Song Of The Week: 1/30/11

Song: "Welcome To The Terrordome"

Artist: Public Enemy

Album: "Fear Of A Black Planet"

Year: 1990



"Welcome To The Terrordome" is a song about the self-destruction going on in the black community. It's really about the tearing down of the community when people should be striving together to uplift it. Public Enemy's chief emcee Chuck D. is harshest on his own when it comes to black on black crime and cultural self-destruction in this song. Public Enemy formed back in 1986 and quickly became one of the most influential and most respected groups to come out in the hip hop world. Their second album, "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back" is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, not just in hip hop quarters. Several other musicians in many genres viewed "It Takes A Nation..." as a strong album, most notably being Nirvana's Kurt Cobain who put this album in his own personal top ten of music that he listened to. While "It Takes A Nation.." was PE's most heralded album, "Fear Of A Black Planet", released two years later, was their most successful. I always viewed Public Enemy as the punk rock band of the rap world. Their beats were harsh, noisy and cluttered and Chuck D. spit venom as an emcee. PE is really one of the first hip hop groups to focus on social, political and cultural issues in their albums. Along with Run D.M.C., and N.W.A., I would consider Public Enemy the most important group in rap history. As the 2000's approached, hip hop started going in many different directions and the material being released seemed to be more about boasting about what you have instead of focusing on real issues that are affecting the world. Because of this, legendary hip hop acts such as PE and KRS-ONE began to see their fame start to fade out. They still, however command respect for the path they laid. PE continues to release albums every two to three years, their latest being 2007's "How You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul". Currently, PE is still quite active as they still do some touring between focusing on various side projects, Chuck D.'s being mostly focused on political and social issues while hype man Flavor Flav has been back in the mainstream due to his "reality" shows such as "Flavor Of Love". I wouldn't be surprised to see PE come out with a new album in the near future.