POP MUSIC REVIEW : Public Enemy: Power to the Music : Rap: The group was sensational on a purely musical level, but the political speeches weren’t quite as good.

Public Enemy, the controversial but acclaimed New York rap group, demands to be judged on two score cards--one for its music and one for its politics.

In the group’s first Los Angeles-area appearance since a national furor over anti-Semitic remarks by one of its members in a Washington Times interview last May, Public Enemy was sensational on a purely musical level Sunday night at the Palace in Hollywood.

The most commanding moments of the group’s nearly two-hour performance--most notably, a closing barrage of such anthems as “Don’t Believe the Hype” and the Grammy-nominated “Fight the Power”--generated in the jammed club the emotionally-charged atmosphere associated with the Clash, the rock group that was also known for its political fury. On a scale of 100, rate Public Enemy’s music at the Palace 95.

But the rappers’ continuing insistence on having two spokesmen--a sort of good-cop and bad-cop of human relations--has already caused one major incident (the May interview) and represents a time bomb that could well explode again.

Chuck D., the group’s leader and main rapper, deals in provocative and sometimes inflammatory images, but there is usually a sense of poetic vision and control behind his impassioned remarks.

Not everyone in the audience is going to agree with his conclusions about race relations in the United States, but he offers arguments that generally deserve consideration.

On the other hand, group member Professor Griff--who gave the Washington Times interview and has since disavowed the anti-Semitic remarks--can carry on like a loose cannon on stage.

At the Palace (where the group returns tonight), he made sweeping statements that ranged from petulant to bizarre--outbursts against everything from the evil media that misrepresents him (shades of Spiro Agnew?) to a theory about an AIDS conspiracy against minorities.

As long as this odd couple demands to be judged as a single entry, give Public Enemy’s politics a cautionary 50.

Headlining a benefit for sickle-cell anemia research on Sunday, Public Enemy opened with a nearly 10-minute commentary by Griff before Chuck D. and sidekick Flavor Flav came on stage. As usual, members of the S1W security force stood behind the rappers, holding imitation Uzis, a symbol of strength and determination.

But the real strength is in the torrent of beats delivered by turntable whiz Terminator X and the equally compelling verbal assault by Chuck D., who shows increased charisma and power as a performer.

Though the group has a new album due in April, the emphasis Sunday was on previously released material. But the rappers frequently broke from the music as Chuck D., mostly, and Griff delivered speeches.

While many of the calls for increased black consciousness and unity drew raised-arm salutes from both whites and blacks in the audience, the most spontaneous applause followed Chuck D.’s comments about the evils of drug dealing in the black community.

His most provocative remarks came during a pause in “Fight the Power,” a song featured in Spike Lee’s film “Do the Right Thing” and the best single of 1989, according to the nation’s leading pop critics in a Village Voice poll.

Delivering a lengthy address as he paced back and forth, slapping the outstretched hands of fans pressed against the front of the stage, Chuck D. explained a line in the song that refers to Elvis Presley and John Wayne as racists.

He said he was referring to Presley and Wayne as symbols of white heroes rather than attacking the individuals--references to underscore different cultural perceptions of whites and blacks in a land that he sees as overrun by racial injustice.

In a comparison that is bound to trigger resentment against the group in a time when flag-burning is such an issue in the country, the rapper--trying to further explain the sense of alienation he feels as a black man in the U.S.--said that the American flag has so little meaning to many blacks that it “might as well be a swastika.”

He followed by describing an interpretation of the red, white and blue: the red representing “the blood” shed by blacks, the blue representing the suffering that is reflected by the “blues we’ve been singing the past 400-some odd years” and the white representing “the obvious.”

At the end, just before fire marshals began clearing the crowded club, Public Enemy was joined on stage by Los Angeles rapper Ice-T, who seconded Chuck D.’s imagery, declaring that most holidays have little meaning for most blacks.

Public Enemy’s mix of music and politics has established the band as the most creative force in rap, but it’s a risky mix. Chuck D. alone is an artist of Bob Marley-like power. The next evidence of how well he handles that power will be revealed when Public Enemy’s next album, “Fear of a Black Planet,” is released in April.