music with a message
Public Enemy have spent over 35 years delivering powerful messages that challenge institutional injustices and call for change. Their musical and lyrical intensity, eloquence and depth are an explosive combination that feeds both mind and soul. PE have released 16 studio albums, toured 100+ countries, are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and have received a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award.
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PUBLIC ENEMY
Public Enemy are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They’ve got a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award, platinum records and sold-out concerts in nearly every country in the world. But their biggest honor isn’t something to put on a shelf or hang on a wall. It’s their ability to stand up to speak out against social injustice. To shine a glaring, jarring spotlight onto the plight of the oppressed and to call for change.
Manufacturing and selling rebellion is easy. An angry scowl here, a clenched fist there, and suddenly you have the appearance of revolt. Living a life of authentic insurrection, however, is an entirely different thing. Public Enemy embody rebellion, revealing things as they really are, but also demanding how they should be.
Public Enemy have proven that rebellion is more than the sound of a musical genre, the culture of a social class, or the color of a skin; it is an unmovable, unmistakable state of mind and heart. PE are hellbent on creating change where it is needed most. Determined to give voice to those who have long been ignored, unafraid to question institutional injustices, and intent on challenging any and all obstacles to social justice, Public Enemy have resisted with unprecedented intensity and eloquence.
Public Enemy’s classic albums are the soundtrack to hip-hop’s rise as a form of social and political commentary. Their debut record, Yo! Bum Rush The Show, was named Album of the Year by NME, with Rolling Stone claiming that the release “heralded hip-hop’s great leap forward” and The New York Times calling Public Enemy “the voice of a community.” Their sophomore effort, 1988’s It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, was, and still is, one of the most important records ever made. The New York Times added it to their list of 25 Most Significant Albums of the Last Century, crediting the record with setting “a newer, prouder agenda for hip-hop” in which rap was at its “most politically and musically dangerous.”
Fear of a Black Planet featured Public Enemy’s signature song, “Fight The Power,” used by Spike Lee in his film Do The Right Thing. Rolling Stone magazine called it “the ultimate anti-establishment rallying cry.” The album also included the powerful “911 Is a Joke” and “Welcome To The Terrordome.” Apocalypse 91…The Enemy Strikes Black carried on the group’s legacy, hitting #4 on the album chart and going platinum. The record included “By the Time I Get To Arizona,” an emotional demand that America confront race relations after the state’s governor refused to recognize the new Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday.
By 1999, Public Enemy became one of the first acts to become completely independent from the major record label system, recording for Chuck D’s own Slam Jamz record label. That same year, Terminator X retired from the group and DJ Lord took over the turntables.
The group continued to tour the planet year after year and in 2012 Public Enemy’s “Harder Than You Think” went to #1 on the UK urban and indie singles chart and to #4 on the official UK singles chart, their tenth Top 40 hit in England and their highest charting single ever.
In 2016, Chuck D co-founded the supergroup Prophets Of Rage with members of Rage Against The Machine, B-Real of Cypress Hill and DJ Lord. They relentlessly toured the world, headlining festivals and arenas around the globe until 2019. They also released an album and an EP.
In 2020, Public Enemy returned with a new song and video, “State of the Union (STFU),” produced by DJ Premier. A fiery return to the frontlines to take on Donald Trump and his fascist regime, PE gave away the track to fans for free. By June, they were tapped to open the BET Awards with a remix of “Fight The Power” where they were joined by Nas, Rapsody, The Roots, YG and Jahi in a fiery protest against the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and countless others at the hands of police officers. They followed that up with the critically acclaimed album “What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down” released on Def Jam and featuring guest performances by the Beastie Boys’ Mike D and Ad-Rock, George Clinton, Cypress Hill, Ice-T, PMD, Run-DMC and more.
As America faces a fresh rebellion against racial division and social inequality, it is no surprise that the world looks to hip-hop’s original champions of change to continue the fight alongside them.
FLAVOR FLAV
Flavor Flav is the most iconic hype man in history and one of the most recognizable legends in entertainment. He is a musical prodigy who is proficient in 15 instruments. He first burst onto the scene in the late '80s, where he emerged as a co-founder of the legendary hip-hop group, Public Enemy. Possessing the most sampled voice in the history of hip-hop, Flavor Flav (along with his group) was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards in 2020.
In addition to his culture-shifting career in hip-hop, Flavor Flav furthered his mark on the world with his foray into reality television, where he displayed an unparalleled penchant for breaking records. His reality television series, Flavor of Love, achieved a record-shattering 7.5 million viewers during its Season 2 Finale and was the highest-rated non-sports programming that year, and highest rated show for VH1 all-time.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Flavor Flav made international headlines as the first individual to sponsor a United States Olympic team as the official sponsor and hype man for the men’s and women’s water polo teams. The partnership runs through 2029 including the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
As he continues to perform with Public Enemy on the global stage, including the 2023 GRAMMY Awards and 2024 MTV VMA’s, Flavor Flav likes to use his platform to empower others and raise awareness for important causes such as mental health, sobriety, humanitarian rights, and women’s sports.
chuck d
Carlton Douglas Ridenhour was born August 1, 1960. He is best known professionally as CHUCK D the leader and frontman of the hip hop group Public Enemy, which he co-founded in 1985 with Flavor Flav.
CHUCK D is a social activist, multimedia producer, visual artist, and digital music pioneer. He has been featured in more than one hundred documentaries on music, technology, politics, and race, and cocurated the Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap. He has also been a national spokesperson for Rock the Vote, the National Urban League, Americans for the Arts, and the National Alliance of African American Athletes. As part of Public Enemy, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and earned a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
