Chart entered : 21 November 1987
Chart peak : 37
Number of hits : 17
I can't pretend that this lot's music ever did anything for me but they were an important group in the development of hip hop.
Carlton Ridenhour was born in Queen's New York in 1960. He studied graphic design at Adelphi University where in 1982 he met William Drayton ( born 1959 ) who had got there despite a juvenile crime spree that included arson and robbery. Despite his later clown-ish image he was an accomplished musician. Calling themselves "Chuck D" and "Flavor Flav" respectively they formed an outfit called Spectrum City. The pair financed themselves by working for Chuck's dad's delivery service. Chuck also worked as a DJ on the college radio station WBAU. In 1984 they put a single "Check Out The Radio" which is a series of radio slogans set to a drum machine and an elongated guitar solo. The other side "Lies" was more political and made more use of samples.
Chuck then made a tape with a defensive track "Public Enemy Number #1, a rebuttal of criticism by other rappers set to a synthesiser drone. Chuck delivers most of it with Flav doing the last verse. Rick Rubin heard it and wanted to sign Chuck to a solo deal with Def Jam but Chuck insisted they were a group with Flav and a young local DJ Norman Rogers ( born 1966 ) who called himself Terminator X as the other members at least as far as the music went. He brought along a trio of guys from the Spectrum City operation known as The Bomb Squad to produce the records. He also engaged a friend Richard Griffin ( born 1960 ) to act as the group's Minister of Information under the name Professor Griff. Griff had been in the army and then formed a security service to protect the DJs on the local party circuit which he named Security of the First World or S1W for short. S1W members would henceforth appear on stage with the group as dancers .
"Public Enemy Number # 1" was released as a single in December 1986. It featured on the debut LP "Yo ! Bum Rush The Show", released in February 1987. It's not quite as minimalist as other Def Jam records of the time with a heavier use of samples making it slightly easier on the ear. At this stage the group's writing was not as politicised as you might expect; apart from "Righstarter ( Message For A Black Man )" and the anti-drugs message of "Megablast", it's still mainly concerned with elevating Chuck to prime position among his peers but there's an element of menace and paranoia that you don't get with L L Cool J. The misogynistic "Sophisticated Bitch" is the runt of the litter.
The single chosen was the opening track , "You're Gonna Get Yours" , an extended brag about driving around town in a 98 Oldsmobile set to an endlessly looping guitar riff that becomes maddening. It bubbled under in the UK.
"Rebel Without A Pause" was the first track completed for their next album. The group hasd made a conscious decision to speed up the beats to capture the excitement of their live shows and had Flav re-constructing James Brown's Funky Drummer riff on the drum machine. The main sample on the track is a sax blast from The J.B.'s instrumental "The Grunt" looped continuously for maximum aggravation. Terminator X's scratching breaks were amusingly dubbed the "Transformer effect" after their similrity to an effect employed in the Transformers cartoon series was noted. Chuck's lyrics are as self-aggrandising as ever but now laced with political references such as "Panther power on the radio " and "Impeach the President- pulling out the ray-gun". I'd say it was the most uncompromising record to make the Top 40 at the time.
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