Public Enemy

With their military-style security force, organizational structure, and urgent rhymes decrying racism, Public Enemy have often been tagged the Black Panthers of Rap. But within Hip-Hop's continuum of '60s activism, this groundbreaking group has more in common with pro-race theatrics of Amiri Baraka's Black Arts Movement than with the gun-wielding, socialist spirit of the Panthers. That's because Public Enemy is credited not with angrily confronting the vestiges of institutionalized racism, but with awakening the conscience of Black popular culture and the post-Civil Rights Era generation with the tools of literature and theater (via Hip Hop). As Baraka inspired African-American writers to use their work as vehicles to spread the ideals of Black empowerment, Public Enemy became the vanguard for turning rap music and artists into vessels for spread Black awareness during the Reagan/Bush era.

All dynamic leaders need circumstances to nudge them into position. And the conditions surrounding Public Enemy's arrival were what stirred the turbulence of the late '80s. The era of President Reagan was coming to a close. But his conservative revolution would become both the voice of federal politics (with the election of his Vice President, George H.W. Bush, to the Presidency in 1988) and a source of outrage for progressives. In black urban centers nationwide, a rising crack trade established a hefty underground economy that would devastate young lives. On college campuses the antiapartheid movement against the government of South Africa was becoming the cause célèbre, especially among African-American students, rekindling the ideas of Pan-Africanism. Meanwhile, in New York City, violence against African-Americans began jarring racial awareness among young Black folks-who would later be dubbed the Hip Hop generation.