Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black

consider these folks my enemy. I couldn't wait for it to be over.

Hip-Hop is certainly not my genre, and most of it I simply find off putting due to its egregious use of profanity, or violence, or the hypocrisy of the dreaded asterisk word, usually all three honestly. But Public Enemy strikes a cord for me. Maybe it’s my NY roots, maybe it’s Chuck D’s lyrical cadence, maybe it’s Flav’s ability to be serious/not serious. Whatever it is, it’s just better than the rest.

Can't truss them...

Public Enemy put out some good stuff, but this is not their best. Having said that, there are some classics like By the Time I get to Arizona, One Million Bottlebags, and Bring the Noize are classics.

I love rippity rap all day!!! Still I wish there were less songs in here; things get to a point

I know nothing about Public Enemy other than "it's the group Flavor Flav is part of." Because of this, I just assumed it would be extremely cheesy hip-hop. Nope. This album goes all in on one. Lost At Birth is such a goddamned cool intro, and this never lets up from there. It follows up with bangers like Nighttrain, Can't Truss It, By The Time I Get to Arizona, and ends with an Anthrax cover of the 80s song Bring The Noise. The real bad spot here is A Letter to the New York Post, with casual sexism and homophobia, but it's 90s rap, so you kinda know it's coming. Still just genuinely fantastic in every way.

One of my all-time favorite rap albums. PE were the hip-hop equivalent of Black Flag or Minor Threat; angry at everything and uncompromising in conveying that anger, and the production on this album (from the Bomb Squad) delivers the appropriate intensity, using harsh sonics in a way that wasn't really common on a rap record prior to this album. It's an album that's designed to be blasted from your speakers, more akin to metal than hip-hop (Chuck D was/is a metalhead if you couldn't tell from the Anthrax collaboration, and PE appearing on a bill with metal bands was a pretty common occurrence back in the day). Chuck isn't the most dexterous rapper, but his rapping here is a huge improvement from It Takes A Nation of Millions, contained outrage with a much better flow. The only downside are three rubbish songs from Flava Flav, but weighed against "Lost At Birth," "Nighttrain," "Can't Truss It,""By The Time I Get To Arizona," "Move!," "1 Million Bottlebags," and "Shut Em Down" it doesn't matter. Great album.

not as good as Joni Mitchell’s Blue

The most powerful voice in hip-hop, with THE Flavor Flav, and an incredible DJ in Terminator X. Public Enemy are all timers. I adore the production on this album, "By the Time I Get to Arizona" is an absolutely SICK beat. "Shut Em Down" is a favorite from my childhood because it was on Madden 10. I also currently have the song in my party playlist, and I need to really remember to skip the outro on that song

Quite simply, IMHO the single greatest hip hop album of all time.

This was actually really good. I didn't expect to like it but I did.

i liked it more than the 80's album

For those who enjoy this genre it's not a bad album. It's just not to my personal taste.

In terms of what they bring to the world, you can't talk about music without mentioning Public Enemy. One of the first big "conscious" rap groups. Their music is so powerful. Which pains me to say, Apocalypse 91 is not their best.

Nah

Aside from a couple duds this record is pure gasoline. A good reminder of how insanely influential Public Enemy is. Proud to say I was briefly mentored by Hank Shocklee, one of the founding producers of the Bomb Squad and a contributor on this album. Favorite tracks: Lost at Birth By the Time I Get to Arizona Get the F.. Outta Dodge

Didn't enjoy

This one didn't grab me like the other Public Enemy albums on the list did. Sure, I'm still a fan of the vibe, and it's definitely how I like my hip hop, but nothing really stood out or stuck with me.

I enjoyed Nation of Millions more, but this is solid.

Absolutely fantastic hip hop album. Chuck D is one of the best.

I think this may have been the start of a run of album titles with terrible puns...not that I mind terrible puns...but some of them were truly abysmal...or abyss small as they might say in Public Enemean Republic.. I generally hold Public Enemy in the same regard as the Manics in that i appreciate their existence more than I do their music which i wish i loved more than i do as it would make me much cooler than)I am. But like the Manics they really do have a couple of era defining monster smash killer tunes that represent the best of whatever hiphop sub genre they 'e part of. I haven't listened to much of this sort of thing since I stopped hanging around in fuggy living rooms drinking tea and eating my body weight in biscuits, I am really looking forward to hearing Bring The Noize again, I still have the 12" knocking about in the racks...whoever thought that late 80's heavy rock/metal and Hip Hop would be a great marriage was a genius (see Aerosmith/Run DMC ....this genre pair up eventually evolved into the Judgement Night Soundtrack, which was without doubt (in my mind) the grestest soundtrack to the shittest film ever...oh and the awesome Tool/Taylor Swift mash up on YouTube... It's a bit early to dive in just yet so will wait for a quiter moment at work, (of which there are many.) Any band that contains at least 1 batshit crazy member can't be all bad....and although I really want to like this it's a bit of a struggle. It speaks of a world that i am not part of, so will mean .a lot more to some than it does me...as a great band (this one) once said. "Elvis Presley was a hero to most But he never meant shit to me" Its undeniably powerfully articulate stuff and I do like it, just in smaller doses than this. Not sure its their best (i always preferred Fear and Ir Takes A Nation) Bring The Noize is still awesome but i had to turn it down cos it was scaring a dog.. Ice Cube and Bodycount is similarly fantastic, but I doubt it features on this list. .

One of my teenage loves was Public Enemy before I pivoted and got into indie. I always loved the early albums but never paid this offering much attention. So this gave me a chance to see if I was right to avoid all these years or missing out. And I landed somewhere more towards the former than the latter. Whilst Bring The Noize is an absolute classic the rest of the album was merely OK. None of the other tracks massively stood out and after a while it was a bit samey. Not something I would rate a 2 but just a 3 in my book.

I was something of a latecomer to rap and hip hop in general, the first wave having largely passed me by. Whilst a friend induced a fondness for WuTan Clan, I suspect that was more a mutual love of Samurai manga and cinema over an embrace of the plight of the Black Man in an America where civil rights had failed to bear the fruits of its promise, and neo-liberalism was doing its best to keep minorities oppressed through a denial of opportunity rather than cruel oppressive legislation. I did dip into what might be termed gangster rap, but didnt like it; essentially a pornographic music industry commoditisation of economic oppression, sidestepping the political grievance that fuelled the birth of rap, glorifying violence and pretty much every form of discrimination and hate available, neatly packaged for white kids in untroubled suburbs. More recently my son's love of modern hip hop, especially UK grime, but including the likes of Drake, Travis Scott and Kanye West has done little to endear the genre for me. Whilst I appreciate the more social and political messages of grime, I find it musically monotone and hard to engage with, whilst the current wave of US artists mask their vacuous content with slick production, that fails to overcome my distaste for their self regarding dross. Apocalypse 91 is definitely rooted in that first wave. When I managed to concentrate on the lyrics it's great. Yeah sure there's a some of the usual farting on about what they're going to say, and how they're going to say it, rather than, you know, saying it. But when they do, they don't hold back, full of visceral anger and astute observation about the structural nature of their plight. More relevant now that the KKK aren't just wearing three-piece suits but are actively running whole States, the Federal administration and obviously Space X and Palantir...but I digress. The production and interplay between the artists is engaging but, and there's always a but, whenever I drifted away, cos things to do, work to solve, it all just becomes a homogenous loop of "boom boom chooom chikky choom" ad infintum. And i think that's why I've almost never really reached for rap in my day to day, you get out what you put in, and if it's just going to be music to work to, or cook to, it doesnt really float my boat. So basically 5/5 for lyrical content, 3/5 for musical, giving a nice round 4 overall.

A slightly cleaner, less chaotic production than before but still with plenty of energy. I didn't know any of this one except Bring Tha Noize but it is clear that Public Enemy definitely still had it at this point

very dated

Får ikke helt til denne. Mye lyder som ikke henger sammen med musikken. Anthrax trekker opp.

Excellence

8/20 rap hip hop Brooklynn

my goats yes some of their weaker work but they still my favs from this era

Not as good as their first two albums, but Public Enemy's 'not as good' is most rap groups' 'great.' The songs don't have quite that same sense of bombast that was so prevalent before, but that's mainly because of sampling issues and Hank Shocklee handing over the production reins. Calling out the government over racist policies is Chuck D's forte, and he's still the absolute best at it here. As he famously said: 'Rap is the Black CNN.' Plus, you get the new version of 'Bring the Noise' with Anthrax, predating what Rage Against the Machine would be doing by a full year.

Can't believe I waited so long to listen to this album. Easy to listen to from front to back. Public Enemy sounding great. Nostalgic. Roots of rap and hip-hop.

não gostei; próximo

mais um álbum de rap que certamente parece muito importante e formativo, só não é pra mim mesmo

More East Coast Rap (not only do I know what this means I actually like rap now) its so raw and has an unabashed social conscious which hits hard.

? c

Always great. This would be a 5 if not for the outstanding Fear Of A Black Planet.

Not as punchy as the previous five star rated "It takes a nation of millions to hold us back" and in think I like 'Fear of a Black Planet" not but this is still pretty great. Would like to go 3.5. as it stands in going three but that might be amended up. Public Enemy is needed by the youths today

I totally love the 1st 3 PE albums, so why do I never appear to have listened to this before? An absolute barnstormer of a record! A very different (More conventional) style of production (born out of necessity, apparently) does nothing to dilute from the power of Chuck and a more militant Flavor. Hard, funky, and still thought-provoking.

This was actually not bad. Didn’t care for a couple of songs but generally was pretty enjoyable.

Chuck, Flav, Terminator. Of course it's good.

Favorite Track: Bring Tha Noize

Baš dosta fucking loše. Morala bih biti dosta razvaljena i u nekom 90s nostalgičnom raspoloženju da mi ovo bude okej, a ni tad ne bi dugo trajalo. 2/5, 3/10

5: I will happily play this album anytime 4: I may occasionally play this album of my own free will 3: I will happily listen to this if someone plays it in the background 2: I will tolerate this if it is playing in the background 1: I will leave the room if someone plays this in the background

How the heck haven't I heard this before

3.5 stars

I love PE, but I can think of only one band that deserves multiple albums on a list of 1000 that must be heard and PE isn't that band.

Full of hard hitting beats and great lyricism as always. Does a job, but it's no Nation of Millions.

8.3

Some annoying parts

Good stuff, but a drop-off from their last two albums. The scantier production leaves the lyrics more exposed, and Chuck D and Flava have already used up their A-material by this point -- still, I gotta say, Chuck's delivery is better than ever here. This would settle at a solid 3/5, except it includes the Anthrax collaboration, of course one of the greatest things of all time.

While I appreciate the messaging here, I felt the execution was lacking. 5/10

Foundational

I like this. Not my normal cup of tea, but great pounding grooves and soe serious subject matter.

Hardcore, socially conscious and full of allusions, a fun record

Solid period rap while being a bit underdeveloped.

An entire song filled with the N-slur to criticize the excessive, casual use of the n-slur is just ... *chef's kiss*. This might be the only time I'm not put off by its use because damn I do love satire. This is the best 90s era hip-hop album I've heard so far. The collaboration with Anthrax is delightful.

#96 - Public Enemy - Apocalypse 91…The Enemy Strikes Black ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Maybe I wasn’t the target audience for this album in 1991 (16 year old white boy), but I bought it when it came out and I loved it. And I still do. It is for sure PE’s best album and one of the best rap albums of all time. Flavor Flav and Chuck D have an incredible strength in the way that they mix political and cultural criticism without spewing hate. I like the production and the wit and the beats and the lyrics and all of it. So even though it probably wasn’t made for me, it WAS made for all of us. Which is better.

Okay time to listen to Public Enemy’s entire discography.

Wife hated it...

Favourite Track(s):

Public Enemy was definitely a group I grew up listening to and I have heard this album several times. I will say just as I always felt, it is a decent album, but far from great and not even the best for Public Enemy. There are some absolute bangers on this album in Can't Truss It, Bring the Noize and Shut Em Down, the rest of the album is just ok and can even get annoying at times. 3 stars is all this album deserves.

(walks in nonchalantly, just casually looking around at the surroundings, whistling idly) I like this better than A Nation of Millions (runs away)

Ik hoef het niet te herhalen dat ik geen liefhebber van rap ben. Maar Public Enemy heeft wel iets. Het klinkt een beetje als het voorbeeld van rap, met af en toe geinige geluidjes en samples. Ik mis op dit album wel wat melodie, maar ach, het blijft rap. **

Bof

This is actually my favorite Public Enemy album featured, I think? There’s more variety in the songs. They’re shorter, a little punchier with more hooks, without losing that awesome anger they’re known for. Feels less like hearing Chuck D rant and more like actual songs.

Heard of the artist but haven't listened to too much of their stuff. I do know they are a legendary hip-hop group. Good album. These are the types of records I wish I was around at the time of its release.

Public enemy has way better music than this?

All good stuff

cooles hiphop-album

Richtig guter Hip hop!

Never heard them before. Have to listen a few more times specifically listening to the lyrics. Like the beat.

It was not the day for it

Brilliant, and the collaboration at the end is [chef’s kiss emoji not found]

I wasn't really familiar this album, but I think I enjoyed it more than Fear of a Black Planet. It definitely sounds like its time, but like the blueprint for everyone else to follow. I loved the samples and loops, the relentlessly repetitive ones that give it a driving aggressive feel to match its political messages. You can definitely find date homophobic lyrics, but the racial politics are still pretty current. 4/5.

bleh

I liked it, some songs were definitely better than others, I also found that it’s aged a bit more than other 90s records production wise, content is still very relevant to today.

Public Enemy is one of the greatest rap groups to ever do it. Every track hits hard and many of the rhymes are still relevant today

Just feels a bit less exciting and inventive than their previous two albums, it's still better than a lot of 90s hip-hop groups but they can't quite hit the heights of It Takes A Nation... again.

Just a great album

Bring The Noize is the marquee track but overall, this is a phenomenal example of hip hop taking center stage.

Not sure I ever listened to this one… Interesting, this album has some of the most recognizable tracks: By the Time I Get to Arizona, More News at 11, but it just doesn’t feel as coherent as the previous two albums. Fear of a Black Planet feels particularly organic to me, and it’s as if this album is working off the template laid down by Fear, which means it just doesn’t have the same energy. Still awesome. 4 Boolean: True

Pretty decent album. I Iike the rap/rock. I like the lyrics. I have no doubt this was an important and influential album back in the day. Outside of maybe "Bring Tha Noize" I'm probably not going to listen to any of it again though. Its a 2 for me.

this is 3.5 stars and I can't figure out whether I should round up or down

More pop mentality, but still a lot of the same sound I don’t like

Never gotten into Public Enemy. I freely recognise they are “important”, but that’s not enough for me to want to listen. And Flava Flav is terrible.

This album is a weird bridge between New Jack Swing and G-funk

Relentless, political, prescient and righteous "You can't see who's in cahoots, Cos now the KKK wears three-piece suits"

Fantastic, can't beat a bit of PE. The best beats, the best rapper of all time and of course Flavor Flav.

I feel like I've already heard this album before, but that's probably because the other two Public Enemy records on this list cover this one's material just fine. It's still a great record, but putting three albums that from the same part in their discography is kind of bound to cause problems. That being said, the Thrash Metal version of Bring tha Noize is the most "guys will look at this and say 'hell yeah'" thing in rap music and makes me retract any criticism I wrote prior to this sentence.

Good, wouldn't say it was essential

This album rules

8 keepers in 14 (57%). Not a lot to add. It’s good. No real skips. Math says 3 stars, heart says 3 stars. 3 stars.

Five stars under protest. One Public Enemy album is enough to draw a reasonable conclusion. You don't need to listen to three of them before you die. You should... but it's not required.

I get that Public Enemy is wildly influential, and that I'm probably not the target audience, but it just doesn't land for me. It feels dated.

🎯😎💥🎧💰

7/10

Klart det bedste i den genre.

very cool lyrics were sick but wasn't really for me

I've seven Public Enemy albums in my collection, but not this, and that needs to change, if only for 'Bring Tha Noize'. So this is going on the list. Heard before ❌️ Listened this time ✅️ Revisit ✅️ ★★★★☆(7/10) Total reviewed : 408 Already owned : 91 Purchased : 21 To buy : 4 Nope : 291

It's been 24 hours since I've generated it and I only just now realized that it's "strikes BLACK" and not "strikes back". I may be a professional idiot.