Public Enemy takes it to the net

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http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,69403,00.html

Public Enemy Takes It to the Net

By Dan Goodin | Also by this reporter

02:00 AM Oct. 31, 2005 PT

In 1988, Public Enemy released It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and unleashed one of the biggest changes in popular music since the arrival of Bob Dylan. Its searing critique of American culture and the rhyming anthems of black nationalism, set to a sonic collage of beats and riffs borrowed from R&B, heavy metal and jazz, catapulted the CD to platinum status within a year.

The band's popularity has waxed and waned over the years, as the gangster rappers the New York-based collective helped inspire have taken over much of the spotlight. But Public Enemy hasn't lost its edge, as is clear from New Whirl Odor, its latest album, which is set for general release Tuesday. (It is currently on sale exclusively at Best Buy stores.)

Three decades after the group formed, Public Enemy's beat and anger are as infectious and inseparable as ever. Like Nation of Millions, New Whirl Odor is a musically and lyrically dense album whose words and melodies take on additional weight over repeated listens. Their verbal avalanche, assailing everything from an unjust war in Iraq, poverty and the injustice in U.S. prisons, renders a potent portrait of modern American dystopia.

There aren't many musicians today who so eloquently confront us with the darkness that pervades so much of modern life -- and make us want to shake our hips in the process. New Whirl Odor finds no shortage of injustices and hypocrisies to rail against but prefers to single out the brain-dead apathy engendered by rampant consumerism and mindless escapism. In "Makes You Blind," which lifts a syncopated, electronica-shaped beat, group leader Chuck D raps:

Thirty-five years old lost in an Xbox / PlayStation and videos / So that's how it goes / The world begins and ends at the tip of their nose / It ain't Eminem / It's M and M and M / McDonalds, MTV and Microsoft.

The hard-edged tinge of the beat and the lyrics are softened by sweet-sounding vocals, which taunt us even as they provide a backdrop of melody that dares us not to sing along.

Public Enemy remains defiantly cutting edge, not just in its music but, equally importantly, in its approach to distributing its songs to fans. Ever a proponent of self-determination, the group has done more than any band to bypass the big labels and make music as it sees fit. In the late 1990s, when fellow rapper Dr. Dre sued Napster for making his songs available for free, Public Enemy's Chuck D defended the renegade file-sharing service, arguing that the internet gives artists an unprecedented ability to subvert corporate control and connect directly with their fans.

As a jab to PolyGram, Public Enemy's distributor at the time, the group released There's a Poison Goin' On over the internet and on zip drives, until the band was finally released from its contract. Emboldened by the success, they went on to form their own record label. They created Rapstation to showcase new hip-hop talent. And they built PublicEnemy.com into a highly trafficked website, where among other things, they make a cappella versions of their songs available and encourage fans to make remixes.

Even more remarkable is the way Public Enemy has structured its distribution deals. Whereas many bands sell publishing rights to their record labels in exchange for an advance, Public Enemy grants its distributors a limited license. After a specified period, the rights revert back to the group.

Add to the mix Chuck D's weekly talk show on the Air America radio network, his own channel on AOL Radio and the band's regular tours of Asia, Europe and the United States, and Public Enemy becomes a prime example of the success that follows from a properly executed do-it-yourself strategy.

"You're damn right I have more control now," Chuck D told me in a phone interview the other day. "These times are better than any times I've ever been involved in in getting what I think out to the public."

To admire Public Enemy's art and marketing prowess isn't to say that either is beyond reproach.

For one thing, the band's definition of "escapism" has always been a little bit murky. They have plenty of scorn for the mesmerized masses watching sitcoms and playing video games, but Chuck D, who's known to profess his enjoyment of professional sports, seems to hold fans of Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Football League to a different standard. What's more, Flavor Flav, who as the group's court jester plays comic foil to Chuck D's militancy, is now the subject of a reality TV show on VH1 called The Surreal Life.

The group's high-voltage outrage at times can border on arrogance, or defensiveness. "66.6 Strikes Again" (which is way too reminiscent of "Incident at 66.6 FM" from Fear of a Black Planet) wants us to share the band's self-absorbed indignation that a radio talk show host might find things the band says and does "controversial" and "offensive," even as they take pains to digitally excise any of the announcer's specific criticisms. A more open-minded approach would have included them, or cut the track altogether.

Similarly, Public Enemy's trademark anti-corporate stance seems at odds with its decision to grant discount giant Best Buy exclusive rights to sell New Whirl Odor for the month of October. With mom-and-pop record stores on the ropes from sales lost to Best Buy, Wal-Mart and other mega chains, the exclusive arrangement leaves me feeling uncomfortable.

Ultimately, though, I've got to side with Chuck D -- even when his business instincts seem to run afoul of his artistic aesthetics. Six years ago he articulated a vision of artists using the net to take control of their music. To date, no one has done it better, and it's his pragmatism, as much as anything else, that's allowed him to pull it off.

It was Gil Scott-Heron, an important Public Enemy influence, who wrote "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." Maybe so. But if Chuck D gets his way, it just may be available for download.

Dan Goodin received a master's in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley in 1996. He covered legal affairs, internet governance and financial markets for publications including CNET News.com, The Industry Standard, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. His blog is RadioFreeDang.com.

[Hero1]

definitely getting the new album :gettinjiggywitit: