BMM: Music of the Movement: NY’s Contribution to Black Music
Today we salute hip-hop group Public Enemy! The original members were Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Terminator X, and Professor Griff and together their sound and radical political message shook the hip-hop industry in the late 1980s and early 90s.
The rap group wanted you to confront race, prejudice, religion, and power! Founded in 1982 at Adelphi University on Long Island, York. According to Britannica:
Chuck D, Hank Shocklee, Bill Stephney, and Flavor Flav collaborated on a program on college radio. Reputedly, Def Jam producer Rick Rubin was so taken with Chuck D’s booming voice that he begged him to record. Public Enemy resulted and brought radical black political ideology to pop music in an unprecedented fashion on albums with titles that read like party invitations for leftists and warning stickers for the right-wing: Yo! Bum Rush the Show (1987), It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988), Fear of a Black Planet(1990), and Apocalypse 91: The Enemy Strikes Black (1991).
Here are five songs to add to your list of music!
Fight The Power
Can’t Truss It
Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos
911 is a Joke