Public Enemy

Fight The Power: Chuck D on the Politics of Hip Hop

The Public Enemy frontman has always been one of rap music’s most articulate advocates, but in 2022 he shifted career from MC to university lecturer. In an exclusive extract from his new book, In The Hour of Chaos, Chuck D talks about the cultural politics of hip hop and what it means for the future

Set Everything On Fire: Ron Mael of Sparks’ Favourite Albums

The implacable Ron Mael talks Jeremy Allen through his 13 favourite albums, from fiery free jazz to cutting edge J-pop, via militant hip hop and Bach. Portrait by Munachi Osegbu

On Leaders And Leadership – A Conversation With Chuck D

As they release their first album on the Def Jam label for 22 years, Public Enemy's Chuck D discusses the past, the present and the possible future with Angus Batey

Another Summer: Revisiting Do The Right Thing 30 Years On

David Stubbs looks back three decades at Spike Lee's study of escalating racial tensions in an NYC neighbourhood and finds a film with a contemporary resonance

Dead Precedents: How Hip Hop Hacked The Future

In an exclusive extract from his new book Dead Precedents: How Hip-Hop Defines the Future, Roy Christopher explores rap and cybernetics

Magic Number: The Story Of 3 Feet High And Rising

30 years ago, four school friends from Long Island changed the world. Angus Batey pieces together the story of De La Soul, their groundbreaking debut, and what happened afterwards

White Heat Can’t Melt Black Steel: Public Enemy’s Nation Of Millions Revisited

30 years on, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is artistically unsurpassed. David Bennun looks at how Public Enemy’s masterpiece also remains politically vital

“I Prefer Their Later Work”: 40 Brilliant Albums At The End Of Artists’ Careers

Sod the first few EPs, we say a band's real hidden gems are buried at the end, among the ill-advised career moves and last grasps at fading relevance. Here, tQ writers fight the corner for their favourite unloved and underrated records from the tail-end of their favourite artists' discography.

How The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy Lived Down To Their Name

Why is it so difficult to revisit the strident political albums of one's youth? David Bennun returns to the once inflammatory Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury and finds it’s so much smaller now, and didn't it all used to be fields around here?

Enter The Golden Age: BDP, Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim 30 Years On

Angus Batey revisits the three albums, released within months of each other, that changed everything in hip hop: Paid In Full, Yo, Bum Rush The Show and Criminal Minded

Infallible: Where Did Son Of Bazerk Go Wrong?

In the latest of his stellar hip hop retrospectives, Angus Batey looks back at one of rap's great lost albums, Bazerk, Bazerk, Bazerk, asking where did they go wrong and where are they today?

Movement Ex: Golden Age Hip Hop’s Great Lost Album

This month Angus Batey turns his clinical eye away from the history of rap's powerhouse groups toward a duo who pretty much sank without trace... despite recording one of the all-time great hip hop LPs

Fuck The Police: A Musical Sentiment From NWA To Ferguson

With police violence against African Americans once more dominating the news, Paul Rekret goes back to NWA's 'Fuck The Police' for an analysis of rap's musical counter attack

The Noise And How To Bring It: Hank Shocklee Interviewed

John Tatlock speaks to Hank Shocklee about key Public Enemy productions and other sonic innovations

Song To The Siren: Pop Culture & The Warning Klaxon

Robert Barry explores the growing ubiquity of the warning siren in popular culture, all the way from When Worlds Collide to Jason Derulo's 'Don't Wanna Go Home', via hip hop, the rave explosion, sonic weaponry and the panic sonics of contemporary pop

There’s A Riot Goin’ On: Ice Cube’s The Predator Revisited

Twenty years after its release in the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots, John Freeman looks back at the anger that fuelled Ice Cube’s greatest solo album

You’re Not Gonna Get Yours: Chuck D Of Public Enemy Interviewed

The Quietus' favourite hip hop group are back in the charts and their debut is now 25-years-old, so we sent Stevie Chick to get a Bakers Dozen from Chuck D. The power house rapper had other ideas however... Photo by Maria Jefferis of Shot2Bits

20 Years On: Ultramagnetic MCs’ Funk Your Head Up

Angus Batey looks at the under appreciated, 1992 second coming of the Ultramagnetic MCs

20 Years On: Public Enemy’s Apocalypse 91 The Enemy Strikes Black Revisited

PE's fourth album is often overlooked but it's a true killer, says Angus Batey

A New 90s Part Two: Burning Up With Disco Inferno

In the second of his new series on under-regarded groups from the decade before last, Neil Kulkarni speaks to Disco Inferno

20 Years On: Ice Cube’s Death Certificate Revisited

Angus Batey looks at the 360-degree attack of one of the most creatively independent yet offensive hip hop albums ever made

Bum Rush The Show: Why Reality TV Has More To Do With Violence Than Rap

Luke Turner refutes the Daily Mirror's assertion that hip hop was to blame for this week's unrest. But there's another popular cultural form that reflects the kind of society that caused it

Rap Is Not Afraid Of You: Chuck D Of Public Enemy Interviewed

Dayal Patterson catches up with an all-time Quietus hero Chuck D and shoots the shit about stagecraft, Africa and the presence of politics in hip hop. Live photographs courtesy of Maria Jefferis/Shot2Bits.net

30 Years On: Remembering Public Enemy’s Fear Of A Black Planet

David Stubbs takes a look at Public Enemy's classic LP _Fear Of A Black Planet_, which was released 30 years ago

Flash Bang Wallop: The Grandmaster Interviewed

Grandmaster Flash may have a rep as an unstoppable egotist (who wouldn't be under the circumstances?) but John Doran found him to be good company

Portishead on: collaborating with Public Enemy

Set Everything On Fire: Ron Mael of Sparks’ Favourite Albums

The implacable Ron Mael talks Jeremy Allen through his 13 favourite albums, from fiery free jazz to cutting edge J-pop, via militant hip hop and Bach. Portrait by Munachi Osegbu

Origin Story: Billy Woods’ Favourite Albums

As he releases acclaimed new album Maps alongside Kenny Segal, underground hip hop mainstay Billy Woods takes tQ through the thirteen records that have defined his life, from Goodie Mob to Ghostface Killah

Relentless Education: Krust’s 13 Favourite Albums

Drum & bass pioneer Krust takes Neil Kulkarni through the records that shaped him, from the lessons learnt from Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan and Yellow Magic Orchestra to the "revelation" of Flying Lotus, via The Beatles, Michael Jackson and more

Master Blaster: Kevin Richard Martin’s Baker’s Dozen

The artist also known as The Bug talks to Jennifer Lucy Allan about the records that changed his life, from anxious encounters with African Head Charge in Weymouth to being blasted by Swans at the ICA

Wild Imaginings: DJ Muggs Of Cypress Hill’s Favourite LPs

DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill guides Elizabeth Aubrey through 13 inspirational records, from Wu-Tang Clan to Mobb Deep, Led Zeppelin, Public Enemy... and Cypress Hill themselves

“My Dad Wrote That Better”: Andrew Falkous’ Baker’s Dozen

Ahead of this month's WRONG Festival, the man behind Mclusky, Future Of The Left and Christian Fitness speaks to JR Moores about the 13 records that inspire him (with only the occasional Lammo and ciabatta-themed digression)

A Spoon Baker’s Dozen: The Texan Connections Of Julian Cope

As Spoon hit the UK their vocalist and founder Britt Daniel guides Charles Ubaghs through his 13 favourite albums, from Public Enemy to Miles Davis, the raw emotion of Cat Power and strange idol Julian Cope

Musical Memoir: Kathleen Hanna’s Favourite Albums

Following the release of The Julie Ruin's new album, Hit Reset, last month, the musician, activist and founding member of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre talks Milene Larsson through 13 favourite records that changed her life

Roots Rock Riot: Benji Webbe Of Skindred’s Favourite Albums

The alternative metallers' frontman gives Dom Smith his Baker's Dozen of top LPs ahead of a summer of festival sets in support of their new album, Kill The Power

Music For The Lizard Brain: Ty Bulmer Of NYPC’s Favourite Albums

With their new album out yesterday, the band's singer-songwriter picks out her own top long-players

Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Albums: Alex Kapranos’ Baker’s Dozen

The Franz Ferdinand frontman distils his record collection into a top 13 favourite albums

Too Good To Be True: Tom Robinson’s Favourite Albums

The erstwhile punk frontman and now radio presenter and all-round man of music distils his sprawling record collection down to his 13 finest albums

The Sounds Of Planet Earth: Nick Rhodes Of Duran Duran’s Favourite Albums

As his long-standing side-project TV Mania finally releases an album, Bored With Prozac And The Internet?, Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes reveals the 13 albums that changed his perceptions about music