Public Enemy are one of the greatest hip-hop acts of
all time. Exploding out of Long Island, New York in the
early 1980s, their firebrand lyrical assault, the Bomb
Squad's innovative production techniques, and their
unmistakeable live performances gave them a formidable
reputation. They terrified the establishment, and have
continued to blaze a trail over a twenty year period up
until the present day. Today, they are more autonomous
and as determined as ever, still touring and finding
more ingenious ways of distributing their music. Russell
Myrie has had unprecedented access to the group,
conducting extensive interviews with Chuck D, Flavor
Flav, Terminator X, Professor Griff, the Shocklee
brothers, and many others who form part of their legacy.
He tells the stories behind the making of seminal albums
such as their debut ''Yo! Bum Rush the Show'', the
breakthrough ''It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us
Back'', and multi-million selling ''Fear of a Black
Planet''.He tackles Professor Griff's alleged
anti-semitic remarks which caused massive controversy in
the late eighties, the complexities of the group's
relationship with the Nation of Islam, their huge
crossover appeal with the alternative audience in the
early nineties, and the strange circumstances of Flavor
Flav's re-emergence as a Reality TV Star since the turn
of the millennium. Urgent, incisive and definitive,
''Don't Rhyme for the Sake of Riddlin'' is the ultimate
guide to the group that tells it like it is, and insists
that hip-hop is a lethal weapon for the social and
politically conscious. Russell Myrie shows how, in a
time of rampant profligacy and meaningless posturing in
hip-hop, their diatribes still cut to the heart of the
American dream, and they are as important and necessary
as ever. |
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