music
Rappin' with Public Enemy
During their brief stop at KU, the members of Public Enemy took the time to address local groups about race relations in Lawrence. Here's how PE
sees it.
Michael Haven, Second Chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, speaks at a forum at South Junior High School , 2734 Louisiana St., with the members of the rap group Public Enemy.
Story by J.R. Clairborne
Photos by Christine McFarland
through the heavy bass reverbs, lyrics saturated with four-letter expletives and the implications of revolution, there is a side to Public Enemy members not normally seen by the public.
Though they may not admit to it. that hidden side
the progress of society.
Simply put, they have witnessed too much complacency from modern leaders concerning today's social ills, especially the plight of the African-American community, and they are sick of it. They are determined to be the cata lust for change.
Before their concert Sunday night at the University of Kansas, PE gave a brief, candid glimpse of this side at dinner and a public forum. The forum marked a discussion of the problems of the African-American and American Indian communities and an attempt to form an alliance between the two.
It was 6:45 Sunday evening at the South Junior High auditorium and the audience of about 300 people were getting anty. The "Dropping 'the science" forum was to start at p.6m, but the special guests were not there vet.
Noting the crowd's restlessness, James Baucom, president of KU's Black Student Union, started the program.
Michael Haney, the Second Chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, was speaking about the bond of the African-American and the American Indian communities that spans over 200 years, when a loud whisper ran through the audience. Two figures dressed in black jackets, black jeans and black ballcaps meandered in from backstage. That whisper quickly turned into thunderous applause
and cheers as a figure dressed with dark shades, an oversized top hat and his trademark wall clock around his neck walked in.
Public Enemy had arrived.
From beginning to end of the discussion,
the words of the self-professed "prophets of rage" captivated
a prophets of rage capuvaled the crowd of mostly high
school students. But the words that held the audience were not from PE's lyrics. They were from the advice they gave that covered a spectrum of topics from education to racism. The first person to address the crowd
The first person to address the crowd was Malik Farrakhan, PE's chief of security.
Farrakhan stressed the importance of an education and the need for students to turn away from the strong sense of materialism that permeates teen culture. Get-rich quick plans such as
Chuck D speaks to a crowd of about 300 people Sunday in an effort to unite the African-American and American-Indian communities of Lawrence.
drugs, sports or rap were no substitute for a high school diploma, he said.
"Rap is fine and it's a way to get from point A to point B, but you have to get an education," he said. "I see a lot of kids with lovely things, but they have no minds."
Chuck D, frontman for PE, echoed Farrakhan's concerns
Although acknowledging the fact that many youtus turn their backs on school because they are not learning in school what they deem to be necessary, especially in regard to culinary skills, it's said that was the wrong attitude.
But going to school alone is not good enough, Chuck D said. He said that students needed to take the extra time to disseminate fact from fiction of what they learned.
"No,no, no, no," he said. "You better go to school!"
"Learning means you know the right and wrong answer," he said. "You have to find out your information on your own. That takes effort!"
At the forum, and later at dinner,
Chuck D addressed controversy.
"What makes things controversial is not what people say," he said. "It's what people say and who's listening."
He also related controversy to rap. Rap expresses the message that today's leaders seem to shy away from delivering. It contains a message that some young, white Americans are actually taking the time to listen and to realize the rage and frustration that rap bears. They, in turn, try to make their parents understand, who really do not care to, Chuck D said, causing a struggle in the home through misinformation.
And that same misinformation also brings about controversy, Chuck D said, displaying his contempt at dinner for a recent article that claimed the PE logo was a policeman between the crosshairs of a sunrise.
"That's not so," Chuck D said. "Our logo is just a homeboy from the 'hood.' It'rea representation." Later, while dining with PE before
their concert in the Kansas Union Ballroom, Michael Haney invited the group to participate in the National Coalition Against Racism in Sports and the Media National Conference to be held in Kansas City in November. He also told PE about the legal difficulties American Indians were encountering nationwide, particularly in Lawrence in light of the nine American Indian deaths during 1991 that have received little attention from authorities.
Chuck D (left) and Flavor Flav perform in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
After hearing this, Flavor Flav,
Chuck D's right-hand-man, said that
he could see the possibility of an
alliance between PE and the American Indian movement on a wide range of topics. In fact, he hinted at the possibility of including American Indian injustices in PEF's music.
Rapper Flavor Flav.
"This is all part of reality." Flavas said.
"We take reality and put it on records. Anything we speak about, we put on records."
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