Public Enemy 1994

Public Enemy's 1994 Album

Quotes
"Rap my black-ass off. . . . I'm tearing down the house that Jack built because he killed whoever he wanted. . . . the world don't work no more. . . . the new world order got a disorder. . . . disaster with a European autograph. . . . [chorus:] it's gonna bedlam if we get them; the trigger is cocked, nowhere to flock; it's gonna be bedlam if we get them; spread the word as to what you heard; it's gonna be bedlam if we get them; the Glock is cocked; now drop the props [give words of support]; it's gonna be bedlam if we get them; run him out of town with a Glock. . . . great wonders when fire came down from Heaven on the earth in sight of men [Revelation 13:13]; I am alpha and omega [Revelation 1:8,21:6,22:13] said the Lord of lords, King of kings";
"Bedlam 13:13"; Public Enemy, Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age, 1994, Def Jam, Polygram Group Distribution, The Seagram Company.

"Uncle Sam begatt [begot] Uncle Tom. . . . the cracker in the back. . . . you say you want a revolution, 40 acres to 40 ounces [of a beer]. . . . the mule is the one that's fooled; but I pass to be that jackass. . . . I flipped death threats. . . . not a cracker or a quaker, but a waker. . . . kill the informer. . . . getting rid of them racist Nazis, swastikas, because I'm bringing kamikazes. . . . this enemy states, Fifty States; I say, stay chill until the time is right, baby. . . . I'm the revelation, Last Days in time";
"Live and Undrugged Part I/Part II"; Public Enemy, Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age, 1994, Def Jam, Polygram Group Distribution, The Seagram Company.

Article
      With their 1994 album, Public Enemy added new reasons for overtaking whites and killing them. On the opening track the rappers say that in the year 2000 "crackers and devils who are programmed on a superiority complex" will declare war on people of African descent living around the globe by turning them into "niggertrons." To resist the "new world order," also called "United World States of Europe America" by the rappers, the "righteous" must protect their people "by any means necessary." ("Whole Lotta Love Goin on in the Middle of Hell.")

      Public Enemy informs us that rappers who are "sucking up to a devil" lose popularity, and that rhymes should be "finger licking" good but not in a "cotton picking" style. We are told that gun manufacturers are responsible for blacks killing blacks. ("Give It Up.")

      On the fourth track Public Enemy tells listeners that they "never fight the black from Iraq or Iran," and that whites have blood on their hands for bombing Japan. "Black man's law is coming raw like Africa," and blacks are the good guys who will get nine millimeter pistols in order to go after whites, putting them "where the shoe don't fit" and "shutting them down." In the liner notes, an explanation of the track is given, and in it is said that "African law is 'one-for-all and all-for-one', and don't violate; if you do, severe penalties await." ("What Side You On.")

      Public Enemy boasts that they are "tearing down the house that Jack built" because whites destroy the environment, and listeners are told to spread the word. "The Glock is cocked, time to rock," the rappers promise, and they make the track's title clear by saying "it's gonna be bedlam if we get them." At the end, an excerpted voice speaks the words of Revelation 13:13 about fire coming down from Heaven onto Earth during Armageddon. ("Bedlam 13:13.")

      Public Enemy wants "justice" because the government tries to take "all" the money. Blacks must stop killing blacks as Louis Farrakhan says, relay the rappers, and they let everyone know that they give knowledge and "soul power." The rappers ask the listeners over and over again on the CD about "what [they] gonna do when the ending of time comes near." ("What Kind of Power We Got.") On track 6 the declaration of the Final Call is given to their "race in pain," and the rappers make claims about their ability to influence. ("Stop in the Name.")

      The rappers are giving direction to blacks when listeners are told to organize for the purpose of uniformly condemning rappers who do not march in lock step with Public Enemy. Afterall, we are told, "white law" results in the killing of blacks. The following grievances are given: law enforcement officers who kill whites are charged with murder, but officers who kill blacks are not charged because killing blacks is considered self-defense by cops; the system does not care about blacks killing blacks. In the explanation of the song given in the liner notes, it is written that "all this gangster talk is fantasy because the white man usually ends up on top." ("So Watcha Gone Do Now.")

      "White man's heaven is a black man's hell," and the "white world order" is the cause of "black genocide." ("White Heaven/ Black Hell.") Whites conspire to commit mass murder of "105 million . . . most in the black and the brown" in the following ways: germs concocted in labs spread the HIV virus and small pox; "in Tuskegee blacks got shot with disease;" "genetic getting wrecked [by]. . . . drug use, addiction, and murder. . . . infant mortality. . . . [and] poverty. . . . [and blacks will suffer from] disease until deceased, sterilized." The rapper's "tribe" is killed by the "swine" so that "people of color going out like no other." ("Race Against Time.")

      Whites are called "crackers, killers, kidnappers, [and] the KKK," and we are told that whites at racial rallies across the country would like to hang the rappers. It is absurd for blacks to sing the Star Spangled Banner as it is written, for instead the last line of the song should be "hell with us niggas, we slaves." Red in the flag is for bloodshed, we are told, while blue is for "the sad ass songs" and the stripes stand for "whip marks in our backs." The rappers say that "white is for the obvious and there ain't no black in that flag." "Uncle Sammy" sticks up the poor and gives the money to the rich. In the track's explanation in the liner notes, we read that "programming from white America starts [the] young [off] with violent take-over songs like The Star Spangled Banner [and] Pledge of Allegiance." ("Aintnuttin Buttersong.")

      Chuck D says that he is upset, that he is "not a cracker or a Quaker but a waker," that he is "getting rid of them racist Nazis, swastikas, because [he's] bringing kamikazes," that he is a "revelation" in "the last days in time," and that he "flipped [rapped] death threats." Chuck D says that blacks will no longer easily get over his belief that drugs on the street are due to "the cracker in the back," "Uncle Sam," and due to "Uncle Tom." Chuck D dialogues with listeners in the know by filling in their lines: "you say you want a revolution, 40 acres to 40 ounces [of a beer]"; while the mules are fooled, he, Chuck D, is not, and he refuses to be "that jackass." The following is issued forth: "this enemy States, Fifty States; I say, stay chill until the time is right time, baby; damn; the blood line getting raided with AIDS. . . . God versus the devil; what side are you on?" Black men are dying due to marijuana and 40 ounce beers because compared to milk, "blunts and 40's is like cookies." He says about his own choices that he never has had beer of liquor. In the track's explanation in the liner notes, it is written that "the Uncle Tom sellout dealers are backed by the crackers [and that] only thousands can stop hundreds." ("Live and Undrugged Part I /Part II.")

      Public Enemy personalizes slavery as if they suffered it first hand: "you took me from a place where the race didn't matter and gathered up bodies without a choice"; and "from land to land to sea to sea . . . the other man messing with me." Public Enemy says that they see what "fathers" of whites did to the Indians in all of the Americas. We are told that the rapper's "mother and man" were enslaved by whites, and that whites stole rock 'n' roll and jazz from blacks. Public Enemy advises that one must make up one's mind to get "freedom," suggesting that blacks do not have freedom in the US, and further, they want to run over whites with a truck. ("Thin Line Between Law & Rape.")

      The rappers tell listeners that if they become stars "the man" will try to put them in jail. ("I Ain't Mad at All.") Chuck D says that white skinheads hate what he has to say. At the end of the track there are excerpts in which a man tells police officers to get their hands off of him unless he is under arrest, and a man asks the following: "is this the way the racist government works." ("Death of a Carjacka.")

      Chuck D says that he never took a drink, a hit, or a bribe, and that he never sang, gangbanged, or "sold out or rented hip hop." The rappers will not lose their fans, he says, even though critics write that Public Enemy will lose popularity. With their music, he says, Public Enemy helps "the black and brown," and they "raised flags and dragged the Klan in body bags, [and] hung them up in Mississippi and bum fuck." ("I Stand Accused.")

      People will die because "the white man has a god complex," Flavor Flav says, and he gives a summary of the notion as follows: "I'm making guns; I'm making bombs; I'm making gas; I'm making . . . machines, birth control pills. . . . killed Japanese with the A-bomb. . . . still killing black people; I still slight mother earth, and done went to the moon; I'm god." ("Godd Complex.")

      Because Columbus Day is a national holiday, blacks are being "forced to celebrate a black holocaust." It is "Hitler Day," and it represents the death "of the black, the brown, and red." "100 million" blacks died on slave ships alone. We are informed that whites wrecked non-white families by killing family members or by splitting up families. It is common today for speakers to introduce their beliefs with standard phrases that purport "correctness" in order to make listeners think that any belief spoken thereafter by them must be a reasonable one; yet, in the very next spoken words the speakers contradict themselves. Trying to sound reasonable momentarily in the midst of their violent racism, Public Enemy says that they "don't hate nobody because of their color, [they] hate oppression." It is interesting to note that even when trying to sound reasonable, the rappers use the word, oppression, being the word commonly spoken by violently racist musicians, in order to exaggerate conditions. At the song's end, Public Enemy promises that there will be "payback for them making us slaves." ("Hitler Day.")

      Track 20 is an excerpt from a message left on Chuck D's answering machine in which a man tells him that evolving technologies and lowering costs will allow many more people to manufacture and produce music in the future. The man warns, however, that today's power players will seek to keep control of the music industry even as it decentralizes. (Untitled.) Chuck D says that Public Enemy's lyrics are hardcore like Ice Cube's, that they have "skills to kill" with, and that with their music they are cop killers. ("Livin in a Zoo Remix.")

      In the liner notes Public Enemy praises Allah and expresses anger over "black-on-black crime." Acknowledgements were given to Spike Lee, Isaac Hayes, Eddie Murphy, Don Cornelius, Mike Tyson, Reverend Calvin Butts, Minister Louis Farrakhan, and Reverend Jesse Jackson. Chuck D writes about his view that America is like a "plantation" for "black people" because it is a "racist blueprint." "Today," writes Chuck D, "wars are fought in the air, call these records air-strikes from the airwaves." He also gives the Nation of Islam propaganda about racial Armageddon as follows: "The book of Revelation, as it describes the end of the world, never said that Black people would be the first to go, which means that our very existence has world consequences."

References
Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age, Public Enemy, 1994, Def Jam, Polygram Group Distribution, Phillips' Electronics. PolyGram merged with Universal Music Group in 1998, the parent being The Seagram Company.

Posted at http://home.att.net/~phosphor on June 30, 1999.

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