MIXED MEDIA : *** “TOUR OF A BLACK PLANET” Public Enemy <i> Sony Music Video ($19.98)</i>

“I’m not a prophet, I’m a dispatcher of information,” says Chuck D. during one of this hour-plus video’s interview segments. In that capacity, the rap firebrand is in top form, packing this collection with his provocative, incisive views on the impact of racism. The conventional format--alternating song videos, interviews, life-on-the-road footage and live performanances--doesn’t efficiently channel the information: You have to grapple with the unwieldy thing to get at the meat. But it’s essential material, impervious to trivialization even by the desperate mugging of second banana Flavor Flav. The three new videos (the rest are from 1990’s “Fear of a Black Planet”) include the PE/Anthrax summit on “Bring the Noise” and the unsettling indictment of slavery’s legacy of “Can’t Truss It.”

Items in this periodic survey of pop-related books, videos and laser discs are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).