Public Enemy

Power to the People and the Beats:

Public Enemy's Greatest Hits

(Def Jam)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

Public Enemy were the rare group that earned one of the most sought-after adjectives in the music world:  dangerous.  They were confrontational on a number of levels, from Chuck D’s searing social commentaries to The Bomb Squad’s glorious racket (they didn’t just bring the beats, they brought the noise).  They were neither the first nor the last hip-hop group to carry the flag for an ambitious and challenging social agenda, but one could argue—pretty easily—that they were the most important.

The typical response to a “Greatest Hits” package from an influential artist is to turn up noses and play completist:  “Okay, they chose the songs pretty well, but you really need to buy every album to get the full context.”  Actually, for someone unfortunate enough to be coming into PE for the first time, there’s no way to get the full context, not even by buying, digesting, and obsessing over Yo! Bumrush The Show, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet.  If time and budgets were friendlier, obviously buying the full catalog or awaiting the forthcoming box set would be the advisable route for anyone looking for an education in Public Enemy.  Even then, though, there would be no way to replicate the ka-pow impact of those albums on anyone who felt hip-hop had already found its status quo, just as belatedly obsessing over Bleach and Nevermind and In Utero could never properly convey how Nirvana melted the minds of kids weaned on pop radio and glam rock.  Like any movement worth remembering, you can deeply appreciate it from a distance, but to really know it…well, you kinda had to be there.

For those who weren’t—and even those who were—Power to the People is about as good a single-disc primer to PE as can be imagined.  Fans will quibble over individual inclusions or omissions (the Buffalo Springfield-sampling "He Got Game" is admittedly a weak ending point), but the disc is mercifully without some phoned-in new song or a “Public Enemy No. 1 (2005 Neptunes Mix).”  Black Planet and Nations of Millions make up more than half of the collection, as they should, and all of the most vital pieces are present, from “You’re Gonna Get Yours” and “Bring The Noise” to “Welcome To The Terrordome” and “Fight The Power.”  At 18 tracks, there is even enough room for casual fans to make a discovery or two.