Apocalypse 91...The Enemy Strikes Black [PA]

Performer: Public Enemy
Artist: Anthrax
Engineer: Kirk Yano; Bob Fudjinski
Producer: Gary G Wiz; Stuart Robertz; JBL; Cerwin Depper
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Public Enemy includes: Chuck D., Flavor Flav (rap vocals); Terminator X (scratches). Anthrax: Joey Belladonna (vocals); Scott Ian, Dan Spitz (guitar); Frank Bello (bass); Charlie Banante (drums). Additional personnel: Fred Wells (guitar); Allen Givens, Tyrone Jefferson, Lorenzo "Tony" Wyche (horns); Frank Able (keyboards); Al MacDowell (bass); Steve Moss, Ricky Gordon (percussion). Recorded at the Music Palace, Long Island, New York. Personnel: Flavor Flav, Matt Fallon, Chuck D (vocals); Fred Wells, Dan Spitz, Scott Ian (guitar); Lorenzo Wyche, Jefferson Wyche, Tyrone Jefferson, Allan Givens (horns); Frank Abel, Frank Able (keyboards); Richard Gordon, Rick Gordon, Charlie Benante (drums); Steve Moss (congas); Gary G-Wiz, Stuart Robertz (programming); Terminator X (turntables); Sister Souljah (background vocals). Audio Mixers: Christopher Shaw ; Mike Bona; John Bradley; Terminator X; Bob Fudjinski. Recording information: Music Palace, Strong Island. Directors: Gary G-Wiz; Stuart Robertz; J.B.L.; Cerwin Depper. Photographers: Ernie Paniccioli; Gary Spector. Unknown Contributor Roles: Harry Allen; Flavor Flav; Hank Shocklee; Anthrax; Terminator X; Chuck D. Arrangers: Gary G-Wiz; Stuart Robertz; J.B.L.; Cerwin Depper. Coming down after the twin high-water marks of It Takes a Nation of Millions and Fear of a Black Planet, Public Enemy shifted strategy a bit for their fourth album, Apocalypse 91...The Enemy Strikes Black. By and large, they abandon the rich, dense musicality of Planet, shifting toward a sleek, relentless, aggressive attack -- Yo! Bum Rush the Show by way of the lessons learned from Millions. This is surely a partial reaction to their status as the Great Black Hope of rock & roll; they had been embraced by a white audience almost in greater numbers than black, leading toward rap-rock crossovers epitomized by this album's leaden, pointless remake of "Bring the Noise" as a duet with thrash metallurgists Anthrax. It also signals the biggest change here -- the transition of the Bomb Squad to executive-producer status, leaving a great majority of the production to their disciples, the Imperial Grand Ministers of Funk. This isn't a great change, since the Public Enemy sound has firmly been established, giving the new producers a template to work with, but it is a notable change, one that results in a record with a similar sound but a different feel: a harder, angrier, determined sound, one that takes its cues from the furious anger surging through Chuck D's sociopolitical screeds. And this is surely PE's most political effort, surpassing Millions through the use of focused, targeted anger, a tactic evident on Planet. Yet it was buried there, due to the seductiveness of the music. Here, everything is on the surface, with the bluntness of the music hammering home the message. Arriving after two records where the words and music were equally labyrinthine, folding back on each other in dizzying, intoxicating ways, it is a bit of a letdown to have Apocalypse be so direct, but there is no denying that the end result is still thrilling and satisfying, and remains one of the great records of the golden age of hip-hop. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine APOCALYPSE '91-THE ENEMY STRIKES BLACK finds Strong Island's finest plying their raucous, angry trade once again, as unapologetic as ever. Their place in rap history was long secured by 1991, but the trio doesn't waste a second resting on its laurels--the album's opening salvo, "Lost At Birth" is militant and severe, introducing them as the "prophets of rage." Chuck D's no-nonsense delivery contrasts Flava Flav's manic rage, while turntable master Terminator X serves up an endless assault of hardcore sonic shrapnel. "Nighttrain" is a staccato barrage, relentless and steeped in the blend of extreme racial pride and paranoia which put PE on the map. In "By the Time I Get To Arizona," they direct their vitriol at the state that rejected Martin Luther King's holiday. "1 Million Bottlebags" takes on beer manufacturers who target inner-city markets, exposing the self-destructive urge that fuels this practice. Thrash masters Anthrax climb aboard for an unlikely pairing, beefing up PE's classic "Bring the Noize."

Rolling Stone (10/3/91) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...attempts nothing short of setting a sociopolitical agenda for the black community....APOCALYPSE '91 needs to be watched..." Spin - Ranked #7 in Spin's list of the 20 Best Albums of 1991. Spin (10/91) - "...The funk of R&B, the hooks of pop, the grind of metal...To listen to Public Enemy is to hear a bomb squad explode." Q (9/95, p.132) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...fine by any but their own Olympian standards...showed Public Enemy ploughing old furrows..." Melody Maker (12/91) - Ranked #21 in Melody Maker's list of the top 30 albums of 1991. Melody Maker (7/22/95, p.35) - "...[album number] four was still massive, still mighty, it still thundered down on you with locomotive force. But cracks in the surface were starting to show...." New York Times (Publisher) (9/29/91) - "...hip-hop's prophets of rage...with songs that mix political, personal and promotional statements in quick-cutting, often oblique language..." NME (Magazine) (7/15/95, p.47) - 7 (out of 10) - "...a more soulful, funkier stew than previously served but there were a couple of fillers....Good, but not as indispensable as its predecessors..."

In the late 1980s, Public Enemy connected the dots between politics, soul music, hard rock, marketing, turntablism, and rhyme, and turned hip-hop into an urban global youth movement. PE's pioneering albums are heralded as avant-garde artworks whose disparate sample sources combine into a gloriously chaotic mosaic of polyphony and African-American unrest. Powered by Chuck D.'s political fury, enlivened by Flavor Flav's antics, and made controversial by Professor Griff's ethnocentrism, Public Enemy influenced virtually every rapper who followed in their wake.

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