From MIM Notes 46
P.E.'s biting nationalist rap punches the white establishment square in the face. The record attacks the police, the "anti- nigger machine," and exposes Amerika's war on Blacks. The line is straight Nation of Islam right down to the members of the band pictured on the back of the album wearing FOI (Fruit of Islam) hats. "Burn, Hollywood Burn"--a song that takes the racist media to task for the negative portrayal of Blacks as servants and criminals--comes out with the familiar Black culture analysis. That is, the brothers choke when the go to see Driving Miss Daisy and decide the people need to make their own movies--like Spike Lee.
True enough--the masses will need to create their own movies and culture after the revolution--but just making movies or music will never get us to that point. Spike and P.E. can't escape capitalism with the power of their art. They can make valuable contributions, but Amerika is not going to allow the Black nation to simply walk away and create its own world free of exploitation. If that were possible, the lot of us would have done it already. P.E. is frequently attacked as sexist or anti-Semitic or plain hateful. The band answers most of these charges in the first few cuts. "I think that white Liberals, like yourself, have difficulty understanding that Chuck D represents the aspirations of the majority of Black youth out there today," says one supporter in "Incident at 66.6 FM." The anti-Semitism charge is the most out-to-lunch. Even when dealing with movie-making, a business others ignorantly stereotype as being run by Jews, P.E. sticks to the point: It's time to burn the place down because Hollywood has made war on Blacks. MIM can find no anti-Semitic lyrics on P.E.'s tracks. People associated with the band have said outrageous things, and been raked over the coals by the media for it, but they have recanted, apparently sincerely. Debate now seems to center on the line "Crucifixion ain't no fiction" from "Welcome to the Terrordome," the meaning of which is hazy. The sexism charge carries more weight. On their first album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, P.E. had a track called "Sophisticated Bitch." "Revolutionary Generation," on the new record, attempts self- criticism with lines like "R-E-S-P-E-C-T / My sister's not my enemy." But when they mention the "Bitch" song, all rapper Flavor Flav can muster is, "Don't be one." P.E. is coming from a Black male point of view that says money (a white male province) and Amerikan culture (white is good, Black is bad) divide Black men and Black women. Still, Fear of a Black Planet represents an improvement over their previous record, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988). The song "Pollywannacraka" tells the story of a Black women who chases money and a Black man who gets rich and forgets his people, chasing white women. Money corrupting national identity cuts both ways here, whereas in "She Watch Channel Zero" (1988) a woman looses her identity by "watching that garbage," TV. P.E. has never rhapsodized rape the way NWA or 2 Live Crew do, and they seem to be moving forward in their line on women, but it's anyone's guess what they might say in the future. The most unambiguously hateful part of this album is "Meet the G that Killed Me," about a man with AIDS who spreads it around with a needle and a whore. This rap attacks gay life and gay sex with the typical epithets: "Man to man/I don't know if they can/From what I know/The part don't fit/Ahh shit." MIM calls P.E. out on this homophobic, stupid analysis of AIDS.
APOCALYPSE 91 ... THE ENEMY STRIKES BLACK
Public Enemy, Columbia Records, 1991
Public Enemy's fourth album, Apocalypse 91 ... The Enemy Strikes Black, is a weak show compared to last year's Fear of a Black Planet. Apocalypse addresses problems facing the Black nation which P.E. has covered before: suckers and sell-outs, genocide through alcohol and drugs, media distortion and police crackdowns.
Public Enemy's past attempts at supporting the sisters are nowhere to be found. Instead, they make references to abusing women, and continue their old gay-bashing attitude.
In spite of this counter- revolutionary analysis, we can learn from P.E. "Can't Truss It," explains that from the beginning of slavery in Amerika to today's Black nation, Black people have been selling each other out.
"Divided and sold/For liquor and the gold/Smacked in the back"--the Black nation assailed by violence and drugs. In "A Letter to the New York Post," a Ku Klux Klan member thanks Black people for destroying themselves-doing the KKK's job.
A speech cut into "1 Million Bottlebags," hints at how alcohol ads and billboards in the inner city are keeping Blacks asleep, unorganized and fighting each other. "Genocide kickin' in yo back/How many times have you seen/A black fight a black/After drinkin' down a bottle." This is just one more way for capitalists to profit by oppressing the Black nation: "They're slaves to the liquor man." At the end of "I Don't Wanna Be Called Yo Niga," they explain how religion completes the picture. A church at one end of the "projects" and a liquor store at the other both hold Black people down. But P.E.'s support for the Nation of Islam makes it clear that they are not talking about all religion. P.E. again exposes police repression of the Black nation. In "Get the F- Outta Dodge," P.E. exposes the police crackdown disguised as "noise pollution laws." Cops say: "A bank is robbed and you fit the description ... keep your music down or you might get shot." P.E. puts it all in perspective: "Blamin' me for the hardcore roar/But they the ones wit' .44's."
Following their own lead in Fear of a Black Planet (especially "Burn Hollywood Burn"), P.E. has more to say about the media industry, this time focusing on Black-controlled media. In "How to Kill a Radio Consultant," they criticize Black-controlled radio for not playing what's important, what's good for the neighborhood. "Only black radio station in the city/Programmed by a sucker in a suit."
Then P.E. strikes back at the press-Black press in particular-which has misrepresented P.E. and its members. "A Letter to the New York Post" says "Black newspapers and magazines are supposed to get the real deal from the source y'all."
Public Enemy reinforces its previous calls for Black unity by exposing specific problems to its audience. Beyond the direct repression of the capitalist state, P.E. deals with the in- fighting and destruction within the Black nation which only aids the capitalist state. -MC42