Public Enemy's 1998 Album

Quotes
"The devil carried the cross of Christ on the back of a black angelic 'hood-rat. . . . I rumble with any given devil on any given level; but must I put into effect a black court press. . . . chrome be my way, oh, and by the way, I don't play. . . . anti-nigga novel. . . . I got forty acres to confiscate. . . . blank pale faces, feigns in high places. . . . multi-national-corporation noose. . . . dirty cop";
"Sudden Death--Interlude"; Public Enemy, He Got Game, 1998, Def Jam, PolyGram Group Distribution, Philips' Electronics.

"I cock my Glock and give thanks for the peace that will exist when this war is over; revolution. . . . rally up all the people like I'm Farrakhan"; "Revelation 33 and 1/3 Revolutions"; Public Enemy, He Got Game, 1998, Def Jam, PolyGram Group Distribution, Philips' Electronics. The song is packed with calls for a race war, and the following link gives much of the song's lyrics: "Revelation 33 and 1/3 Revolutions."

Article
      On their 1998 album, He Got Game, being the soundtrack for the movie by the same name, Public Enemy rappers issue forth paranoia and threats in the same vein begun by its previous albums. (Having directed He Got Game, Spike Lee did not show viewers any scenes or any dialogue that would have indicated to viewers that blacks wanted to start a race war--instead the movie was about a black high-school basketball star making his choice about which college to attend. However, with his use of Public Enemy's tracks in the movie, Spike Lee seemed to be sending the following message in an under-handed manner to rap music fans who would understand the words in the music: he, Spike Lee, is in favor of a race war.) As usual, Public Enemy's style is cryptic.

      The opening track has the following stream of phrases: "y'all black again. . . . hypocrites forget. . . . battle for your mind. . . . Lord, save us from that sword of Davis. . . . when the feds come and doom your party, cracker in the back. . . . PE, we be the same crew, resurrection in the game, here to save you. . . . it's going down family. . . . we getting ready to turn this shit to the 2 and 3 zeroes. . . . behold the one man Million Man March; takes a Nation; 400 year violation, apocalyptic, no power in this happy hour . . . you don't like Lazarus, just black, baby. . . . 'star' spelled backwards is 'rats'. . . . get mental. . . . the 6-man be sinning from the beginning; you know the suckers hand be hidden. . . . the devil try to get me cross like a crucifix. . . . vultures. . . . new world order is going down. . . . fucking with Saddam will bring a new Saigon. . . . ain't nothing changed; PE, we be the same crew. . . . the soul, controlled by Allah; I be most humble, but also punishable, for those who are unlawful to righteousness. . . . my gun, I bust to maintain. . . . PE is still in effect beyond the year 2000." ("Resurrection," featuring Masta Killa from Wu-Tang Clan.)

      On the second track the rappers say that the average black is "screaming vocal javelins," and that this is a sign of them "unraveling." They ask where is Christ in "all this crisis?" Times are serious, they say, because a "new world order" is about to begin, and listeners are warned more than once to "beware, two-triple-O is near." Whites are described as "hatin' Satan [who] never knew what nice is," as "the devil" who makes all the rules, and as "white men in suits [who] don't have to jump" as others do. We are told that "folks don't even own themselves, paying mental rent to corporate presidents." Whites are so worried about the prospect of paying reparations to blacks that they are "playing with the population," and society has developed into such a severe state that "even murder is excused." The rappers inform their audience that "PE is in full effect from right now until the year 2000." They ask if listeners are "ready for the real revolution, which is the evolution of the mind." Blacks must stop "sleeping" and "wake up," they say, telling them to control their "own cipher" and to "look out for the spirit snipers." They refer to symbols from ancient Egypt, pyramids being the most common such, and they let it be known that "pyramids wasn't built like projects." ("He Got Game," featuring Stephen Stills.)

      Guest rapper, KRS-One, claims that his lyrics will affect listeners. Listeners must open their minds and not "fall asleep," and "they need health care." He warns them: "you live in sinister; you reject the words of the Minister [Farrakhan]; you better get with your Koran or Bible; you won't be living long if you're living idol." He tells all that he is "alerting [them] while spurting a devine speech" and "mystic lyric." He says that Public Enemy is administering the "public enema." ("Unstoppable," featuring KRS-One.) We are told that everyone should party, that the rappers make a lot of money, and that the rappers are great. ("Shake Your Booty.")

      An analogy is made between a basketball game and racial conflict, and blacks are said to win in the end. Hardcore rap is making a comeback after it was criticized six years ago, we are told. Public Enemy tells listeners to ask themselves the following: "is your Lord a god, or is your God a dog?" The CIA, the FBI, and corporations not only defend, but they also undermine blacks. Public Enemy chooses violence: "an eye for an eye, aim the target at the bad guy; heard the war is on." We are told that "the peace [between East Coast and West Coast rappers is] cursed for life by the mark of the beast." The effort of "gangsta" rappers to unify rappers behind one message by condemning nonconformists is mentioned in the context of a basketball game as follows: "hip-hop shoot outs versus those house niggas." The referees of the symbolic basketball game are the police, but the police "couldn't catch what they couldn't see." "Gangsta" rappers often claim to have an affect on listeners and to be untouchable by the system. The major record companies win the game in overtime, but "may the best rest in peace." ("Is Your God a Dog.")

      Public Enemy says that if they should fail to make black identity lyrics, then their fans should not back them: "don't back me if I come with milky raps." They say that "devil attempts to get heroes railroaded [and] stole the ball from lost souls for whom the final bell tolls." The rappers tell their listeners that "prison is the skin [they are] in," and so "got to beat the man, the house of the rising sun." The track begins with a statement that conjures up Yakub and the creation of the white race: "may I rise and speak to this game; ashamed that I invited this devil to rise to a living level to peek into the kind of refined mind with the divine evil; I speak no evil; I hear no evil; I see no equal to this 'melinated' madness; sad at this mess." ("House of the Rising Sun.")

      Track 7, called "Revelation 33 1/3 Revolutions," prepares listeners for a race war: "soldiers of the future, we are approaching what will be earth's last battle; Armageddon is the destiny we await; in the trenches of the ghettos we meditate, developing our defense; I'm getting tense; I hear the bombs of time ticking as the smoke of fear thickens in the air; I cock my Glock and give thanks for the peace that will exist when this war is over; revolution; revelations will be revealed; Babylon has fallen; now time to build lab wars." Upset about the fact that there are so many "black males doing time" in prisons, Public Enemy wonders "who invented motherfucking crime." There are many "politically incarcerated cats" in their view, and Black Panther "Geronimo Pratt" was one of them. Public Enemy hollers out that they are the "prophet of rage" who, with their "militant mind," will stay in the "guerilla zone" and will affect the actions of listeners with their "lyrical fits [that] spread like cancer." They say that blacks will assemble around them: "rally up all the people like I'm Farrakhan."

      Violent imagery is abundant on the track, and it includes the following: "I'm gonna bet you I'm gonna bust chrome [fire a pistol having a metallic luster]." At the end of the manifesto, a female voice calls out the following: "in 1998 we gonna take down the head of state; and demonstrate, non-stop resistance; it is time, time for a drastic change; time to retaliate and wake-up; I've had enough, enough of the lies, enough of the destruction, 'disinformation' and corruption, false religious doctrines, and crooked cops; I stand rooted in the struggle, and I will not stop; no; no; no more violence; no; no; no more injustice; and no more two-faced politicians who stab you in the back; you done smothered us too long; and I'm destined now and will attack; I'm gonna swallow you whole and squeeze you until the truth is told; you can keep your manmade diseases and your welfare reform, housing projects, penitentiaries, fake agendas that never really included me; nothing can stop us, not even death."

      In the early 1990's, "gangsta" rappers referred to the date of Armageddon as the year 2000, but now as the year 2000 is closing in, some leeway is being given, such as the following from Public Enemy's track: "2001, 2002, what you gonna do?" Throughout Track 7, a background voice forewarns with phrases repeated over and over again, and most of them are as follows: "this shit is getting critical"; "y'all need to know that, in 2000, the shit is going crazy; y'all better grab your Glocks and take them with you"; "listen to my man; this shit is blazing"; "that's my word, g."; "it's going down, baby; y'all need to know that these are the times, yoh, the last times; these gonna be the last time so y'all better get down; y'all better act like you know"; "the whole world is gonna fight, so what you gonna do, g."; "let's get rid of them, baby; it's all good, baby; that's right; worried about time; all we got is time; time is coming"; "this time it ain't no joke"; "we're stuck right here; we can't leave"; "trying to take them down, baby; chemical warfare"; "giving us drugs that keep us high by the white man, trying to create another lie"; "worldwide"; "what you gonna do"; "it's in your face, baby"; "time cannot be wasted, baby."

      On the next track, other rappers are told to influence with their lyrics and to tell it "real." We are told that "hip hop is like a chess game" where rappers are hard at work "discussing the war," where they "strategize [and] move like masterminds." Public Enemy says that they are in it not for "the fame" but for "the change." On the track, and on the previous one, they make references to their 1990 song called "Welcome to the Terrordome." ("Game Face.")

      We are told that tennis shoes cost too much, and it is by this manner that corporations have their hands in the pockets of blacks. Furthermore, blacks kill each other over the expensive shoes. Public Enemy distinguishes between whites at the top and average whites when the rappers say that they "see corporate hands up in foreign lands, with the man behind the man getting paid behind the man." Listeners are warned that "high school and college coaches [are] getting dollars with kickbacks in scholarships, them slave ships." A reference is made to "Kwanza." Athletes who lose their endorsements from shoe companies will have to deal drugs: "to maintain without this game I gotta do ki's [deal kilos of cocaine] and I don't wanna go there because it's fucking everywhere." ("Politics of the Sneaker Pimps.")

      The following phrases are made: "the new slave trade. . . . community rages at the clout of the 'cagers'. . . . conflicts between the races. . . . no room for the quitter. . . . what you need is Jesus. . . . packed them pickups; resurrection of the two man vocal section; the spirit in your darkass direction. . . . war under battle boards. . . . watch what your pray for, but know the team that you play for; need I say more; scared of the resurrection; sacrifice y'all; then maybe the revolution is basketball. . . . stuck on Play Station's; them the new plantations; I said a million heads waiting for another nation to make your world be free. . . . there ain't no stopping me. . . . give you fits on them turnaround hypocrites. . . . hear them nets rip at the butcher." ("What You Need Is Jesus.")

      We are told that black athletes are taken advantage of by sports agents who make huge amounts of money. Violent imagery is directed at agents. Not rapped on the track but printed on the lyric sheet is the following: "superagent chilling [taking it easy] off the court; see nigga got bought; got kicked out of the sport; unseen hand made 'em kiss the ass of the man." Basketball courts in ghettos are made not of wood but of concrete. America is referred to as the "land of milk and honey." ("Super Agent.") Public Enemy raps about "the have's and have not's" and about their view that a "white man's burden be a black man's dream." ("Go Cat Go.")

      The words of the last track are not printed on the lyric sheet, and some excerpts are as follows: "the devil carried the cross of Christ on the back of a black angelic hood rat, on a anti-Lojack crack habit; I'm humble but I rumble with any given devil on any given level; but must I put into effect a black court press; no, don't test the chest of the heirs to the throne; chrome be my way, oh, and by the way, I don't play. . . . fact, the government tongue kissed the devil's daughter, and sent native daughters to the slaughter in the last six chapters of a anti-nigga novel entitled: Life in the Fast Lane; like death, in the last lane. . . . I got forty acres to confiscate. . . . who gets sprayed [shot by a spray of bullets] by blank pale faces. . . . a two-piece multi-national-corporation noose around the neck of his pops; got locked and dropped by a dirty cop. . . . am I supposed to be a nigga." ("Sudden Death--Interlude.)

      Some of the artists who were thanked in liner notes for the first time by Public Enemy were Rampage, Busta Rhymes, Killarmy, Masta Killa, and RZA. Permission was given to sample songs by GRAMMY Award winning artists, Leon Huff's "Do It Anyway You Wanna" and Pete Townshend's "Won't Get Fooled Again."

References
He Got Game, Public Enemy, 1998, Def Jam, PolyGram Group Distribution, Philips' Electronics.

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

Last editing was posted September 25, 1999.

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