Public Enemy Biography

It was impossible however to ignore their follow up, 1988's It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. Under Hank Shocklee's direction, production crew The Bomb Squad created a dense, blanket of noise relying on old school funk, horn stabs, scratching and incendiary political samples.On the blistering Don't Believe The Hype and Bring The Noise Chuck D's rhetoric became focused while Flavor Flav's wild raps added to the organised mayhem. The album shot into the UK Top Ten. With Chuck D claiming that rap was "the black CNN" and the group%u2019s endorsement of controversial Nation Of Islam leader Louis Farrakan, the group opened themselves up to controversy. The group's 1989 single, Fight The Power, used as the theme to the Spike Lee flick Do The Right Thing, also caused white America to tremble with its opening gambit: "Elvis, was a hero to some but he never meant to shit to me." But Professor Griff took matters a step too far when, in an interview with the Washington Times in the summer of 1989, he claimed that Jews were responsible for "the majority of the wickedness that goes on across the globe." After media outrage at the statement, Chuck D faltered then eventually fired Griff from the band. Now the media circus surrounding the group went into overdrive.

Unsurprisingly, much of the 1990 album, Fear Of A Black Planet, portrayed PE as victims, hounded by a predominantly white media, although Chuck D had previously stated that the group's agenda was not anti-white. Musically, the album wasn't as incendiary as its predecessor although tracks such as 911 Is A Joke and Burn Hollywood Burn were classic Public Enemy and the record became their biggest seller to date, reaching the UK Top 5 and the US Top Ten.

With Sister Souljah now on board, in 1991 the group released the album, Apocalypse 91...The Enemy Strikes Back. It was as militant as ever. Soulja's gospel tones were set to swathes of towering funk and irate raps %u2013 By The Time I Get To Arizona expressed outrage at the government's refusal to make Martin Luther King%u2019s birthday a national holiday (a cause later spearheaded successfully by Stevie Wonder) %u2013 while One Million Bottlebags saw Chuck railing against the self destructiveness of his own black community.

The band lost momentum the following year as they supported U2 on their Zoo TV tour. Flavor Flav was repeatedly in trouble with the law for disturbance and his spiralling drug addiction. Flav managed to clean himself up and returned for 1994's album, Muse Sick-N-Hour Message Age which saw Chuck berating the negativity and pointless 'bling' of gangsta rap on the track So Watcha Gonna Do Now. Greeted with negative reviews in the US from the influential Rolling Stone and Source magazines, the album failed to generate any singles and Chuck D gave up touring in 1995 as he severed ties with Def Jam, instead developing his own record label and publishing company.

In the spring of 1998, Public Enemy kicked off their major comeback with their soundtrack to Spike Lee's He Got Game, which played more like a proper album than a soundtrack. Upon its release, the record received the strongest reviews of any Public Enemy album since Apocalypse '91.

After severing their ties with Def Jam over a series of disagreements the band signed up with Internet record company Atomic Pop, becoming the first mainstream band to release an album online. Infact Chuck D had embraced the advent of the Internet and its possibilities for artists. "So many artists don't get a chance to be on the radio or MTV or be on a major label. This is how they get heard. Why would you want to deny them that?" he reasoned.

In 2002 Chuck D reunited with Flavor Flav, Terminator X and Professor Griff for the release of the Revolverlution album ("Computer souls, controlled by confusion," explained Chuck). The group let fans remix four songs by posting acapella versions online. The best four mixes featured on the album. "The realm of production has flipped and changed. We have a whole different way of looking at production," said a web-savvy Chuck.

Today, New Public Enemy mixes are regularly posted on www.public-enemy.com with Chuck D providing almost daily rants against the music industry and means of production. With plans to start a hip-hop books imprint and the world's first virtual rap crew Chuck D's mission as hip-hop avenger burns as brightly as ever.