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Public Enemy
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Miami Vice Performer
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Members (Original)
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Carlton "Chuck D" Ridenhour (born 1960)
William "Flavor Flav" Drayton, Jr. (born 1959) Richard "Professor Griff" Griffin (born 1960) Norman "Terminator X" Rogers (born 1966) Brian Hardgroove |
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Active
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1986-present
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Public Enemy is an American rap/hip-hop group who, along with Run-D.M.C. and others brought in the "Golden Age of Hip-Hop". Their song "You Gonna Get Yours" appeared in the episode "Too Much, Too Late" of the series Miami Vice.
Career[]
The group formed in 1982 on Long Island, New York. Carlton "Chuck D" Ridenhour and William "Flavor Flav" Drayton, Jr., were working together both as performers and in a furniture store when Chuck recorded a couple of demos, "Public Enemy #1" and "Lies", both rap songs that contained social commentary--similar rap styles to the groups Run-D.M.C. and The Beastie Boys. In 1986 the entire entourage including Professor Griff, Brian Hardgroove, and Norman "Terminator X" Rogers would come together to form Public Enemy, recorded their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush The Show (featuring "You Gonna Get Yours"), and toured with the Beasties in 1987. Yo! Bum Rush..., along with the albums It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, and Fear of a Black Planet were very well-received critically and commercially, and Fear... was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in 2005. Public Enemy also embraced new technology, being one of the first acts to have their music available via the internet. In 1999 Terminator X left PE but the group continues to record music and Flavor Flav became a reality star in the mid-2000s with appearances in The Surreal Life and Flavor of Love. Public Enemy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.