Thirteen videos will be released in HD through the fall
Old school rappers Public Enemy have remastered their classic video catalogue in high definition. A total of 13 videos will be released throughout the next two months, many making their digital debut. The campaign leads into the 30th anniversary of the landmark album, Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black.
The remastered HD version of Public Enemy’s “911 Is a Joke,” from the group’s third album Fear Of A Black Planet, is out now. The video, on platform for the first time ever, represents a seminal moment in the group’s history — one that brings Public Enemy forward as forefathers of a visual revolution that can now be celebrated digitally. The videos can be seen on Public Enemy’s official YouTube channel, Channel Zero.
Additional HD videos will follow with the debut of “Can’t Do Nuttin’ For Ya Man,” “Brothers Gonna Work It Out,” the uncensored version of “Anti-N Machine,” “Burn Hollywood Burn,” featuring Ice Cube and Big Daddy Kane, and their GRAMMY nominated anthem “Fight The Power,” all from Fear Of A Black Planet. “Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos” and “Louder Than A Bomb” from their landmark release It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, “Hazy Shade Of Criminal,” “Welcome To The Terrordome (Instrumental)” and “He Got Game,” “By The Time I Get To Arizona,” “Nighttrain” and “Shut Em Down,” will once again make their debut and make history in HD.
Last year, the group released the critically acclaimed album What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down, reuniting them with their original record label, Def Jam and featuring “Fight The Power: Remix 2020” with Nas, Rapsody, Black Thought, Jahi, YG and Questlove. The album included guest appearances by Mike D and Ad-Rock of Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill, Run-DMC, Ice-T, PMD, George Clinton and more. Their classic albums are the soundtrack to hip hop’s rise as a form of social and political commentary. 1988’s It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back was, and still is, one of the most important records ever made, with Rolling Stone recently naming it the No. 15 Greatest Album of All Time and The New York Times added it to their list of “25 Most Significant Albums of the Last Century.” Fear of a Black Planet — also named on the Rolling Stone list — features PE anthems including the original version of “Fight The Power,” “911 Is a Joke” and “Welcome To The Terrordome.” Most recently, SPIN Magazine named them to the No. 9 position on their “Most Influential Artists of the Last 35 Years” list. PE was inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 and received The Recording Academy’s “Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2020.
