether there is a modern-day Elvis, Chuck D points to Eminem. "Eminem is the new Elvis because, number one, he had the respect for black music that Elvis had," Chuck D said. "I think he's courteous and sympathetic to black music, and, unfortunately, he's more sympathetic to black music than many black artists themselves."

Public Enemy's new album is "Revolverlution."

I think Chuck makes a few good points here. Many music snobs will tell ya that Little Richard or Chuck Berry or Bo Diddley were "better than Elvis", but do you see THEM getting gigantic box sets spanning their entire careers (yeah, Little Richard has a box of his Speciality sides but hell, Elvis has an entire box just for his movie soundtracks!)? Also Joe Tex's death fell on the same day as Elvis', while Tex wasn't that great a singer IMO he certainly was highly important as an influence to Rap, how come no one even mentions him?

Excuse my, guys, but wasn't Elvis the same man who said "The only things Negros can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes?"

Well, if you believe Albert Goldman...

I don't feel like it, though.

I highly doubt it. See:
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/presley.htm

Chuck shouldn't have to apologize for "Never meant shit to me," but "Straight-up racist simple and plain" was unfair. Elvis may be a convenient symbol for white America (or "the Establishment," blah blah), but there's no evidence that he was a racist at all.

I always thought it was "straight up racist, the sucker was simple and plain", not "Straight up racist that sucker was, simple and plain"
(though I'm too lazy right now to drag out the ol' CD). That is, the "racist" referred to white America (i.e., their elevation of Elvis while neglecting the black influence he drew from), not Elvis himself...The 'simple and plain' part referred to Elvis, though that's Chuck D.'s prerogative...

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - MyNetworkTV is returning to the scripted arena with a new half-hour comedy series starring rap artist and reality-TV star Flavor Flav.

The network has ordered 13 episodes of "Under One Roof," a show that network president Greg Meidel describes as "a classic fish-out-of-water story."

Flav plays Calvester Hill, a former convict who moves in with his wealthy, conservative brother, Walter (Kelly Perine). Calvester turns the Hill family's life upside down, parading his old prison cronies through the house, teaching his nephew to be a gangsta rapper and butting heads with Walter's snooty wife.

"Roof" is directed by Brian Roberts and written by Danielle Quarles and Gelila Asres, non-Writers Guild of America writers. The show is in production in Toronto for a spring debut.

Flav, who was a founding member of hip-hop group Public Enemy, has starred in the reality series "The Surreal Life," "Strange Love" and "Flavor of Love."

MyNetworkTV launched in September 2006 with a lineup comprising only scripted drama strips but abandoned that format last year in favor of reality shows and theatrical acquisitions. "Roof" marks the network's first scripted sitcom.

chuck d is anti-semitic. remember this borderline-incoherent post from the PE website two years ago?

PE was nearly derailed by a Jewish incident in 1989, and the media blew it up as being wrong without tallying black people. Now in this "Strange Love" case the rewards are derogatorily swung as bait while never coming close to the measuring of the feeling of black people and other minority. It seems that the powers that be, and in this case, specifically television,the film industry,radio, the print industry and the humans that hover over the buttons of control have isolated the dna of racism, wove it into the amerikkkan drug of celebrity to wind up exploiting our characteristic instead of our character.

These pied pipers have used high science with low tools and it's a trip for the people who've been led into the river. I know for pure fact that there are more Black women in America than Jews, Christian Right and quiet as kept, some are one in the same,so this should be revered and respected equally. I cannot tell Flavor, a grown man what to do in this case, other than to warn him to guard himself against the long term effects that may be on the horizon ....