Public Enemy

Public Enemy is an American hip hop group consisting of Chuck D; Flavor Flav; Professor Griffand his S1W group; DJ Lord, who replaced Terminator X in 1999; and bassist Brian Hardgroove.

Public Enemy is widely acknowledged to be the most important group to emerge in the rap medium since the mid-1980s. Self-proclaimed “prophets of rage,” the three main members of Public Enemy have sought to become a major force of social change, disturbing white America’s complacency with highlycharged political statements reminiscent of the 1960s Black Power movement. In the Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot notes that PE “is not just a great rap group, but one of the best rock bands on the planet—black or otherwise.” The critic adds that the group courageously “challenges listeners to step into their world.”

The world Public Enemy describes is not a pretty one. It is, quite simply, the United States as seen by young black men—a land of limited opportunities, drug deaths, and active oppression by a fearful white majority. Until recently, few rappers chose to address these issues as part of their work, but PE does so as its highest priority. As Richard Harrington puts it in the Washington Post, the PE message is “a rap-opera reflecting America’s social malaise and Public Enemy’s ongoing challenge to political and economic systems that have dehumanized and exploited minorities for centuries.” New York Times contributor Peter Watrous observes that, almost singlehandedly, “the band has jerked rap music into an active political sphere. The music outdistances other political pop with both its urgency and its visionary approach to the dance floor. And the group has made pop music that is vital in the contemporary debate about race in American culture for the first time since the 1960s.”