'I don't even know who's in Public Enemy anymore," one of our younger, savvier staffers said, regarding the act that will headline the first Hopscotch Music Festival on Saturday night. You might also be wondering why a new music festival would bring in an old-school rap act to be the main attraction.
Yet, when you think about it, bringing PE to town makes perfect sense. Although the hip-hop group may not be on the charts like young guns Drake, Young Jeezy and Rick Ross, older audiences know who PE is.
As one of the seminal, incendiary, controversial, subversive hip-hop groups of the '80s, the act was one of the first to introduce the power and potency of rap to mainstream audiences. Considering that this year is the 20th anniversary of their critically acclaimed "Fear of a Black Planet" album, audiences might be in a nostalgic mood and willing to check them out.
Saturday night's audience might also include young, curious rap fans schooled on PE through albums such as "Planet" and the 1988 classic "It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back."
With all this anticipation for the show, you might wonder how PE members feel about headlining Hopscotch.
"We've been playing festivals ever since the '80s," says Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, better known as PE frontman Chuck D. "And we really kind of, like, instituted that as a hip-hop group going in and playing mixed-genre festivals, you know, all the way across the world. Now, over the last 15 years, America has been more of a festival nation - really, the last 10 years. So, it just fits with our legacy. So, we're definitely looking forward to it. And, you know, wherever there's a Waffle House and a Cracker Barrel nearby, that makes it different from all other festivals."
In touch with fans
Nonstop touring has been a key component in Public Enemy's staying power, along with keeping their fans abreast on all things PE-related via the group's website, PublicEnemy.com, which has been around 12 years.
"PublicEnemy.com and also traveling the world have connected us to the world we've always been traveling in," Chuck says. "And it's been great for us to stay to our organic roots, so to speak."
For Chuck, who turned 50 this year ("I'm proud of it and bragging about it," he says), the World Wide Web has been not only a place that has kept the Public Enemy fanbase alive, but a place where he can keep hip-hop alive as well. A few months ago, he launched HipHopGods.com, a site devoted to news, releases and other items related to old-school rap greats. Taking inspiration from the classic rock stations he listened to in the '70s, Chuck says there needed to be an online spot where the hip-hop talents of yesteryear could still get play.
"If somebody like Dana Dane or DMC comes out with a video or a song, it's no way that a [radio] programmer's gonna put them next to Waka Flocka or Young Jeezy," he says. "It's no way it would fit."
As for hip-hop featuring up-and-comers, Chuck has a stake in that, too. For a decade now, he has had the online label SLAMJamz.com up and running, specializing in new artists like Crew Grrrl Order, an all-girl hip-hop group consisting of members from Charlotte and Atlanta. Chuck is such a fan of theirs, they will be opening for PE at Hopscotch.
"Of course, I'm biased," he admits. "But, you know, I like who is on my label, because they're specifically picked."
The one and only Flav
But getting back to PE. For those wondering what to expect at the show, expect Chuck to hit you with that verbal knowledge. Expect Professor Griff and the S1W's to stand guard. Expect DJ Lord (stepping in for former DJ Terminator X, who retired in 1999 and now resides in Henderson) and the backup band to bring the noise. And, of course, expect Flavor Flav to be, well, Flavor Flav.
"He's a one-of-a-kind," Chuck says. "I mean, he's never changed. He's always been the same. He ain't never grew up. You know, you can allow one of those characters because he's one of a kind. It's just the problem is when I see a lot of people think they be him. It's like, for example, on those reality shows, he's the one that has the most sense. Them girls are crazy, crying over a damn clock. I mean, Flavor Flav has always been the same. You just can't have two of them."
But, most of all, expect a crowd of people - some young, some old, some black, some white - to gather for one purpose: to be exhilarated by a group of performers who know what they're doing and have been doing it well, in venues all over the world, for nearly 30 years.
