I don't know what I was doing when hip hop 'happened', but 15+ years after the release of Fear of A Black Planet, I'm a little embarassed to say I really wasn't paying attention. I was totally distracted by others things (many of which appear on vol. II of this compilation). However, you couldn't really have a pulse in 1990 and not be aware of Public Enemy. In retrospect they represent a special moment culturally, when there was something genuinely dangerous and subversive going on in 'mainstream' hip hop - before everybody got hysterical about gangstas and bling - before it was all about money and misogyny. Hip Hop and punk rock ran on parallel tracks in the 1980's and neither style has really survived the inevitable dumbing down at the hands of major labels, commercial radio and MTV / Much Music. Hip Hop in the 1980's represents something of a music regret for me. I wish I'd spent as much time listening to Chuck D as I did moping about to a soundtrack by Morrissey (vol. II, track 3).Wednesday, December 27, 2006
911 Is A Joke - Public Enemy (Fear of A Black Planet, 1990)
I don't know what I was doing when hip hop 'happened', but 15+ years after the release of Fear of A Black Planet, I'm a little embarassed to say I really wasn't paying attention. I was totally distracted by others things (many of which appear on vol. II of this compilation). However, you couldn't really have a pulse in 1990 and not be aware of Public Enemy. In retrospect they represent a special moment culturally, when there was something genuinely dangerous and subversive going on in 'mainstream' hip hop - before everybody got hysterical about gangstas and bling - before it was all about money and misogyny. Hip Hop and punk rock ran on parallel tracks in the 1980's and neither style has really survived the inevitable dumbing down at the hands of major labels, commercial radio and MTV / Much Music. Hip Hop in the 1980's represents something of a music regret for me. I wish I'd spent as much time listening to Chuck D as I did moping about to a soundtrack by Morrissey (vol. II, track 3).
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Now that you mention it, university had slowed my heartbeat at the time, and it was Kassian who gave me CPR by way of pulling out that album at his apartment in Montreal in August, 1990. But I just didn't take to it, and we listened to Ace Frehley's second solo album instead. The song that really annoyed his roommate was the one with the back and forth between him and his band. Classic.
Still, a forcefulness was behind that band, which I was not accustomed to seeing from disco groups. And then later, I was told that no, Public Enemy is not disco. At least you understand the difference; twenty years on, I still can't.
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