POWER TO THE PEOPLE AND THE BEATS
Public Enemy’s Greatest Hits

Produced by sonic destroyers The Bomb Squad, "Bring The Noise," "Don't Believe The Hype" (US #18 Rap), "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos" (US #11 Rap), "Rebel Without A Pause" and "Night Of The Living Baseheads" exploded with new sounds and new subjects for the new art form.

The incendiary 1990 album Fear Of A Black Planet then set the standard for the rap conscience. A US #3 R&B charter, the platinum album also cracked the pop Top 10, led by the anthem "Fight The Power," a US #1 Rap/#10 R&B track which featured saxman Branford Marsalis and was the theme to Spike Lee's cinematic masterpiece on morality, Do The Right Thing. The disc spun off four other classic rap hits: "Welcome To The Terrordome" (US #3 Rap/#15 R&B), "911 Is A Joke" (US #1 Rap), "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" (US #22 Rap) and "Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya Man" (US #11 Rap).

1991's gold Apocalypse 91...The Enemy Strikes Black charted even higher--#1 R&B/#4 pop--and POWER TO THE PEOPLE AND THE BEATS: Public Enemy's Greatest Hits includes its gold single "Can't Truss It" (US #1 Rap/#11 R&B) as well as "Shut Em Down" (US #1 Rap/#26 R&B) and "By The Time I Get To Arizona." Greatest Misses (1992), which went gold, US #4 pop and #10 R&B, contributes "Hazy Shade Of Criminal" (US #12 Rap) and the Jam Master Jay and Chy-Skillz "JMJ Telephone Tap Groove" remix of "Louder Than A Bomb" (the original was heard on It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back). In 1994 the gold Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age (US #14 pop/#4 R&B) yielded "Give It Up" (US #5 Rap/#30 R&B/Top 40 pop) and "What Kind Of Power We Got?" POWER TO THE PEOPLE AND THE BEATS: Public Enemy's Greatest Hits concludes with "He Got Game," featuring Stephen Stills, the #10 R&B/#26 pop title track from the 1998 movie.

At the close of 1999, The New York Times named Public Enemy's music to their list of the "25 Most Significant Albums of the Last Century" and in Spring 2005 The US Library of Congress included Fear of a Black Planet in a list of 50 recordings worthy of preserving in the National Recording Registry. Most recently, Spin magazine chose two PE albums for their "100 Greatest Albums (1985-2005)" list, with It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back coming in at US #2 (sandwiched between Radiohead and Nirvana) and Fear of a Black Planet at US #21.page << 1 2 >>