Originally Posted by anticipation
in response to haters: my statement was based soley upon musical importance, not innovation and certainly not political importance. let's break it down, shall we?
Public Enemy's albums of importance:
Yo! Bum Rush the Show!: their debut, and in essence only had two good songs (You're Gonna Get Yours and Public Enemy No 1). This album is often just a footnote in the cannon of PE, as it should be.
It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back: probably their most revered and popular album. but why? most of the songs feature sub par beats at best, and of course with chuck d's political nonsense being yelled over them. "Bring the Noise" is basically a militant nursery rhyme with instances of flava flav talking over a typical 80s beat, one that sounds like a bunch of kids beating on garbage cans while someone plays a saxophone. "Don't Believe the Hype" had a horrible beat, worse production, and the lyrics are cliche and boring. This album's saving grace was "Night of the Living Baseheads", which i'll admit is a great song. However, the strength of one song does not make up for it's vast shortcomings.
Fear of a Black Planet: the follow up to their most popular album, perhaps the only tolerable song on this entire album is "Welcome to the Terrordome". This album featured more wordplay by flava, although i have no idea why. His speech is so slurred that most of the time i can't understand a word he's saying, even though i don't think his lyrics contain any significance anyway. "Fight the Power" is another gem on an otherwise worthless follow up to "It takes a nation...", still it's highly overrated. The rest of the songs on the album are unenjoyable and inconsistent.
so, basically public enemy is just another case of a band being slightly different than it's peers, if only in subject matter, and becoming so overhyped that it's nearly universally liked without cause. the rapping is barely decent, Chuck D was a cultural icon and a mouthpiece for the black militant movement first and foremost, not a lyricist. The rest of the crew was basically a marching band, with black fists raised and following whatever Chuck said. Lastly, any group with a hype man, aka Flava Flav, cannot even be taken seriously by a true hip hop fan. What purpose does he serve? if they cannot attract enough attention by the strength of their music alone, then why continue making it?
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