Public Enemy

I remember there was one concert came here to town back in the day.

And it was like, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, JJ Fad, and like, I don't know, a couple other people, Thomas and Mac.

And it was like, it was impossible to try to get to go to that thing because it was just, you know, sold out, whatever, because we never got anything here.

And now, now we have so much stuff here.

rap was she talking about

Citation Needed, other than Public Enemy and like three Run DMC songs, Citation Needed.

One of the first rap hits is 1979's Basketball.

And I'm sorry, Christmas Rap by Curtis Blow.

I mean, they might've been, but it didn't show up in their music at all.

Um, uh, yeah.

Anthrax and public enemy were peak.

I

I had a backup.

And you see, Brains and Noise by Nthrax and Public Enemy.

Okay.

Is

my number one.

And what stands out to you about that song?

I think that it's a change for Anthrax because they're normally heavy, but with Public Enemy, the song is like more rap style.

And it's one of the first songs to be like that, like a rap band and a rap brand.

So anyways, we've been listening to some fun music just in the background.

We've got some Public Enemy in the background.

We've got Public Enemy going Rebel Without a Pause.

We have The People by...

Common from his album Forever Begins.

That's one of the beauties of your show.

I love how you integrate contemporary hip-hop with... also r&b and funk sounds too like the source material

yeah i mean like the speaking of the type of hip-hop i've been playing on today's show i mean we had paradigm shift from 2024 uh we also had you know the cry baby by vin staples which is a 2026 release shad which is a 2025 release and now we're listening to public enemy it's a 35 year old release it takes a nation of millions to hold us back which is a 1988 release yeah And I think that's such a good album title as well.

That's why I was there.

And I'm a hip-hop generation, so I wanted to see Public Enemy and everybody that was associated with it.

But I had one critique about Essence this year.

It was too loud.

We could kind of still hear it, but sitting in the dome right in front of the speakers, I don't know who the sound man was, but that wasn't good at all.

I

think Public Enemy was terrible.

Terrible? Sound-wise.

Trust It.

Yes, you remember Public Enemy, Chuck D.

This song you have to listen to.

You can listen to it forever, but if you listen to it at least two or three or four times, you see the lines sort of growing.

It's a really intricate song, but they compare Public Enemy... compares the criminal justice system to a slave ship, and they're not wrong.

And a lot of the parallels that they make, a lot of America's, you know, the original sin in American history, slavery, how it still is present in our criminal justice system.

At one point in the song, it says, you know, here comes the judge.

And, and there, and it's really, it's really pretty fascinating.

And I'm not even taking questions on that, okay? So don't even get in the comments on that one.

He remixed Public Enemy, Nas, Wu-Tang, and Run DMC.

He just got a Grammy nod with Common and he's still out here signing new talent instead of living off old checks, okay? And he brought that talent with him today, a Mount Vernon MC, Army vet, cybersecurity professional, Fordham grad, barber, first artist ever signed to True Soul Records.

I want to welcome to Control the Narrative, the Soul Brother himself, Pete Rock and Amir.

We're always made out to be the bad guys.

Our characters are always assassinated after the fact, and they use fear of a black planet, as Public Enemy said, to preempt attacks against us.

So they can have preempted attacks against us rather.

We cannot stay based upon all of this on the sidelines.