Friday Video – Public Enemy, “Night of the Living Baseheads”

We’ll be the first to admit that the Friday Video column is, well, really, really white. We attempt to rectify this oversight this week by showcasing one of hip hop’s finest bands at the height of their powers: Public Enemy. Yes, Flavor Flav has become a reality TV parody of his former self – which is kind of impressive, when you consider that he was pretty much a parody of himself in the first place – but Chuck D is no fool; he knows that a spoonful of sugar will help the medicine go down, and Flav was the perfect foil for Chuck’s take-no-prisoners manifestos. In the case of “Night of the Living Baseheads,” he addresses the crack problem, which had become a full-blown epidemic by the late ’80s. And for you Beastie Boys fans out there who aren’t familiar with this track, the new Beasties’ song “Too Many Rappers” makes a nice tribute to this song, where they borrow the “sellin’, smellin’, sniffin,’ riffin'” cadence. Nice to know we’re not the only ones who remember this stuff fondly.

For those who want to hear the uninterrupted track, here it be. And you say goddamn, this is a dope jam.

  

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