Public enemies ... Chuck D and Flavor Flav on stage in happier times. “He has a year to get his act together and get himself straight or he’s out.”. Electoral politics is child’s play compared with band politics. “While Chuck is certainly free to express his political views as he sees fit — his voice alone does not speak for Public Enemy,” the letter said. A song, however, can bring tensions to a head. Militant gay rights activists are a public enemy. “I’m just the friendly jester.” It’s a shame that after 35 years Public Enemy is no longer able to contain both impulses, but whoever is to blame, it’s not Bernie Sanders. “To be clear Flav and, by extension, the [Rock and Roll] hip hop act Public Enemy with which his likeness and name have become synonymous has not endorsed any political candidate in this election cycle and any suggestion to the contrary is plainly untrue,” the letter continued. Chuck promptly sacked his old friend. Public Enemy's Chuck D has spoken out against frustrations with authority in a recent interview. Hip-hop heavyweight Flavor Flav slapped Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with a cease-and-desist letter for claiming that Flav's group, Public Enemy, would be performing at a … Musicians, as a whole, are not so much leftwing or rightwing as instinctively libertarian. Cram a group of young people into a tour bus for a few weeks, add booze and sleep deprivation, and watch the cracks start to form. “Chuck D, he’s the politician of the group,” Flavor told the Guardian this week. But plenty of other bands have coped with their own political divisions. — arguing that only Chuck D will take the stage, according to reports. Public Enemy didn’t endorse a candidate (they rarely do, although Chuck later called Obama “the right man for the job”), but one of the candidates certainly noticed them. “Sanders claims to represent everyman not the man yet his grossly irresponsible handling of Chuck’s endorsement threatens to divide Public Enemy and, in so doing, forever silence one of our nation’s loudest and most enduring voices for social change,” the message added. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. — the “Don’t Believe the Hype” group’s co-founder — voicing his own political opinions, but said that it’s not his place to speak for all of Public Enemy. but this Rap Icon will not be performing at the Sanders Rally,” read the letter. Throw in some combination of musical differences, commercial pressure, media scrutiny and clashing egos, and it’s a miracle that any band lasts longer than a couple of albums. The Democratic party primary season is a rancorous, high-stakes affair that divides families and ruptures friendships. The artist recently spoke in an interview with NME. 2,498, © 2020 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved “Sanders has promised to ‘Fight the Power’ with hip hop icons Public Enemy — but this Rap Icon will not be performing at the Sanders Rally,” read the letter, obtained by Spin and sent through Flav’s lawyer, Matthew H. Friedman. He has described Flavor, with his comic-strip grin and giant clock medallion, as “a visual character with audio bonuses”: the capering hypeman in a band otherwise defined by stony-faced gravitas. If the campaign to which you have nailed your flag loses, then it’s embarrassing. The controversy almost broke them before Chuck steadied the ship, minus Griff. 36,199, This story has been shared 4,871 times. Thanks for contacting us. When Public Enemy founder and frontman Carlton Ridenhour, AKA Chuck D, announced that the group would play a rally for Bernie Sanders in Los Angeles last Sunday, the lawyer of his livewire sidekick William Drayton, AKA Flavor Flav, sent a letter of complaint: “The Public Enemy Movement cannot allow its cultural identity, likeness and life’s work to be misappropriated by political operatives in support of a fictional revolution.” Perhaps unwisely, he quoted one of Chuck’s most indelible lyrics: “Don’t believe the hype!”. 4,871, This story has been shared 2,734 times. On tracks such as Bring the Noise and Fight the Power, Flavor is halfway between performer and fan, babbling with excitement about what is going on around him. Public Enemy's Chuck D has spoken out against frustrations with authority in a recent interview. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to, Public Enemy’s Chuck D: fighting systemic racism “is a long hike and you got to continually go at it”, Public Enemy announce new album on Def Jam, 'What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down?