When I was a kid… (pt. 3 - Anthrax & Public Enemy)
I liked rap and I liked metal. Go figure. But how could I combine the two? Rap and metal were light years apart.
One of my favorite metal bands was Anthrax. And one of my favorite rap acts was Public Enemy. Now, here’s a funny story - when I was in 9th grade, I bought PE’s “Fear of a Black Planet” (already owning “It Takes a Nation of Million…” Almost immediately after that, my parents found it and read the lyrics and promptly took them away from me.
Of course, about a week later, I found them, copied them, and again was the happy owner of the second and third Public Enemy albums. Go me!
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They didn’t seem to have too much of a problem with Anthrax. I had their State of Euphoria album and dug the crap out of it. I also had the album before that, “Among the Living,” which had the song that really put them on the metal map - “Indians”
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I also had the “I’m the Man” EP, which was Anthrax’s tribute (?) to rap (which my parents, thankfully, never discovered). However, I was never sure if Anthrax liked rap or was just making fun of it. And with “I’m the Man,” how can you tell?
If this doesn’t play, just click on the link to open it.
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But in 1991, Public Enemy and Anthrax got together and rerecorded the song “Bring the Noise,” a 1987 Public Enemy song I first heard on the Less Than Zero soundtrack that actually mentioned Anthrax (”was is for Anthrax”). I was pretty well in heaven.
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By 1991 I was pretty well out of rap, diving fully into hardcore punk - even joining my first hardcore band that summer. Even so, I still listened to it a bit, especially Public Enemy. I don’t think I ever stopped listening to Anthrax. But this mixing of rap and metal really thrilled me and I still have a great time listening to it.
And, hey, I hope you did too!
!!
3 responses so far
You’re grounded!!!!!
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your mom told you.
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I think this is some of your greatest commentary yet. I saw Scott Ian on 4 train in New York City once. He’s still rocking the facial hair. Public Enemy were fans of both Anthrax and Slayer, She Watch Channel sampled a Slayer breakdown off the Reign In Blood album. I’m not sure if Anthrax was goofing on rap music, as there was a mutual respect in urban areas. Both were musical outsiders, confined to special programming blocks on MTV at the time.
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