Public Enemy Number One!

I stumbled across a CD of Public Enemies GREATEST HITS. I bought it with the quickness!

I've been trying to figure out how I've been living without it for so long!

Now, this entry on my blog is for anyone black and between 35 and 45 – because I know they can relate to what I'm about to say. Anyone reading that doesn't fit in that category, please continue and try to hang on!

The importance of Public Enemy in the late 80's was so significant to me. I was leaving my teens and entering my twenties and thinking I knew everything while all along I knew absolutely nothing. While I didn't think the klan would be burning a cross in my yard, or I'd be in the middle of a race war in the forseeable future - Public Enemy helped me start to see thing a little clearer. I began to feel my Black voice... it had bass, it had a little rasp, it had an edge, it had heart and it had soul.

Track 8 is where it started for me... FIGHT THE POWER!

Now tell me who can hear the opening bass track thumping without bobbing their head? It's impossible to sit still and hear Chuck D. and Flava Flav shouting –

"Nineteen Eighty – Nine!
A number another summer!
Sound of the funky drummer…"

Remember the feeling of Black Pride, Black Power, and social rebellion that Public enemy filled us with?

"My beloved, let's get down to business,
mental self defensive fitness…"

Remember Rosie Perez dancing her ass off to FIGHT THE POWER at the opening of 'Do the Right Thing'?

A little further down the CD I rediscovered "Welcome to the Terrordome."

"Crucifixion ain't no fiction!
So called chosen frozen…"

The head bobbing got further out of control during "Can't Truss It."

"Wearing red, white, and blue!
Jack and his crew…"

And further still, I came across one of my all time personal favorites. "Shut 'em Down."
The hypnotizing melody flowing in the background wraps around Chuck D's hard hitting, anti-establishment, fist pounding lyrics.

"I like Nike, but wait a minute!
The neighborhood supports so put some money in it!
The corporations owe, they gotta' give up the dough to the town
or else we gotta' shut 'em down!"

Just an awesome CD. Here we are approaching 20 years after FIGHT THE POWER, and we still need the passion and the fight of PUBLIC ENEMY. I'm just glad I've had a chance to recapture some of it.

"It's weak to speak and blame somebody else,
when you destroy yourself…"

FIGHT THE POWER - TTBM