Free Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (33 1/3) by Christopher R. Weingarten

internally (original funkateers Calvin Simon, Grady Thomas, Fuzzy Haskins and Ray Davis called it quits). Using records from this same era, Public Enemy would construct “Party for Your Right to Fight” from some guitars and synths on
Tales of Kidd Funkadelic
— an album in which the Undisco Kidd would, in fact, declare himself “Public Enemy No. 1 to the undisco scene.”
    After making its wheedly appearance on “Bring the Noise,” chunks of Funkadelic’s “Get Off Your Ass and Jam” would appear on countless rap records. “Get Off Your Ass and Jam” actually became the center of a landmark sampling lawsuit in 2004, after three guitar notes were used — with permission, no less — inN.W.A.’s chaotic, Shocklee-jacking 1990 single “100 Miles and Runnin’.” Bridgeport Music, the owners of George Clinton’s publishing, heard the N.W.A track in Master P’s movie
I Got the Hook Up
and realized that sync rights for movie use were never given. N.W.A.’s actual use of Funkadelic was negligible — the sound was a mere sliver (only three notes), it was manipulated into oblivion (producer Dr. Dre pitch-shifted it down to fit the key of the song), making it almost unrecognizable under his mix. But still, after the smoke cleared, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that any use of a sound recording constitutes copyright infringement.
    Despite the actions of his publishers, Clinton enjoyed a great symbiotic relationship with hip-hop, appreciating the re-energizing of his tracks as a way to keep his music from becoming nostalgia fodder. He even experimented with samplers and hip-hop on 1989’s
The Cinderella Theory
, inviting Chuck and Flav along for the party. “I like Public Enemy especially because they’re using the philosophy,” Clinton told
Rolling Stone
in 1990. “Like,
America Eats Its Young
sounds just like what they’re saying today . . . They, to me, are like Bob Dylan.” 57

Chapter Five –
“Consider yourselves warned”
    American critics had responded to
Yo! Bum Rush the Show
with barbs (see John Leland’s
Village Voice
takedown), ambivalence (
The New York Times
loved the message, but hated the “adolescent macho” 58 ) and complete indifference (
Rolling Stone
didn’t review it until year’s end). But in the U.K., early adopter critics in magazines like
Melody Maker
and
NME
were already crowning Public Enemy as kings. While many rappers were treating the U.K. as a secondary market, Chuck was knee-deep in his strategy of doing as many interviews as possible, priming the pump for their visit in November. Chuck wanted Public Enemy to be the first rap group to conquer the international market. Said Chuck in his autobiography: “Other artists had a negative attitude about going overseas. They would complain about the lack of good food, the lack of what they felt was fine females, and the cold weather. We went overseas with an attitude like we were going to boot camp.” 59
    The first stop of the Def Jam Europe tour was the Hammersmith Odeon on November 1, 1987. Although Public Enemy went on first, opening for LL Cool J and Eric B and Rakim, they received a hero’s welcome — complete with the rowdy whistle-blowing, air-horn-tooting and singing along that British hip-hop audiences would later be known for. P.E. spent the summer months watching American girls swoon over Cool J, but the U.K. market wasn’t having it. Public Enemy were greeted with bedlam, LL with a hailstorm of coins. The audience was assuredly not loving Cool James when LL mounted the couch he had onstage for his hit ballad “I Need Love.” “London wasn’t into soft music,” said Chuck. “They wanted their music rock-hard.” 60 Chuck had been voraciously reading the British press, so the response didn’t shock him, but Flavor Flav, who had never been to another country, was a bit taken aback.
    The show on November 3, the third triumphant night at the Odeon, was recorded, videotaped and broadcast by the BBC.