PUBLIC ENEMY - YO! BUM RUSH THE SHOW


PHOTO CREDIT:  STRICTLY CASSETTE

What's good comrades?!  It's the good doctor here again to rant on about another one of my favorite tapes. This week it's Public Enemy's "Yo Bum Rush The Show"!  Released August 26, 1987...which was a Monday -I guess back then they didnt have Tuesday for new releases.  I hit Waxie Maxie's, looking for new hip hop and I look thru the cassettes and I stumbled upon it, not knowing anything about the group, I saw they were on Def Jam - I was sold! Went home and took the tape out and popped it in my mother's Fisher stereo system. What I heard would change my life forever....a engine revving and a slick guitar loop followed by a booming voice, "In this corner is the 98 (1986 oldsmobile ninety eight), subject of suckers, object of hate"!!! These guys sounded like the bad guys, the older niggaz I used to try to hang around as a kid.  Chuck D made the 98 sound like a Maybach then...I wanted one!




PHOTO CREDIT:  STRICTLY CASSETTE

The sound on this album was different from what I heard from my favorite rapper at the time. On "Sophisticated Bitch" they used "Friends" from Whodini, which was the first time a hip hop group sampled another hip hop group.  Also the subject matter on Sophisticated was about hi-class hoes who still live in the hood...so much for "dumb girls" and "Latoya."  Public Enemy raised the bar on every level, beats were harder, scratches were unorthodox, and lyrics weren't nursery - no more brag and boastin!  The titles were also the thing that really drew me in...."Miuzi weighs a ton".....Classic!!! And they also had their agenda down with the press, when ask why do they have uzi's... Chuck D said his uzi was his mind, wow!! "Timebomb" sounded like a tight freestyle but had something different that set a new trend in hip hop.....A sidekick!!  Flavor Flav was like Grover Dill to Chuck D's Scut Farkus, and on "Too Much Posse" showed Flav could stand on his own.  This leads up to "Public Enemy No. 1" a song that introduced noise into hip hop!!!!  I had never heard anything like this in my life, a hard drum and a sound ( which turned out to be "Blow your head") that's it! Boom Bap shit at its fullest and once again all my dj's know about the clssic break from the song.....One One One -Whu Ha!!!! The back and forth of .P.E showed the chemistry of the group, which was really a ying and yang. My favorite line is from Flavor Flav - " I got to the beach, the ground was so sandy - Girls on my jock like ants on candy"!!!

*CLICK PHOTO TO VIEW J-CARD SCAN IN A NEW WINDOW

Now remember I didn't know who was who, so staring at the cover I wondered who was the one rapping.  Speaking of the cover, there were no b-boy stances or poses...Just a bunch of niggaz looking like they are giving the d.j. a hard time hence "Yo Bum Rush The Show."  They were taking control and on "Raise the Roof" it was Chuck talking about everything from Fraternities to the Government, I knew this m.c. was gonna be great and was over peoples head, luckily they had the lyrics so I could keep up with them. I can recite this album from beginning to end, even to this day!



"Megablast" has both of the rappers sayin the same lyrics about the fails of crack use while chantin "oh please oh please oh please - just gimme just one mo hit!", any "The Escorts" heads in the house???  "Terminator X speaks with his hands" a instrumental which lastly had never been done before and was the basis of a west coast classic....hint "bow wow wow yippy yo yipp yeah"? Public Enemy was the blueprint for a lot of hip hop acts, not naming names. Political and Gangster and they brought the noise!!!  Fuck it - if there wasn't no P.E., there would be no N.W.A, Tupac, Cypress Hill, or Lupe Fiasco!!!!  I'm out!! Next time........

- DR. NYQUIST!?!!

8 comments:

  1. jjohnson26.1.12

    Big ups on posting up the J-cards in its entirety. Not something you find very easily on the internets. Keep up the great work, SC! Dope trip down memory lane, NYQUIST!

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    Replies
    1. buttonpusha26.1.12

      JJohnson, thanks for the kind words. And yes, complete J-Card scans is key! Eventually, Id like to add some kind of MP3 streaming function where you can also listen to the tape.

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    2. Big Speech27.1.12

      The Next Step Indeed!!!

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    3. jjohnson9.2.12

      Don't get yourself into trouble! Big brother is watching ;)

      Delete
  2. Dr Diesel26.1.12

    TERMINATOR X!!!

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  3. O-Dawg29.1.12

    J-Cards are ILL! jjohnson well said brotha! S.C killing it fam!! This big ups!!

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  4. Maka13.3.12

    Downloading the Instagram app on my iPhone and coming acorss "buttonpusha" was definitely a great decision indeed. I was 16 when "Yo!" came out. Like Dr. NYQUEST, I was in the mood to buy some albums (sorry, not cassette tapes, I was a DJ at the time). I went to the record store in the Montebello mall (in Los Angeles, CA). I came across the cover of this album. I too had never heard about Public Enemy. I went home, placed the stylus on the record, and the rest is history (as what is written above). In high school, I would constantly draw the PE logo all over my notebooks. Three years later, in 89, I had the pleasure of meeting PE for the first time. I attended every single concert Public Enemy would play at, including their first L.A. appearance at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in 86. Years later, after having a long running Hip Hop program (Makadoutious.com), I had the opportunity to take some of my students to a book (comic) signing where PE and X Clan would be at. A media photographer noticed my PE logo tatted on my right shoulder and made sure that Chuck and I had more time than those who quickly walked through the line to get their signatures. Chuck would invite me to go on tour with him (which I did), and the rest, once again, would be history. We do keep in touch occasionally. As a Doctoral candidate myself, I have even reached out to his wife, a professor at UCSB, who has taught some of my former students. This album definitely changed the game, as Run DMC had done years prior. Big Ups to both buttonpusha and Dr. NyQUIST. One Love, Maka (Makadoutious)

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    1. buttonpusha13.3.12

      Maka, peace and much respects. I really dig your story and you definitely seem like a passionate Hip Hop head. PE will always be one of the greatest Hip Hop groups of all time and they definitely laid the foundation for many groups to draw inspiration from. They had their own sound and...a message! Unfortunately, it seems like we have to look back in time to remember what Hip Hop's purpose really is. You were one of the fortunate ones who can share a story about an era that changed the course of history. Thanks for the follow and the comment...

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