Public Enemy Merges Punk, Rap

Public Enemy’s just-released “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” is a frequently remarkable album that merges the spirit of two of the most radical grass-roots movements in post-’60s pop: punk-rock and rap.

The New York rap group hasn’t abandoned aggressive hip-hop rhythms and street-wise vocal swagger in favor of the torn-jacket symbolism or actual thrash-guitar instrumentation of punk. Its connection with punk is attitude.

The key tracks on “Nation of Millions” bristle with the kind of angry, energetic assault on mainstream pop sensibilities and social norms associated with punk pioneers the Sex Pistols and Clash a decade ago.

What makes the Public Enemy collection doubly important is that it combines this layer of punk-like insistence with expressions of black awareness and pride that recall the celebration and urgency of Sly Stone and Curtis Mayfield’s most liberating works.

Indeed, the theme of Public Enemy’s music is the need for a return of the black power commitment of the ‘60s. Sample line: “Black is back . . . we’re gonna win / Check it out, here we go again.”

As suggested by such song titles as “Mind Terrorists” and “Louder Than a Bomb,” there is an edge of rage to Public Enemy’s music as lead rapper Chuck D lashes out at forces that he feels hurts the black community--both external (the governmental repression outlined in “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”) and internal (the drug users and pushers cited in “Night of the Living Baseheads”).

But there are also moments in the new album where Public Enemy tries to clear up some of the confusion surrounding the group’s debut album.

That 1987 collection, “Yo! Bum Rush the Show,” was widely supported by critics and sold more than 300,000 copies in the U.S., but was virtually ignored by radio programmers.

Chuck D (real name: Carlton Ridenhour) believes that the blackout was due largely to uneasiness over what the programmers saw as inflammatory references to Uzi machine guns and police harassment in songs about black power.

He said in an interview earlier this year with The Times that he used words like Uzi simply as an attention-grabbing metaphor for knowledge--a way of pointing out that education can be more powerful than bullets. He isn’t, he said, advocating violence.

In the new album’s “Don’t Believe the Hype,” Chuck D declares: “I’m not a hooligan . . . I’m not a racist.”

However, he doesn’t back away from the favorable reference to controversial Black Muslim minister Louis Farrakhan that appeared on “Bring on the Noise,” a Public Enemy track that appeared on last year’s “Less Than Zero” sound track album and resurfaces on the new LP. Farrakhan has been widely criticized for statements interpreted by some as being racist and anti-Semitic.

Chuck D’s main theme is that blacks need to learn about their own history--a goal he feels is shared by Farrakhan. From a lower-middle- to middle-class background, the New Yorker, who is in his early 30s, was introduced to politics by his parents who sent him to summer study programs where some of the teachers were Black Panthers, he said.

In songs like “Prophets of Rage” and “Party for Your Right to Fight” (a takeoff on the Beastie Boys’ “Fight for Your Right to Party”), he laments what he sees as an absence of strong ‘60s-styled black leaders--a la Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King.

If the message is consistent in the album, produced by Hank Shocklee and Carl Ryder, the music isn’t one-dimensional. “Caught, Can I Get a Witness!” is a playful look at the controversy over rap groups borrowing liberally from other artists’ records, while “She Watch Channel Zero” is snappy put-down of a TV couch potato.

On stage, Public Enemy sacrifices the power of its music to corny show-biz instincts--Chuck D’s sidemen dress up in battle fatigues and stalk around with mock Uzis. On record, however, “Nation of Millions” is music with imagination and force.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Asked about his old band, the highly acclaimed Jam, Style Council leader Paul Weller told Q magazine: “I only listen to the Jam if it comes up on the radio or something, and it sounds really dated now, I think. It sounds sort of funny. I don’t get nostalgic for that at all. I don’t think about it and I don’t talk about it.”

About his difficulty in getting equal acclaim for Style Council: “It’s getting harder and harder to sell original ideas to people these days. Everyone wants something safe and something they know.

. . . I feel sorry for creative people in (England) because one of the national characteristics of this country is a suspicion of anything new and different.”

LIVE ACTION: Eric Clapton will be at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Sept. 23. Tickets go on sale Monday. . . . Tickets also go on sale Monday for Rod Stewart’s third Forum show (Aug. 11), Bryan Ferry’s Sept. 18 stop at the Greek Theatre and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Aug. 16 concert at the Pacific Amphitheatre. . . . Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine have added a fourth night (Aug. 10) to their Greek Theatre engagement. . . . Besides an Aug. 19 appearance at the Coach House, the Sugarcubes will be at the Roxy on Aug. 22 and 23. . . . Def Leppard will be at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater on Aug. 19. . . . Erasure headlines the Hollywood Palladium on Aug. 5. . . . George Strait will be at the Universal Amphitheatre on Sept. 1 and 2. . . . Freddie McGregor and Steel Pulse will be at the Starlight Amphitheatre on July 30.