Public Enemy

Latest Articles

artist: Tricia Rose, Brown University’s hip-hop scholar, discusses rap’s creative crisis

Keeping it unreal
Some 40 years in, rap is nothing less than a cultural juggernaut. But it has not lost its power to provoke.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 19, 2011

Young Gifted and Black makes responsible rap cool

Drama of the Gifted Child
If you look closely in the 2002 video for Public Enemy's "Gotta Give the Peeps What They Need," you'll see a 13-year-old Jesse Winfrey playing the background.
By CHRIS FARAONE | August 18, 2010

Photos: Public Enemy: 1988-1998

From the Phoenix archives: Public Enemy through the years
From the Phoenix archives: Public Enemy through the years
By PHOENIX STAFF | August 03, 2010

Still Public Enemy #1

Twenty years after Black Planet, Chuck D continues to fight the powers that be
Don't call it a comeback tour. Or a Public Enemy reunion. Even if you snoozed on their last few discs and festival romps across five continents, Chuck D and Flavor Flav have perpetually marched forth in raucous righteousness.
By CHRIS FARAONE | August 06, 2010

Slideshow: History of Guru and Gang Starr

A collection of videos, photos, music and more from our archives
Here is our salute – in photo, audio, video, and writing – to a Roxbury legend and the vast Gang Starr legacy he left behind.
By CHRIS FARAONE | May 24, 2010

Kid vicious

Juiceboxxx cares not for your nerdcore
It’s not easy being a rapper from Wisconsin. Just ask 23-year-old hip-hop lifer Juiceboxxx.
By LEOR GALIL | April 08, 2010

Fresh legends

Somebody pinch People Under the Stairs
Nine out of 10 rap legends prefer People Under the Stairs. (The holdout is a crackhead.) That's no joke — in my hundreds of interviews with dudes who brought the noise and funk before the big ship sunk ( circa 1997), California underground heroes Thes One and Double K have been as popular a subject as the exploitation of old-school luminaries.
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 13, 2010

Fourth-estate follies, 2009 edition

The Phoenix's second annual year in media malfeasance
Between the rise of the Web, the ADD-addling of America, the fragmentation of any national political consensus, and the devastated economy, working in the press can feel a bit like manning the Titanic — and this year, the entire industry seemed to teeter on the edge of oblivion.
By ADAM REILLY | December 28, 2009

Music Seen: Brother Ali

Brother Ali, live at Asylum, November 10, 2009
Even if you've seen Brother Ali before, you have not seen the show that he played last week.
By SONYA TOMLINSON | November 18, 2009

Review: Shepard Fairey + Z-Trip + Chuck D

“Experiment Redux” | Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston | July 31, 2009
So Shepard Fairey actually made it this time. No insane, last-minute sting operations by Boston cops lurking just off the ICA’s property line. But also: no grand dramatics, either. (Like, he totally could have parachuted through a shattered skylight. In slow motion.) Fairey just showed up and did his thing.
By NICK CURRAN AND ADDISON POST | August 11, 2009

Photos: Shepard Fairey, Z-Trip, Chuck D at the ICA

Shepard Fairey, Z-Trip, and Chuck D, live at the Institute of Contemporary Art, on July 31, 2009
Shepard Fairey spins at Obey Experiment REDUX at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston
By MELISSA OSTROW AND ALEX SLATER | August 05, 2009

Photos: Friday at Bonnaroo 2009

Public Enemy, Santigold, Beastie Boys, and more on Friday, June 12, 2009 at Bonnaroo
Photos from Friday, June 12, 2009 at Bonnaroo 2009
By LEXY WINTER | June 17, 2009

They get ill

Five Philly rap essentials
Jocko Henderson, Lady B, Schoolly D, Jazzy Jeff, and The Roots
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 27, 2009

Dark passage

Film noir and the Production Code at the MFA
The Production Code, Hollywood's notorious self-censorship program, was instituted by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America in 1930, but it didn't go into effect till 1934, when it was administered by Joseph I. Breen.
By STEVE VINEBERG | May 27, 2009

Art for art's sake

The creative economy
Apparently, I'm one of those artist-types. Except it's not called "artist" anymore. That term is too, well ... artsy-fartsy. It doesn't adequately convey my critical importance to society.
By AL DIAMON | April 29, 2009

Cheer of a black planet

Hip-Hop Worldwide: More Than a Nation conference
It's hip-hop week at Harvard University. And while that statement is far less ironic than it would have been 15 years ago, it's still relatively humorous.
By CHRIS FARAONE | March 11, 2009

2008 Listravaganza Part 2

The lighter side of music in 2008
Everything you wanted to know about the year in music, in tidy lists of 10.
By BOSTON PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | January 05, 2009

A history of violins

The bigger, better sound of Dungen
To paraphrase (very loosely) Ben Franklin, wherever you go in this world of ours — and that includes Sweden, native land of Dungen mastermind Gustav Ejstes — nothing is certain but death, taxes, and being picked on mercilessly if you’re a kid who plays the violin.
By MICHAEL ALAN GOLDBERG | October 23, 2008

Roots Manuva | Slime and Reason

Big Dada/Ninja Tune (2008)
The richest fruit of British rap’s gestation period is the growing catalogue of Roots Manuva.
By ANDREW GRAHAM | October 15, 2008

Record reviewers

Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr, and Built to Spill at the Orpheum, September 27, 2008
The problem with these “play your most revered album in full” shows that everyone from Public Enemy to Liz Phair is doing lately is that the correct answer is not always a no-brainer.
By RYAN STEWART | October 01, 2008

Smoke screens

Does a surge of stoner movies mean America is going to pot?
What does it say about America that marijuana movies are a hot genre right now, perhaps hotter even than in the heyday of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong’s 1978 Up in Smoke ?
By PETER KEOUGH | August 18, 2008