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00:05They were a musical militia with nothing to lose.
00:08Either we were gonna be dead, we were gonna be in jail, or just on skid row.
00:12So I'm like, okay.
00:14Public Enemy turned the stage into a political pulpit and made rap an arena for black rage.
00:20When the light bulb struck, we went with it.
00:25The radical rhetoric turned the world of music upside down.
00:28We had put everything in the pot, stirred it up, and said, we have this combination.
00:33The revolutionary sound changed it forever.
00:38We didn't want nothing to be consistent, because consistent to us did not signify rebellion.
00:43It was all the aggression and all the power of any music that I'd ever loved or heard, but with
00:55the deepest, blackest feeling.
00:59They promoted an agenda of black power.
01:02I'm a black man, and I can never be a veteran.
01:05Public Enemy unexpectedly won a legion of white fans.
01:09I think Public Enemy sort of took the place of Marley Ford, the college male who's looking for something rebellious.
01:15Time I get to Arizona!
01:18They fueled America's debate on race.
01:20I'll shut them down!
01:21Shut them down!
01:22But when one of them attacked the Jewish community in an interview, it started a fire none of them could
01:27extinguish.
01:28The majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe, yes, Jews.
01:32Welcome to the terror dog!
01:33I do remember getting death threats.
01:36They suspended me.
01:38That's the way it has to be.
01:39N*** get shot for s*** like that!
01:43We ain't had no friends coming in, and didn't care about having friends at that time.
01:47Do you wanna go our way?
01:49Loud, proud, and primed for conflict.
01:52Public Enemy.
01:53Behind the music.
02:07With a radical dose of black nationalism, Public Enemy carved hip-hop into the angry voice of a generation.
02:14False media!
02:15We don't need it, do we?
02:16The thing about P.E. that's so important, is that in the era of Michael Jackson, Prince, Los Evangelos, Lionel
02:23Richie, they represented true black male aggression.
02:27I got a right to be hostile, man, my people been persecuted.
02:31Backed by a producing team called the Bomb Squad and dynamic DJ Terminator X, Chuck D., Flava Flav, and Professor
02:38Griff launched an all-out assault on hypocrisy.
02:41A sonic onslaught unlike anything ever heard before.
02:46I like the noise, as they would call it.
02:48Bring the noise!
02:49I got the yin and yang of Chuck D. and Flava, so I loved them from the very beginning.
02:55They were loud.
02:56I'm louder than a bomb.
02:57They were obnoxious.
02:58Show what you got.
02:59Show what you got.
03:00Show what you got.
03:00They were attacking.
03:02They were taking those shorts.
03:03And people responded to that incredibly.
03:06Public Enemy used the blunt force of rap lyrics and rock riffs to reach across the rigid boundaries of race,
03:15appealing to black and white fans alike.
03:19And to this day, they remain one of the most influential groups in music history.
03:23It was supposed to be a two-year program, but nobody thought that it would grow to mean so much
03:28to so many people.
03:32Chuck D. and Professor Griff were born on the same day in 1960 in Roosevelt, Long Island, a sleepy suburb
03:38of New York City that was 90% black.
03:42Back then, Chuck D. went by his given name, Carlton Ridenour.
03:46Chuck D. with the thick black framed glasses and, you know, the stiff suits from Macy's. Definitely had a nerd
03:54thing going on. The brainiac thing, we call it.
03:57Studious and serious, Carlton originally had designs on becoming an architect, but he wasn't even out of grade school when
04:03he discovered he preferred drawing an audience.
04:05When I would go down to the parks and ballplayers would be playing at Roosevelt Park or Centennial, I'd be
04:10on the sideline half joking and half broadcasting.
04:14And it kind of attracted the crowd.
04:16While Carlton was working crowds, friend and future collaborator Richard Griffin was growing up in one.
04:21The 12th of 13 children, his father died when he was eight, leaving his mother to support the family by
04:27herself.
04:28My mother was like a disciplinarian and the whole discipline aspect was definitely there.
04:33So you kind of figured, you know, too much wasn't coming my way in reference to extra cereal.
04:41Carlton and Richard weren't close friends, but they shared an early interest in politics.
04:47At the time, militant groups like the Black Panthers were rallying African-Americans to take pride in their culture and
04:52take control of their lives.
04:55My peoples are from the turbulent 60s. My moms, you know, always loved the Panthers, black power.
05:01My father was, you know, hold your head up high, you're the best in the world, that type of thing.
05:05When they were 10 years old, Carlton and Richard entered a black awareness program at a nearby university.
05:11There, they were exposed to the revolutionary principles of the Panthers and the militant teachings of the Nation of Islam.
05:17What we intend to bring into existence by any means ever.
05:23I think what attracted me to the nation was the whole discipline aspect.
05:26The whole militant propensity that lay within the black man that the structure of the nation brought out.
05:35We started challenging teachers on the facts that they was putting in the history books.
05:40And teachers were, you know, calling my moms up. My moms just thought that was cool that you challenged information.
05:46The revolution will not be right back after a message about a white tornado, white lightning or white people.
05:51Those same radical politics were finding their way into music.
05:55The revolution will put you in the driver's seat. The revolution will not be televised.
05:59In 1970, spoken word artist Gil Scott Heron released The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, an angry cry of protest
06:07against black oppression in America.
06:09Many credit that song with planting the seeds of rap music, which was rapidly emerging by the late 70s.
06:17I was like, whoa, this is like some new here.
06:25At 17, Carlton Ridenour began emceeing parties, rapping and rhyming while a DJ spun records beside him.
06:32After high school, he enrolled at nearby Adelphi University, where he dazzled frat party crowds with his voice work.
06:38When I heard his voice, I was like, yo.
06:42Hank Shockley was a founder of Spectrum City, a loose group of DJs who spun records at gatherings across Long
06:47Island.
06:48And I told Chuck, I want us to work together. I want him to be the emcee for Spectrum City.
06:54In the summer of 82, Carlton joined Spectrum and adopted the name Chuckie D.
06:59And soon afterwards, the group had a show on Adelphi's college radio station, WBAU.
07:04My name is Chuckie D, y'all.
07:06Within months, Spectrum had a small but loyal following.
07:09They'd also attracted a flamboyant hanger-on in William Drayton, a teenager known as much for robbing as for rapping.
07:14I was a real bad kid when I was growing up. I used to steal cars and all that stuff.
07:19I'm surprised I'm still alive.
07:21By 82, Drayton was a manic emcee named Flavor Flav.
07:25Hit me!
07:26I always traveled around with a big bowling bag.
07:32You used to always walk with these bags full of tapes.
07:35You knew Flavor was coming because you could hear Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck.
07:38Yeah, the bag made mad noise. So, when you heard that noise, yup, that's Flav.
07:44And we didn't want to listen to any of these tapes.
07:46But even though Flav was annoying, the Spectrum collective couldn't deny his talent.
07:51At the time, Flav could play 13 instruments.
07:53My name is Flavor, Flavor, I'm around the way.
07:57No matter how many cars I stole, around my neighborhood I was always known as one of the best and
08:03top musicians.
08:04Oh, yeah, boy!
08:05Eventually, Spectrum indulged Flav with his own spot on their show.
08:13In November 1984, Chuck D and Flavor Flav joined forces to answer criticism from a rival DJ, writing the song
08:21that would launch their careers.
08:22I was on my way up here to the studio, man, and this brother had stopped me and asked me,
08:26yo, what's up with your boy Chuck D? He swear he nice.
08:28Flav comes in and says, yo, yo, so-and-so, so-and-so wants to battle you, man.
08:32I said, yo, he don't swear he nice. He know he nice, you know what I'm saying?
08:35We did it, bop, bop, bop.
08:36Yes, the beginning of Public Enemy No. 1.
08:46The track Public Enemy No. 1 caught the attention of Def Jam Records founder Rick Rubin.
08:51Def Jam execs then tempted Chuck and the others with a radical proposal.
08:56Create a musical platform for the political views Chuck had been developing since childhood.
09:03Didn't have a name for it, didn't know what it was going to be, but, you know, something that would
09:06transcend the music of the time.
09:09We wanted to create something that was going to be a little more intellectual than your typical rap.
09:15Word!
09:16The record is blowing up as Public Enemy No. 1. Let's call the group Public Enemy.
09:21And let's go out here and make a statement.
09:23When the light bulb struck, we went with it.
09:28Public Enemy signed a deal with Def Jam.
09:31And to reflect the group's provocative approach, Chuck D created a potent logo.
09:35A black man in the crosshairs of a gun sight.
09:38It was meaning that people hate the b-boy. People hate the young black man.
09:42People got the young black man on target.
09:45And, bam! You know, that sort of lined up with Public Enemy.
09:50To convey the urgency of a paramilitary movement, Chuck called on his old friend Richard Griffin.
09:55Griff was just out of the army and running his own security force.
09:59A group of 50 men who borrowed their look from the Black Panthers.
10:02It was like, yo, we're saying something real critical.
10:05This is what it's going to be like. Let's put it together.
10:08And this is what we need to do. We're only going to do it for two years.
10:11So, let's get in, shock the industry, shock the world, and get out.
10:14In this corner with the 98, subject of suckers, object of hate.
10:19Intense and profane, Chuck D delivered revolutionary rhymes with thunderous authority.
10:24And Public Enemy hit the music scene with the force of an angry hurricane.
10:28Mind over matter, mouth in motion, get the fly, put the liver, be right, let's start this.
10:33Yo Bum Rush The Show wasn't overtly political, but it was saying some things in it that was more political
10:38than anything else at its time.
10:40When the album Yo Bum Rush The Show was released in March of 87, it was widely panned by critics
10:46for its violent overtones.
10:54White America does not understand how black people live as a whole.
10:58So as long as the situation exists, they will attack anything that comes from a black environment for everybody to
11:04see.
11:05That's right.
11:05This is the era when the whole rap violence thing was beginning to start.
11:09The people were beginning to connect hip-hop somehow with violence.
11:14That got people a little nervous on both sides, not just white critics or black, but people.
11:18The album sold 300,000 copies, not enough for Public Enemy, but more than enough to scare many in the
11:24conservative mainstream.
11:25Either we were going to be dead, he was going to kill us, he was going to be in jail,
11:31do you understand what I'm saying?
11:32Or just on skid row and right back in Roosevelt.
11:35So I'm like, okay.
11:37Next, Public Enemy's unlikely allies.
11:41It was very strange to see white guys get into Public Enemy's music when Public Enemy, to Grayson, was talking
11:49against the white guys.
11:50And later, anti-Semitic headlines pushed Griff out of the group.
11:56They suspended me.
11:58I'm like, what the f*** is this, the military?
12:00I mean, how do you suspend somebody from a rap group?
12:03Get shot for s*** like that.
12:05When Behind the Music continues.
12:14In March of 87, Public Enemy launched a rap revolution that would change the course of hip-hop music.
12:21They released their debut album, Yo Bum Rush the Show, then hit the road open for the Beastie Boys on
12:27a national tour.
12:30It was an eye-opening experience for the fans and for the group.
12:34You know, everybody knew each other.
12:38But nobody had actually lived with each other yet.
12:42Flava came the first day to go out on the road with about 14 plastic bags with his clothes in
12:47it.
12:47To go on tour.
12:50I had never ever in my life been on an airplane.
12:53And I remember Chuck and Hank saying, okay, we gotta fly to Detroit.
12:57I'm like, huh?
12:58We flying.
13:00We would definitely say we're gonna be the anti-stars.
13:05The antithesis to stardom.
13:10We're gonna be regular down-to-earth cats.
13:12What's up, fellas? How y'all doing, alright?
13:14Ain't gonna be no limos or none of that.
13:16We're gonna roll up in a van or we're gonna roll up, you know, in a 98.
13:23Just be, just regular.
13:25I guess it was like being the Nirvana of rap music and hip-hop.
13:28Oh!
13:32Off stage, the group was determined to be down-to-earth and accommodating.
13:35See that tickle, G.
13:37I guess I said I was a combine.
13:39On stage, they were menacing and militant.
13:42It was like, hey, this is how we are.
13:44Chuck D and Flava Flav were joined by DJ Terminator X and flanked by Griff's posse.
13:50They're called the security of the first world. Why?
13:53Because we believe that black people are first world people.
13:57Security of the first world, or S1W, sported weapons, scowls, and parodied the moves of a military drill team.
14:04I can remember the first couple of shows was disastrous.
14:08First show, public enemy of the day, I think we got booed.
14:11They didn't understand, you know, the Uzis on stage with the fatigues.
14:16They didn't understand the whole black militant thing.
14:19This public enemy is ready to go to war!
14:22At that time, the whole thing with the rappers was, let me rap about how dope I am on the
14:27mic, or how fly my DJ is.
14:29So, when public enemy came, we came against the grain, totally.
14:33Soloist groups and what they say, and all that tried to cause my way when I...
14:39But public enemy wasn't about to tone down their look, or their lyrics.
14:43The band went back to the studio to cook up a new sound that would set the rap world on
14:47fire.
14:50Chuck's vocal was very big and warm.
14:53We wanted to make sure that the music sounded very abrasive.
14:58So that Chuck would sound very inviting.
15:02Brothers Hank and Keith Shockley joined forces with Eric Sadler and Bill Stephanie to form a production team called The
15:08Bomb Squad.
15:09They set out to create a revolutionary sound to match public enemy's groundbreaking lyrics.
15:15It all started with the drums.
15:19Then from the drums we just started.
15:21We'll add this, we'll add that, we'll change it up.
15:24We look for ambient sounds in the background.
15:28We look for stuff for like sax squeals and things that you would not normally hear.
15:36We made songs off of Eric.
15:39We made songs.
15:40Well, Don't Believe the Hype came off of Eric.
15:42The drum track, I was trying to loop something else.
15:47And track did that. Chuck and Hank said, yo, what's wrong with that?
15:51Don't, don't, don't believe the hype.
15:54We didn't want nothing to be consistent.
15:56Because consistent to us was, did not signify rebellion.
16:05What emerged was unlike anything ever heard before.
16:08A jumble of pop, rap and urban chaos that was both inflammatory and infectious.
16:19When Public Enemy released the single Rebel Without a Pause in the fall of 87, neither they nor the world
16:25of rap would ever be the same.
16:27We're rap stranglers. You can't angle us. I know you're listening. I caught your fist in your pants. You're scared
16:33of losing us. The crowd is missing us. We're on a mission, y'all.
16:37Rebel Without a Pause was such a quantum leap.
16:40When it came under the club, it was the record of the night, no matter what context it was in.
16:45It gave us credibility in the hip-hop market on an underground level.
16:55The group's second album, It Takes a Nation of Millions, was a personal manifesto of outrage, fusing bombastic beats with
17:03incendiary rhetoric.
17:12Railing against hypocrisy and black oppression, the group called themselves Prophets of Rage.
17:25They erased the lines between music and politics and rap, and made hip-hop an engine for social change.
17:35It seemed like they were crystallizing a lot of energy that was out in the street.
17:39This was the beginning of Afrocentricity. People were talking about Afrocentric ideas.
17:44People were talking about Malcolm X, the whole Malcolm X imagery. People were wearing African medallions.
17:54Critics praised the album for its unorthodox sound and uncompromising vision.
17:58And soon, Public Enemy had a growing legion of fans.
18:03To everyone's surprise, their shows were packed with white suburban kids plugging into Chuck D's message of black power.
18:09I like the way they rap about black rights and stuff, and it teaches us a lot of stuff, you
18:14know, about how black youth and stuff are struggling.
18:17And I think Public Enemy sort of took the place of Marley Ford, the college male who was looking to
18:23be rebellious.
18:24It was very strange to see white guys get into Public Enemy's music when Public Enemy, to great extent, was
18:31talking against white guys.
18:33Sutton Attach is a meal for kids that make cash, selling drugs to the brother man instead of the other
18:37man.
18:38And then on the other hand, it was very interesting to see that music can go across borders, even borders
18:48that have high walls and electric fences and razor wire across the top, which was kind of like the wall
18:54that exists between the races.
18:57We bring black and white people together under the same roof to have a good time and unite together, you
19:03know what I'm saying?
19:05Public Enemy was uniting a generation of rap fans, but the group would soon come apart at the seams.
19:12Next, tensions between Flav and Griff lead to an angry meltdown.
19:16Those two extremes, you know, propelled the group, but also forced an implosion along the way.
19:22And later, Public Enemy under siege.
19:25I do remember getting death threats.
19:28When Behind the Music continues.
19:38In the fall of 1988, Public Enemy was basking in a bonfire of praise and protest.
19:44Their second album, It Takes a Nation of Millions, had rocketed to the top of the R&B charts.
19:49Hailed by critics as a hip-hop masterpiece, it provided a searing soundtrack to the national debate on race.
19:55The minute they see me, fear me, I'm the epitome of Public Enemy.
20:00It was all the aggression and all the power of any music, certainly any rock music, that I'd ever loved
20:07or heard.
20:07Don't believe the hype! Don't believe the hype!
20:09But with the deepest, blackest feeling that I'd ever felt.
20:15I think there's tremendous pressure on the group.
20:18Not only are they a platinum group, with kids wearing their t-shirts everywhere, but they're now perceived on the
20:24same level as Jesse Jackson, the NAACP, and the institutions that help save and repair the communities.
20:32I've been around a while, you can't describe myself, clear the way for the profits of rage.
20:38In songs like Prophets of Rage, Public Enemy brought the urban experience home in a way no one had ever
20:44done before.
20:45But success quickly threatened the group's focus on their message.
20:49As the money came in, people started to change.
20:53Including myself.
20:59Yes, you wanted a couple of pieces of gold. Yes, you wanted a fly car. Yes, you wanted to dress
21:05the part, rapper.
21:08Because you didn't want to come up off a major tour and go back wearing the same thing that you
21:13were wearing when you left.
21:15Or driving what you were driving when you left.
21:17Going out with a bang, ready to bang out.
21:19But power from the sky, from the tower, shots rang out.
21:22Public Enemy owed its prosperity not only to the potency of its albums, but to the powerful spectacle of its
21:28driving live shows.
21:29You see that? Just a word for Flava. Flava, f***ing Flava.
21:34Flava Flav played the court jester to Chuck D's King of Rap.
21:38Here's your ticket. Here's a go again with you.
21:42While Professor Griff's ominous presence underscored the gravity of the band's lyrics.
21:46I always recognized Flava and Griff as being at two total extremes.
21:50It's the thing that made Public Enemy work.
21:54Flava Flav was quickly becoming the public face of Public Enemy, with his clocks getting as much attention as his
21:59rhymes.
22:00We used to wear stopwatches.
22:02You know, stopwatches was the thing, you know what I'm saying?
22:05So, me hanging out with my boy Berserk.
22:08He said, yo Flava man, take that stopwatch off.
22:11Put this around your neck, man. I put this around my neck.
22:15He was like, yo man.
22:18That s*** look dope, man.
22:20You should go out on stage and rock that s***, Flava word.
22:25Next thing you know, the whole world wearing clocks.
22:29Flav was reveling in the spotlight, but his act clashed with Griff's philosophy of discipline and dignity.
22:35Flava Flav is the sun, public enemy number one.
22:39He was a cat with a dripping jerry curl at one time, and then he was changing hairstyles and wearing
22:45one white sneaker and one black pajamas and crazy glasses.
22:49And this guy, you get through to a cat like that.
22:51I didn't do nothing.
22:52No, you are doing something just as you speak, because you got those dark glasses on, you're spilling orange juice
22:57on me.
22:59Hey, I was on a big ego trip thing, you know what I'm saying?
23:02I mean, hey, Flav is one of the hottest things out on the stage right now.
23:10If it wasn't my way, it wasn't no way.
23:13And my group wasn't liking that.
23:15I can't do nothing for you.
23:17You know, there's Flav getting the light to star stage stuff a lot.
23:21And Griff was the road manager.
23:23So it was Griff's job to actually keep everything in order.
23:26And I guess it was Flav's job to become a star.
23:32And some of the things don't match and mix, do they?
23:36By spring of 89, Griff was fed up with Flav's antics.
23:40Let me get a bite.
23:43I think it reached its peak when we would have to go to Bricktown, to Freeport and the projects and
23:51kind of like go get them to do a show.
23:53Get in the car, man.
23:55There were certain ways where Griff was trying to discipline me, man.
23:58But I'm like, I'm not trying to hear that.
23:59And he would get mad.
24:00He was hanging out with his fellas.
24:02It was like, yo, we got a show to do.
24:04You know, what are you going to do?
24:05Get in there.
24:06So we ended up having to like snatch him up, put him in the car, and take him to the
24:11studio where we was leaving from.
24:12Hit me!
24:13One day, my man just broke on me, G, and I can't beat no Griff up, man.
24:19Come on, man.
24:19I mean, the guy is like five fingers to death.
24:22Just the girl I punch with.
24:23One time, I remember physically like punching him in his clock and breaking it.
24:27Then, snatching up his boom box.
24:29The regular boom box was like this.
24:31His was like this.
24:32So, literally, I had to like pick the box up and toss it across the street kind of thing.
24:37You understand what I'm saying?
24:38Let him know that I was serious.
24:40Word up, man.
24:41I'm like, yo, man, listen.
24:43I'm not messing with this cat.
24:47At first, Public Enemy's internal tensions did nothing to slow the group down.
24:521989, the number. Another summer.
24:56In early 89, director Spike Lee was working on his own provocative take on race relations in America.
25:01A movie called Do the Right Thing.
25:03He commissioned Public Enemy to write a song that would scream frustration and rage.
25:08I just told him it has to be an anthem.
25:09Are we ready, sound?
25:11One word. It has to be anthem.
25:13I said, okay. Left came back with one.
25:16It's freedom of beat. It's freedom of death.
25:18We got to fight the power. That beat.
25:20Fight the power.
25:23Fight the power.
25:24They came back. It was fight the power.
25:28And I said, I knew we had it.
25:29Oh, man. Gotta give us what we want.
25:31Uh.
25:31Gotta give us what we need.
25:33Hey.
25:34Our freedom of beat. It's freedom of death.
25:36We got to fight the power. That beat.
25:38Playback.
25:38Spike Lee is really one of the biggest reasons why Public Enemy achieved that over-the-hump commercial acclaim.
25:46Fight the power. Fight the power.
25:49Public interest in Public Enemy was at an all-time high.
25:52But the group was about to get a bigger audience for all the wrong reasons.
25:57On May 9th, 1989, Professor Griff sat down for an interview with Washington Times reporter David Mills.
26:03What he said would forever taint the group.
26:07The conversation just shifted from music to Jewish people.
26:11There are some Jews that are righteous.
26:13And there are religious people. I'm not saying all of them.
26:16I'm responsible for the majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe.
26:22Yes. Jews. Yes.
26:24And you're not afraid of saying that in a newspaper?
26:27On tape.
26:27Listen, I'm gonna die sooner or later, right or wrong.
26:30So the Jews can come against me.
26:32Griff now claims that the tape was doctored in some way.
26:35I can't even sit in and look you in the face and say, what you heard on that tape is
26:41actually what I said.
26:42I would need to hear that tape.
26:43Because like I said, you probably don't have the same tape that I have.
26:47I say it on a tape that you heard, that you got from David Mills.
26:51But there is no evidence that anything was altered.
26:54And David Mills insists that Griff was accurately quoted.
26:58How come we don't talk about how the Jews finance these experiments on AIDS with black people in South Africa?
27:04How come we don't talk about those things?
27:06The Jews are wicked and we can prove this.
27:09So you didn't say that?
27:11No, definitely not in that context.
27:14To say the majority of Jews are wicked, that's crazy.
27:20Really, really crazy.
27:24But shortly after he finished the interview, Griff seemed to realize that he'd lit a fire.
27:29One that might be hard to extinguish.
27:31I went and saw Griff.
27:33He had this look on his face like, you might hear something about this one.
27:37And I was tired.
27:38And I just patted him on the shoulder.
27:40I said, yo man, don't worry about it.
27:44At first, it seemed Chuck was right.
27:46When the interview appeared in the Washington Times on May 22, 1989, it created only a minor stir.
27:53But when Griff's comments were reprinted in New York's Village Voice, Public Enemy found themselves in the crosshairs of growing
28:00public outrage.
28:01It was like gasoline on a fire.
28:05It just went berserk.
28:06I do remember being in the office of Def Jam and getting death threats.
28:14There was a sniper that was actually on the roof that they apprehended.
28:18Jewish groups demanded Griff's expulsion from Public Enemy.
28:21But at first, Chuck D was reluctant to abandon his old friend.
28:25Within weeks, however, the outcry was drowning out Public Enemy's music.
28:30The future of the group is in town.
28:33And on June 21, Chuck called a press conference.
28:36We tried to deal with Professor Griff's problems internally, but we were unsuccessful.
28:44Consequently, as of today, Professor Griff is no longer a member of Public Enemy.
28:49And I'm sad to say, but that's the way it has to be.
28:53They suspended me.
28:55I'm like, what the is this? The military? This is a rap group.
29:01So what are you talking about? I'm suspended.
29:03Do you understand what I'm saying? What does that mean?
29:05How do you suspend somebody from a rap group?
29:08Get shot for like that.
29:13I had no intentions on really keeping the group together without Griff at that point.
29:18So I just said, well, if it ain't gonna be without Griff, I'm just like, it ain't gonna go.
29:22The following day, Chuck disbanded Public Enemy, but the controversy was far from over.
29:30Next, Chuck D finds himself under attack.
29:34I wasn't gonna get on and apologize for anything because that was the whole stance of what Public Enemy was.
29:40And later, Griff falls on hard times.
29:43I don't think I went anywhere without a bulletproof vest on and a gun.
29:47When Behind the Music continues.
29:55Public Enemy had become hip-hop heroes by leading the attack on injustice and inequality.
30:01But in August of 89, the group found itself under siege.
30:11The firestorm raised by Griff's remarks led an embattled Chuck D to banish his old friend.
30:16And then disband the group altogether.
30:20But within days, Chuck had changed his mind.
30:23I said, I'm not breaking up the group because I was surprised at how vexed people were about breaking up
30:27the group.
30:27By August 1st, which is coincidentally mine and Griff's birthdays.
30:31I said, you know, the group is back. Griff is reinstated.
30:34I was still with the group.
30:36I just wasn't doing interviews.
30:38But the gag order wouldn't hold.
30:40Within a month, Griff was making headlines again.
30:42You know, the white media has been very upset about some of the things you say and your son.
30:46I'm sitting in Kansas City in a hotel.
30:49A white Jewish guy walks up to me.
30:52And he basically asks me if I want to make any comments, any statements about Jews.
30:56And I was like, nah.
30:58I wake up the next morning there in the paper.
31:01Chuck was flamed.
31:05And I told him straight up, why should I have to lie to you?
31:07I didn't say anything to this guy.
31:09But Chuck didn't believe it.
31:11I was out.
31:12The same couldn't be said about the fire Griff had started.
31:16Smoldering hotter than ever, it was threatening to consume the band.
31:19Man, he said some things about Jewish people that he shouldn't have said at that time.
31:24But whatever he said, it represented me saying it.
31:27We got to the point where people did not want to take pictures or be associated with the group Public
31:34Enemy.
31:34Every major Jewish music exec called me.
31:39And they all said that, oh, Lior, you are a bad Jew if you maintain your relationship with Public Enemy.
31:52In the fall of 89, an ad appeared in the New York Times and several music industry magazines denouncing Public
31:59Enemy.
31:59Jewish rights advocate Rabbi Abraham Cooper was behind the campaign.
32:03Whether we like it or not, musicians, rock stars, all the rest, they're icons to young people.
32:08They always have been and they always will be.
32:10So in a sense, it's more troubling to hear it come out of the mouth of a young musician.
32:16On October 5th, 1989, Chuck D and Rabbi Cooper butted heads on NBC's Today Show.
32:22No one in the music industry, and frankly, no important black figure in America, has put Professor Griff in his
32:29place.
32:30He's going through a development of reconcilatory action.
32:34I'm sorry, Chuck, but you're not right.
32:36After he rejoined the group, he told the reporter in Kansas City that every word he has said is 100
32:43% pure.
32:43No, I was there at the time.
32:44I wasn't going to get on and apologize for anything because that was the whole stance of what Public Enemy
32:50was.
32:50You know, we came in and we ain't had no friends coming in.
32:53We didn't care about having friends at that time.
32:55He has been on a step-by-step development on reconciling his actions because they don't represent the views of
33:01Public Enemy.
33:02And Rabbi Cooper, you know so.
33:03I got so much trouble on my mind. Refuse to lose.
33:08But despite Chuck D's efforts, the controversy raged on.
33:12And soon the Public Enemy front man felt he and his group were being unfairly persecuted.
33:17One night, got in my Bronco. I drove. And all the lyrics I put down there, I felt it was
33:23on top of my head and in my heart.
33:26Told the rap, get off the .
33:27When I said told the rap, get off the . I really like, yeah, get off the . Just leave
33:31me alone. Things will work out. But right now, get off my .
33:36Crucifixion ain't no fiction. So-called chosen, frozen, a party made to whoever pleases. Still ain't got my life, Jesus.
33:44Maybe that was a kind of like a parting shot, you know, for the somewhat unwelcomed PR.
33:50Well, welcome to the Terror Dome.
33:52The song, Welcome to the Terror Dome, ignited another explosion of criticism.
33:57And now Chuck D himself was being accused of anti-Semitism.
34:00We went from being threatening to the status quo and to being threatening to everything that we had built.
34:11That became a little different thing and became a hard thing to deal with.
34:14Let's get it on!
34:16But Chuck wasn't backing down and neither was Public Enemy.
34:19Their third album, Fear of a Black Planet, proved they hadn't lost any of their bark or bite.
34:29Upping the anti-sonically and lyrically, the album soared to number three on the Billboard charts and went on to
34:35sell over a million copies.
34:36Burn, Hollywood burn, I smell a riot going on. First they're guilty, now they're gone. Yeah, I'll check out a
34:42movie, but it'll take a black one to move me.
34:45For the Rappin' Rebels, the revolution was far from over.
34:51It wouldn't be long before they were waging another war.
34:57In 1990, Arizona voters ratified Governor Evan Meacham's decision to rescind the Martin Luther King holiday,
35:04outraging black Americans from coast to coast.
35:07Why in this day and time do we even allow Arizona to not, you know, give due to that day?
35:14We should make them.
35:15Community groups organized economic boycotts against Arizona.
35:20Demonstrators arranged angry protests.
35:22Public Enemy provided the rallying cry.
35:25What's a smiling face when the whole state's racist?
35:28Why I wanna hound they damn it cause I wanna?
35:31With every video they shot, Public Enemy seemed to push the limits.
35:35By the time I get to Arizona, I had a black paramilitary group gunning down white leaders.
35:40And it scorched people of both races.
35:42Public Enemy's video does a disservice to the lofty legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
35:49who they are trying to honor by the video.
35:52Looking for the governor! He ain't loving ya!
35:55I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe that anybody would put out that pour of a quality product and expect somebody
36:05to buy it.
36:06It was definitely a statement to say, this is how we feel, and if you're gonna be shocked on what
36:11you see on this video, think how we feel on the other side of this.
36:14And so they didn't know which way to take it. It became a big political issue.
36:20I'm on a one mission to get a politician to honor, or he's a gonna by the time I get
36:25to Arizona!
36:29A year later, with the controversy still simmering, Public Enemy and U2 were scheduled to play a gig in Arizona.
36:36The date gave Chuck and the others the opportunity to confront the people of Arizona head on.
36:41So we said, we'll play that, you know, we only gonna play out two songs. One song opening up in
36:46Arizona and we out.
36:48And then we will be back, hopefully, if you can get the people of Arizona both in the King holiday
36:54and both push out!
36:56We played two songs and did the middle finger protest. People were like, what? And that resonated.
37:03By November 92, Arizona had lost $300 million in tourism and other revenues, due in part to Public Enemy's angry
37:11efforts.
37:12And on November 22, just one month after Public Enemy's concert appearance, Arizona voted the Martin Luther King holiday back
37:19into law.
37:20I shut him down! Shut him down! Shut him down! Shut him down! Shut him down! Shut him down! Shut
37:25him down! Shut him down!
37:25Public Enemy was instrumental on raising the issue of why there ain't there a Martin Luther King Day in Arizona.
37:31And, um, they had the King holiday instituted because they felt enough national news was said about the subject.
37:39The group felt that they had won a major battle, but they would never stop fighting the war.
37:44Can't trust it! Next, Professor Griff returns from exile.
37:48Everyone makes mistakes, and you learn from your experiences.
37:51Can't trust it! And I'm man enough to say I'm sorry.
37:53When Behind the Music continues. Can't trust it!
37:57Hold it now!
38:00I shut him down! Shut him down! Shut him down! Shut him, shut him down! Shut him, shut him down!
38:03Throughout the 90s, Public Enemy continued to use hip-hop as a force for social change.
38:08How many people in the house have been to America?
38:10Rapping and rhyming their way around the world, they released six albums in ten years.
38:15P is the boat that breaks the ice for all other rap groups to follow.
38:21It's not a pretty boat. You've got dents in the hull, shrapnel in the armor or whatever, but something's gotta
38:26break the ice.
38:27We break the ice for other boats, and at the same time, we remain afloat.
38:32Hip-hop, cause I know we're gonna stop in this zone!
38:35But as Public Enemy continued to prosper, founding member Professor Griff fell on hard times, evicted by the group, and
38:42soon abandoned by his wife.
38:44She leaves me a note talking about she's going to visit her moms, and I think that was it.
38:49Can it get any worse? No money. Didn't really have contact with my children at the time.
38:55Misquoted everywhere I went was like, that's the Jew hater, that's the, he doesn't like white people. You know, that
39:01kind of thing.
39:01And I, you know, that I had a right to speak.
39:04Griff tried to keep rapping, but by May 93, he was working as a bounty hunter in Florida, barely scraping
39:09by and fearful of enemies past and present.
39:12I don't think I went anywhere without a bulletproof vest on and a gun.
39:15Griff was down on his luck until October of 97, when a chance meeting changed his fortunes.
39:21I had a friend who ran into him. She said there was a lot of pain in his voice and
39:25in his face.
39:25I was almost like, you know, yeah, I want to talk to him. You know, because the amount of time
39:33not talking to each other was, um, it was like kind of like deep.
39:39It might feel good, it might sound a little something, but damn the game, if it don't mean nothing, what
39:45is game, who got game?
39:47I got a phone call, and me and Chuck got together and talked.
39:50I got game, she got game.
39:51So we decided to mend our relationship.
39:54It might feel good, it might sound a little something, but the game, if it ain't saying nothing.
40:00In the fall of 97, Chuck D asked his childhood pal to rejoin Public Enemy.
40:05But first, Griff would have to make amends with another old friend and sometime foe, Flava Flav.
40:11Everyone makes mistakes, and you learn from your experiences.
40:15And I'm man enough to say I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say this or do that.
40:19I really felt that he made mistakes with me that he really wanted to be forgiven for.
40:25And who am I to say, I won't never forgive you?
40:28Even though I was hurt in a lot of ways from a lot of the things that we've been through,
40:33but still in all, I gotta remember one thing.
40:37Before this Public Enemy stuff, we was always tight.
40:45As for Flav, during Public Enemy's heyday, he lived the high life.
40:49Yeah, the 44th precinct is bullshit.
40:52But now he says he's just about clean and sober.
40:54I'm good to go right now.
40:56I ain't on drugs.
40:57I'm straight.
40:58I feel good today.
41:00Y'all need to know that.
41:02I mean, you know, I still drink me a bear.
41:03I ain't gonna lie.
41:04Bear's drugs.
41:06I smoke a Newport.
41:08Cigarettes is drugs.
41:09I might smoke a **** every now and then.
41:11I ain't gonna lie.
41:11I love me some **** every now and then.
41:13Yeah.
41:17In 1999, reunited and re-energized, Public Enemy released their eighth album, There's a Poison Going On.
41:29And in the summer of 2000, Chuck and Griff continued to push the limits, unleashing a new sound with a
41:35rap-rock band called Confrontation Camp.
41:38Media-wise, there's gonna be some things set with Confrontation Camp that's gonna make you go.
41:42Oh, they didn't say that, did they?
41:49His vision was, and still is, that out of this music will come new life.
41:56Seeds will be planted that will grow and the effects of which we will only see down the road.
42:04For more than a decade, Public Enemy has fought the power and preached against believing the hype.
42:08They have transformed hip-hop into a political platform and transcended the narrow confines of music to become a cultural
42:15force.
42:16It was not just in the music, but it went beyond music, into people's everyday lives.
42:23They are one of the exemplars of aggressive political music, and their model is still the model that people use
42:30around the world when they want to articulate power, they want to articulate pain and passion.
42:35My proudest moment as a member of Public Enemy is seeing guys that come up from one area, one spot
42:42on the map, Roosevelt Long Island, going against the odds, and seeing us go around the world, and just being
42:51able to have somebody come up to any of us and say thank you.
42:55Face, Face, Face, Face, Face, Face, Face, Face, Face, Face, Face, Face.
43:01Peel to know it enough, y'all!
43:03Peel to know it enough, y'all!
43:03Peel to know it enough, y'all!
43:04ma'am!
43:04To the mountain man grow up, one, two, three, down for the count to be.
43:08So all of my lyrics, oh yes, no doubt, cold rock, rap, boy, and olive supreme, is what I choose
43:13and I use I never new.