8.31.99 4 pm pdt  Public Enemy And Others 'Skate And Destroy'
(from Launch website) by Carrie Bell, Los Angeles
A host of hip-hop pioneers such as Public Enemy, Run-DMC, and Eric B. & Rakim, plus several techno acts including the Freestylers, will lend music to the first underground street skateboarding video game for PlayStation.

Thrasher: Skate And Destroy, set for release on Take-Two Interactive Software/ Rockstar Games on Nov. 15, will concentrate on classic rap hits from hip-hop veterans like "Rappers' Delight" and "Award Tour." The game combines time trials and undirected free play. Grandmaster Flash, who lent his "White Lines (Don't Do It)," commented in a statement that hip-hop and a skating game are logically connected. He stated, "The way I see this game is like hip-hop. It takes serious concentration and dedication. The dedication factor is as high as being a DJ. You got to be in it, to win it."

The techno tracks, all of which are European-produced big beat dance music based on samples from classic hip-hop, will be used as an audio backdrop for the bonus European levels in the game.A complete track listing for the game's soundtrack follows:

Sugarhill Gang, "Rappers' Delight"
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, "White Lines (Don't Do It)"
Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force, "Planet Rock"
Run-DMC, "King Of Rock"
Stetsasonic, "Talkin' All That Jazz"
Ultramagnetic MC's, "Kool Keith Housin' Things"
Eric B. & Rakim, "I Know You Got Soul"
EPMD, "I'm Housin'"
Public Enemy, "Rebel Without A Pause"
A Tribe Called Quest, "Award Tour"
Gang Starr, "Just To Get A Rep"
The Freestylers, "Freestyle Noize"
DeeJay Punk-Roc, "My Beatbox"
Sniper, "Crossfader Dominator"
Hardknox, "Coz I Can"

For more information, visit www.skateanddestroy.com, the official website for Thrasher: Skate and Destroy.

Features on Public Enemy, the Freestylers, EPMD, A Tribe Called Quest, and Gang Starr are available on LAUNCH.com.


8.31.99 10:44 pm edt  Cops Group Scrutinizing Everlast, Roots, Chuck D Over Mumia Support: Fraternal Order of Police says it may boycott them as well as De La Soul, Jackson Browne.
(from SonicNet website) staff writer Brian Hiatt reports:
Everlast, the Roots, Chuck D, De La Soul and Jackson Browne may become the latest targets of a police boycott of performers who support convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

"We're going to be constantly updating our list," Tim Richardson, legislative assistant for the Fraternal Order of Police, said Tuesday (Aug. 31). The FOP, which boasts a membership of 283,000 law-enforcement officers, announced Monday that it will boycott David Byrne, Sting, Michael Stipe and anarchist pop-collective Chumbawamba based on those artists' support of Abu-Jamal.

Abu-Jamal, a journalist, was convicted of murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1982 and has been on Pennsylvania's death row for nearly two decades.

Richardson said the FOP will scrutinize hip-hop balladeer Everlast, hip-hop group the Roots, Public Enemy frontman Chuck D, rappers De La Soul and singer/songwriter Browne because they were among dozens of artists who signed a new petition calling for a Sept. 11 "National Day of Art" in support of Abu-Jamal.

According to Mumia 911, the organization coordinating the event, those artists signed a statement that reads, in part, "This is not justice. We do not consent to the murder of this man. We will not accept the grossly unjust trial that sentenced Mumia to death because of his political beliefs as a former Black Panther."

The statement also bears the names of British rock group Cornershop, turntablist DJ Spooky, reggae band Toots and the Maytals and singer Isaac Hayes, among others.

Michael Lutz, president of the FOP's Pennsylvania Lodge, said that he hopes the targets of the group's boycott will suffer real consequences. "I hope it does affect them in some way, or at least get them to take time out to find the true facts of the case," he said.

Mumia 911 isn't particularly worried about the boycott, according to Jessica Blank, events coordinator for the organization. "That their list is growing is a good sign, because it means that the number of Mumia supporters is growing," she said. "What I make of it really is that they understand that the movement to save Mumia's life and get him a new trial is growing, and as it grows they have to expand their own efforts."

Blank praised the artists who've supported Abu-Jamal. "This is not a popular thing, and people will come down on you for it," she said. "That's why it's courageous of these artists to say, 'Forget about that, I'm gonna stand up and use my art for this cause.' "

The FOP announced a general boycott of Abu-Jamal supporters Aug. 11. A week later, Richardson said rap-rockers Rage Against the Machine and punk-rappers the Beastie Boys were named as the initial targets of the boycott because of a January concert they headlined to raise money for Abu-Jamal's legal defense.

Abu-Jamal insists he is innocent of Faulkner's murder, and his supporters claim he was set up because of his work as a political commentator and because of his involvement with the Black Panther Party, a once-militant black-activist organization originally formed during the 1960s civil-rights movement.

The FOP opposes a new trial for Abu-Jamal. The group's president, Gilbert Gallegos, wrote in a statement that the organization will not rest "until Abu-Jamal burns in hell."


8.30.99  Public Enemy Thinks Rage Against the Machine
(from Blaze website) by Mark Allwood
It was bound to happen eventually. While nothing is set in stone yet, revolutionary rap group Public Enemy and political rockers Rage Against The Machine are considering working together. According to Liz Morentin, publicist at Atomic Pop (PE's label), "[PE and Rage Against the Machine] have been talking about working together for a while." The collaboration will likely take place later this year, although nothing has been confirmed. It is not known what the two bands will record, if and when they enter a studio together.


8.26.99  Rage Wanna Go Their Way
(from NME website)
Public Enemy are planning to work with Rage Against The Machine on a new version of Prophets Of Rage which originally appeared on Public Enemy's 1988 classic album 'It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back'.

Public Enemy's last team-up was with Anthrax on a re-worked version of 'Bring The Noise' which arguably paved the way for the metal/rap crossover.

Chuck D's 'rock project' Confrontation Camp' will take use elements of drum 'n' bass according to Chuck but he ticked off a questioner, telling them to 'mind how they term music'

Click here to read the entire webchat.

Public Enemy release 'Do You Wanna Go Our Way???' on 13 September and are currently on a European tour - click here for details.


8.25.99 14:45 est  Prince Signs With Arista; Lands Chuck D, Ani DiFranco, Sheryl Crow For New LP
(from MTV website) by David Basham
After two years of releasing albums directly to retail outlets and via his own Internet site, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince has inked a new deal with a major label, Arista Records, which will release his new album "Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic" in November.

The band leaves for a European tour on Tuesday (Aug. 24) and will be there through Sept. 7. The U.K. dates include: Sept. 3, London Kentish Town Forum, London; Sept. 4, Manchester Academy; and Sept. 6, Wolverhampton Civic Hall. The North American tour is slated to begin in October. Dates, cities, and venues will be announced shortly.

Public Enemy’s latest release There’s a Poison Going On… is out now.


8.20.99  Dean's Tribute to Public Enemy Nominated for Best Rap/Hip Hop Fansite
by Dean Engmann
This site has been nominated by ArtistDirect for best Rap/Hip Hop Fansite on the triple W. The voting starts on Thursday, 8.19.99.  So, if you like this site, please vote for it.  The event takes place on October 7th at the House of Blues in Hollywood.  The only thing that would have made this better is if Public Enemy would have been nominated for an award themselves.  Maybe they'll be invited to perform or present an award, but if they're not, and I win, maybe I can invite them...

Below is a news article and a listing of the other sites in my category that were nominated.

8.18.99  Ladies and Gentlemen, The E-Mail Please: ARTISTdirect Network Announces the First Annual ARTISTdirect Online Music Awards:  Oct. 7 Event to Honor Bands, Musicians and Web sites Selected by ARTISTdirect.com Users

ARTISTdirect Wednesday announced the First Annual ARTISTdirect Online Music Awards.  Set to take place Oct. 7 at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, the ARTISTdirect Online Music Awards will offer recognition to artists, bands and Web sites based entirely on fan input.  "ARTISTdirect has always been about connecting the fans directly to their favorite artists, so we approached The ARTISTdirect Online Music Awards from that perspective," said Steve Rennie, president of UBL.com, a part of the ARTISTdirect Network (www.artistdirect.com).  "We wanted our fans to select the nominees and winners, and we wanted the Awards to reflect the collective spirit of our audience."  The nominees in each category were chosen from the UBL Top 100, weekly calculation of the most visited sites on UBL.com, a leader in the music space. Awards will be handed out in 15 categories, from Best Hip Hop Fansite to Favorite Classic Rock Artist, in addition to performances by several multiplatinum artists to celebrate the event,  The ARTISTdirect Online Music Awards will feature performances by the five winners of the "Born On The World Wide Web" contest, the Internet's first multigenre virtual talent search. Since its launch in July, more than 1,200 artists have submitted their music to the contest. The finalists from "Born On The World Wide Web," who were initially selected by a panel of industry tastemakers, will move on to the last round of the competition. Again, it's up to the fans: the final voting will be undertaken entirely by users of the ARTISTdirect Network.

The nominees for the ARTISTdirect Online Music Awards Best Rap/Hip-Hop Fansite are as follows:
2 Skinee Js
Beastie Boys
Jay-Z 
Lauryn Hill 
Public Enemy


8.20.99  Enemy at the NME
(from NME website)
PUBLIC ENEMY's Chuck D and Professor Griff - visiting the for dates in the UK - visit nme.com next week for the lastest of our web chats where you'll be able to discuss the future of music in the light of Chuck's embracing of the Mp3 format, the state of hip hop and the imminent death of the major labels.

You'll be able to pre-submit questions from Monday at 3pm.

Get Public Enemy tickets now through the nme.com Virgin Cola Ticketshop - click here
Or call the 24-Hour NME Virgin Cola Ticketline on 0870 1 663 663. Calls are charged at national standard rate.


8.18.99 3:05pm  Public Enemy bail out of Notting Hill Carnival
(from Qonline website)
Public Enemy have decided not to perform at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival because of the recent attack on Radio One DJ Tim Westwood. It’s thought the legendary rappers are unconvinced that security at the event will be effective enough to ensure their protection. Fans determined to see the band needn’t be disappointed though – there are still tickets available for their mini tour on these dates:
London Kentish Town Forum Friday 3 September
Manchester Academy Saturday 4 September
Wolverhampton Civic Hall Monday 6 September.
Buy Public Enemy Tickets

8.17.99  England Three Notting Nil 
(from NME.com website)
PUBLIC ENEMY have pulled out of their scheduled Notting Hill Carnival appearance. The band were due to play on Tim Westwood's stage which has been cancelled following police advice and security considerations.

The other UK shows will not be affected by the cancellation. Public Enemy play:
London Kentish Town Forum (September 3)
Manchester Academy (4)
Wolverhampton Civic Hall (6)

PE's new single 'Do You Wanna Go Our Way' - taken from the album and exclusively previewed as a downloadable free Mp3 file back in June, is released on September 13.

Get Public Enemy tickets now through the nme.com Virgin Cola Ticketshop - click here

Or call the 24-Hour NME Virgin Cola Ticketline on 0870 1 663 663. Calls are charged at national standard rate.


8.14.99  Chuck D, KRS-One to Speak at Cleveland Hip Hop Conference
(from Vibe website) 
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland will kick off its celebration of hip hop with a three-day conference on the culture and its impact. The conference, set for September 10-12, will be held on the campus of Cleveland State University, is being presented with the Cleveland State University Black Studies Program in association with the Smithsonian Institution and Levi's Jeans. The conference is the precursor to a major exhibit on hip hop that is scheduled to open at the museum on November 11. "No other segment of American popular culture has had a greater impact globally during the past three decades than hip hop culture," said Museum VP of Education and Public Programming Robert Santelli. "This conference gives us the opportunity, for the first time, to explore in depth the artistic, social, linguistic, stylistic and overall cultural impact hip hop has had on our society in the past three decades." 

The conference will feature keynote addresses from Public Enemy frontman and MP3 proponent Chuck D, KRS-One and journalist/lecturer Nelson George. Panelists scheduled to participate in discussions include DJ Kool Herc, the Last Poets, Rakim, Kurtis Blow, Melle Mel and Grandmaster Caz, Prince Paul, DJ Grand Wizard Theodore, Mixmaster Mike, Roc Raida, breakers Don "Campbellock" Campbell, Ken Swift and JoJo of the world famous Rock Steady Crew, Popmaster Fabel and the Electric Boogaloos and legendary graffiti writers Phase 2, Vulcan, Chaz Bojourquez and Mare 139. Journalists Greg Tate, Alan Light, Charlie Braxton and Harry Allen as well as rap activist Wendy Day are among a growing list of conference speakers. Information on registering for the Hip Hop Conference is available by calling (216) 515-1236. Registration cost is $25 for the weekend or $10 per single day. On-site registration is $45 for the weekend or $15 per single day. Discounted airfare and hotel packages are also available by calling (216) 515-1236. 


8.13.99  Public Enemy continues to lead Internet revolution
(from The Dallas Morning News website) by Chris Vognar
Public Enemy frontman Chuck D was always an agitator ahead of his time, the militant voice of hip-hop with more agendas than your average politico. A "Rebel Without a Pause," to use the name of a song from the groundbreaking PE album "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back." 

Eleven years later, you can still hear him fight the power on the group's new release on Internet label Atomic Pop, "There's a Poison Goin On." But this time, in a new hip-hop age when many question PE's musical relevancy, the revolutionary instinct comes forward more in the album's distribution than its content. 

As of July 20, you could buy "Poison" in stores. But you could have downloaded it from www.atomicpop.com two months earlier (and you still can if you'd rather just pay $8 rather than $15), making Public Enemy the first major act to offer new music exclusively on the Internet. 

Never a fan of the record industry and its hefty profit percentage, Chuck was happy to get out of his contract with Def Jam. Now he sounds ready to put lyrics into action on the business side of the street. 

"The major labels are run by lawyers and accountants," he says by phone. "If they could sell a hubcap with cheese for $17, they would. It's a slave mentality that runs rampant in the music industry." 

Battles between artists and their labels are legendary; recall the artist formerly known as Prince writing the word "slave" on his face when Warner Bros. wouldn't let him out of his contract. Tom Petty released the first single from his latest album, "Echo," in MP3 format, only to reportedly have it yanked by a perturbed Warner. And more artists are looking to the Web for alternative forms of distribution. 

PE contemporary Ice-T has followed their lead and inked his own deal with Atomic Pop. There is rumbling of more artist-run outlets in the works. As usual, Chuck is happy to be at the head of the charge. 

"My job was to put a shovel in the dirt," he says. "I see it being an eight-lane highway, going east, west, north and south. By 2002, I foresee 500,000 labels and a million artists in the marketplace. That brings terror to the accountants and lawyers, because they'll have to do what we all learned in kindergarten. They'll have to share." 

He seems to relish his position, and why not? After years of ranting against the radio and recording industries on record, he has found a way to use the ever-expanding Web as a practical weapon. 

Aside from capitalizing on the current MP3 craze, Chuck also heads up Bringthenoise.com, where he hosts a show that highlights unsigned artists. (Log on and send a CD demo if you're interested.) Aside from freeing up the options of artists, he also wants to get consumers more involved in the game. 

"Americans in general are subject to programming," he says. "My job is to be like `The Matrix,' to make people understand that they can be interactive and program themselves instead of sitting there like a robot and being programmed. I'd like to turn more people into human beings who make their own decisions instead of sitting there and taking what's given to them." 


8.13.99 3:01 am edt  Bill Laswell Album Features Kool Keith, Flavor Flav
(from SonicNet website) 
The upcoming album from experimental musician Bill Laswell will feature a host of hip-hop guests. The 17-track Intonarumori (Sept. 28) will have cameos from rappers Kool Keith, Public Enemy's Flavor Flav, Wu-Tang Clan's Killah Priest and members of Company Flow. In addition to former Golden Palominos singer Lori Carson, the eclectic disc also will have cameos by former Invisbl Skratch Piklz member DJ Disk and ex-New Kingdom rapper Jason Furlow. 


8.12.99  Spin names Public Enemy's Fear of A Black Planet # 2 Album of the 90's
by Dean Engmann
One album beat out Public Enemy's Fear of A Black Planet as the best album of the 90's, according to Spin Magazine.  That album was Nirvana's Nevermind.  Okay, that's a matter of opinion.  Click here to go to Spin Magazine's website to see the entire list, or read on to read just the article on Public Enemy.
2. Public Enemy Fear of a Black Planet (def jam, 1990)  Written by Charles Aaron
For Public Enemy, the 1990s jumped off like a press conference in progress. After PE’s second album, 1988’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, ingeniously mastermixed hip-hop as fierce Afrocentric theater, they roughed it up with media devils (often over Nation of Islam teachings and the Minister Louis Farrakhan), and then, in early ’89, released the Elvis-baiting single "Fight the Power," from Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing (which referenced racist attacks on blacks in Bensonhurst and Howard Beach, and was tarred in the New York press as an incitement to violence). By the time Fear of a Black Planet dropped in April 1990, the posse of Long Island college men had already disbanded briefly amid charges of anti-Semitism and a flurry of death threats. PE was pop’s most embattled group. But they weren’t backing off.

"We wanted to hit with the force of a Led Zeppelin power chord," says PE’s lead voice/visionary, Chuck D. "Nobody had ever tried to make such an aggressive, global, intellectual musical statement on a hip-hop record before, and it scared the fuck out of people. It caused such a shitstorm, not too many have had the guts to do it since."

Fear is "just" a hip-hop record like Invisible Man is just a long-ass novel. Originally an attempt to bust up racial barriers and sift through the dust for answers, the album saw PE question their own world as harshly as society at large. The title track, which riffs on America’s disgust with race-mixing, toodles a carnival organ before descending into a thrilling/numbing echo chamber of voices, including Chuck’s bullish fireside rant ("What is pure? Who is pure?"). The Bomb Squad production team (group cofounder Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee, Eric "Vietnam" Sadler, and Chuck, a.k.a. Carl Ryder), first unleashed its churning ocean of funk on It Takes a Nation, but for Fear they seemed to sample the sound of a world skinning itself alive. Fractured breakbeats, horns, sirens, guitars, clueless radio DJs, searing bits of oratory, rewired static, and James Brown’s show-biz howl are all patched together into a chugging rhythm engine that recalls Fela’s afro-beat rituals as much as other rap music of the day. Even jester-ish sidekick Flavor Flav picks his teeth with the spirits of the dead on the "public service" indictment "911 Is a Joke."

"I remember the Bomb Squad talking about how the sounds on that record were the destruction of music as we know it," says Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine, who often play Fear over the sound system before their shows. "Sonically and politically, it set a new stage."

Chuck explains, "You gotta remember, we had wider reference points than most kids—we were 30 years old. Rap music is the embodiment of all music that came before it, and we actually experienced what went down in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. We were making our pissed-off funk version of Sgt. Pepper, not some rap record a DJ could drop into his club set."

Fear was also recorded as PE was disintegrating (the Bomb Squad never worked again as a full unit). The first single, "Welcome to the Terrordome," was released in late ’89, in the wake of yet another anti-Semitic screed by Richard "Professor Griff" Griffin, PE’s "Minister of Information" (or "racist stage prop," as Def Jam label boss Russell Simmons put it then). The group bitterly disagreed over whether to can their childhood buddy, and Chuck D publicly waffled—firing Griff, reinstating him, etc. "Terrordome" reflects his heartfelt bewilderment, as Chuck lashes out at the "so-called chosen frozen" (Jews, critics, Griff?), then declaims, "My home is your home."

"That was such a crazy song," Sadler says. "When Chuck recorded his vocals, he was so intense that he bypassed the chorus, rapped through it completely, and totally altered the song’s structure. He was like a man going overboard."

When Chuck D wrestles sexism on the anthemic "Revolutionary Generation," spits homophobic digs on "Meet the G That Killed Me," or strip-mines racist history on "Who Stole the Soul?," he is voicing the weakness, paranoia, and betrayal that damned his family, in desperate hope of redeeming it. Shaping revelatory bursts out of "white" and "black" noise, Fear of a Black Planet still reverberates, as a sonic and psychic template for groups such as Rage, Chemical Brothers, Tricky, and Prodigy, as well as influencing dance genres from jungle to gabber to Big Beat. But with Public Enemy, the message fueled the medium, and their passionate attempt to inject racial politics into pop culture still haunts America’s divided house. 


8.12.99 12:00 est  KRS-One, Chuck D, Big Daddy Kane To Appear At Hip-Hop Conference
(from MTV website)
It'll be a little while before the first hip-hop acts are eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (artists must have released a record 25 years prior in order to be considered), but KRS-One, Chuck D, Kurtis Blow, Melle Mel, and Big Daddy Kane will help honor the genre at a special conference in Cleveland next month being co-sponsored by the Rock Hall.

In conjunction with Cleveland State University's Black Studies Program and Levi's, the Rock Hall will present "Hip-Hop: A Cultural Expression" at the Cleveland State campus from September 10-12. The three-day conference will open with a keynote address by former Boogie Down Productions leader KRS-One, with Public Enemy frontman Chuck D set to give the keynote speech on the conference's second day.

Others slated to appear at the conference and contribute to various lectures and symposiums include such hip-hop talents as Kool G Rap, Prince Paul, Biz Markie, Mixmaster Mike, the X-ecutioners, Roxanne Shante, Marley Marl, DJ Kool Herc, and Rakim.

The conference will also feature such seminal breakdancing acts as Den Swift and Joe Joe of the Rock Steady Crew, graffiti writers Phase 2, Vulcan, Mare 139, and music journalists Greg Tate, Alan Light, Kevin Powell, and Harry Allen.

The weekend seminar will set the stage for a large exhibit, titled "Roots, Rhymes & Rage: The Hip-Hop Story," to open at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on November 11. That exhibit will take a look at the growth of hip-hop via mementos and items from many of the genre's luminaries, as well as some of the artist's personal effects and studio equipment.


8.2.99  Time to face the music: Chuck D raps and labels get the blues
(from US News website) by Russ Mitchell
He's the music industry's worst nightmare–a powerful, popular, established star fighting for a far larger share of music royalties and egging on fellow artists to do the same. As recently as a year ago, Chuck D might have been safely ignored by the big record labels. But technology is forcing the industry to take the front man for the rap group Public Enemy very seriously. Music industry executives packed themselves standing-room only at an industry conference in New York last week to hear Chuck D tell them their game is over and they're going to have to play by new rules.

In a speech laced with words that rhyme with "luck" and "duck," he said the advent of digital music downloaded over the Internet to computers, stereo systems, and portable players will break the five major record labels' hammerlock on compact disk distribution. And that, he claimed, will boost performers' royalties from less than 10 percent of each sale today to as much as 50 percent. "It won't kill the record labels; it'll just force them to share," said Chuck D, whose band put out such best-selling CDs as Fear of a Black Planet.

Record executives pointed out that most artists aren't nearly as popular as Chuck D and need the labels' money and marketing expertise to make it big. Maybe Chuck D can go it alone, says Rykodisc President Don Rose. "But Chuck E, F, and G need a label to become well known." Still, it's the major stars that pump the bulk of profits into music companies, and, like baseball free agents, they're the ones most able to bolt.