Pop: Flavor takes the rap
PUBLIC ENEMY THE FORUM, LONDON
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Your support makes all the difference.SURELY IT'S only a matter of time before Public Enemy's Chuck D takes up politics. His voice is a public speaker's dream, so deep and reverberating that he sounds as if he is delivering a sermon from the bottom of a well. And with album titles such as It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back and Fear Of A Black Planet, Public Enemy are not known for keeping their opinions to themselves. They nearly came unstuck in the late Eighties when Richard Griffin (aka Professor Griff) was quoted in an interview making anti-Semitic comments, but they have since transformed themselves into one of the most respected and overtly political rap outfits in the US.
At Public Enemy's first British show in more than five years, Chuck D delivered a diatribe that would leave the most loquacious politician lost for words. He chastised the music industry for its obsession with the charts, condemned record companies for trying to monopolise Internet sales, and urged us to view hip hop as a cultural rather than commercial entity. Without pausing for breath, he then tackled gang warfare, sexism and racial identity. And that was all before the fourth song.
Despite having been in the group for more than 15 years, the force of Chuck D's rap has not diminished. Flanked by a pair of menacing bouncers, he spat out the words with such venom that it seemed as though these were thoughts which had just come to him.
But, if Chuck D was every inch the seasoned orator, his sidekick, Flavor Flav, was the double-glazing salesman. As a rapper, Flav was artless but engaging. He tripped around the stage like hip hop's answer to Bez from Happy Mondays, but his attempts at addressing the audience were ill-advised to say the least.
Having slated a number of organisations, from his former record company, Def Jam, to the New York Police Department, he embarked on a sales pitch for his new solo project. Anyone dressed in a red shellsuit and a matching hairnet would be hard pushed to sell a toothbrush, let alone a record, and his endless prattling failed to inspire. His final announcement, "I'm gonna be in Puff Daddy's next video", was greeted with a cacophony of boos.
But, as Public Enemy steamed through old hits including "Give It Up", "Fight the Power" and "Bring the Noise", all was forgiven. For all their preaching, the force of their rap at least shows that they really do mean it.
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