July 4, 2022 • 13 mins
Hip-Hop Hidden Gems returns with a 1 Jewel: 1 Verse episode focuses on the Rhyme Animal himself, Public Enemy's front man Chuck D.
P. E. will go down in the history books as one of the greatest bands in American history.
They taught a generation to Fight the Power & to Bring The Noise. Hip-Hop music as a whole was the sound of rebellion, but few went at it harder than these legends.
And now Willie and Mo remind us all of the power of The Rebel With Out A Pause.
Show Em What Ya Got gentlemen.
P. E. will go down in the history books as one of the greatest bands in American history.
They taught a generation to Fight the Power & to Bring The Noise. Hip-Hop music as a whole was the sound of rebellion, but few went at it harder than these legends.
And now Willie and Mo remind us all of the power of The Rebel With Out A Pause.
Show Em What Ya Got gentlemen.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
One Jewel One Verse, the shorterepisode where we picked one song and do
a deep dive into an incredible verseand what makes it so remarkable? Hip
Hop Head and Jumps presents one Jewelone verse that started with slave ships pe
(00:28):
This gets me all fired up becausethis song, the video, all of
it would just make me like allright. Public Enemy Apocalypse ninety one The
Enemy Strikes Black. The song isCan't Trust It? Released September twenty fourth,
nineteen ninety one. Yes, sir, so, I don't slave ships,
(00:50):
yepp get big slave ships. Thereare more slave ships than one would
dream. It seems inconceivable until youreflect that two hundred years ship sale create
a card goo of slave Chuck mademovies that were three minutes long and call
them songs. And the projector wasin your head that that intro is just
(01:14):
He could not have started this songa better way. Fired up from the
start. I know we are stickingto one verse. Can we least acknowledge
that Malcolm X is always special tohere? Absolutely, there are more records
of slave ship than one with dreams. It seems inconcening a dreaming effective for
(01:36):
two hundred union ship of sale carryingfor all the slave round nine, non
violent in the face of the violentthat we've been experiencing for the bast four
hundred years. It's actually are doingour people that did better and bank it's
a crime. It's a crime.And then Malcolm has come in the non
non violent in the face of theviolence that our people have been experiencing.
(02:00):
It does our people with disservice.In fact, it's a crime. It's
a crime. Here comes the drums, and it's just it's like we're rolling
the opening credits. Yeah, it'sIt definitely feels like a blockbuster movie that
has the exciting scene right in thefront. It reminds me of one of
the Dark Knight movies when it overcomes in ropping a bank right in the
intro. Yep, Dark Knight,that's the one right from the beginning.
(02:21):
Okay, we're setting this off likethis, all right, I see where
we're going. Yep. And assoon as it comes in, the b
drops bass is crazy horns. Itsounds like you've got a series of ambulances
(02:43):
flying by now and basing your face. Not an eight track. Getting it
good to the wood. So thepeople give you some of that reactant to
the fats that I get. Onething about Chuck D is I do not
know how to like Chug D.Chuck D strings together pictures, ideas and
(03:06):
words in the middle of the line, at the end of the line two
or thread together, and it's simultaneouslyall over the place and laser focused.
Great point, because that's the thingabout it that always bugs me out about
Chuck versus with a lot of verses, you understand it more when you read
(03:27):
it With Chuck. I'm more confusedwhen I read it, Yeah, because
I know exactly what he was intendingwhen you hear it. When I hear
it, and then I look atthe lyrics, I'm like, it's so
confusing, because, like you said, how did he write this? The
first two lines the rhyming words aretwo words apart. The whole first line
(03:49):
doesn't rhyme, But then getting goodto the Wood does rhyme, and it
walks to the next rhymes how didthat just happen? And then when you
finish that whole next line, reactingto the Facts rhymes and connects you back
to the eight track. It rhymesback the facts rhyme with track. The
song has crazy base in it,so opening with basing your face. I
(04:09):
follow that, and this is somethingnew. It's not an eight track,
right, which also speaks to thefact that Chuck's been here a minute.
He knows what an eight track is. I know what an eight track is.
And then he says, so thepeople will give you some of that
reacting to the facts that I kicked. I feel like Chuck rhymes like a
(04:30):
slide show explaining why we had toburn this place down. It's like you
walked into the museum and there's aslideshow of the documentary of what caused the
riots and Chuck's song it's the soundtrackto it, and it's stick and it
(04:54):
stays around, pointing to the joint. Put the Buddha down. It's like
you have the scene of when Xwas taught, you have the scene of
okay, the beats dropping. Yougot the scene of there these people reacting
and Chuck is up there kicking allthese facts, and the stuff he's saying
is impacting them, is hitting them. Because he kicks the facts that it
(05:14):
sticks and stays around. And thenthere's a scene of him saying, man,
put that joint down, because let'sget away from the weed for a
minute. Let's sober up and dothis thing, and let's go deep into
the roots. And then he says, we ain't giving it up, so
turn me loose. So James boundjoint, give it up, turn me
loose. All right? Can Iask you a question about the structure because
I'm still less with the structure alittle bit? Okay? All right?
As you pointed out the first lineand then the third line Ryan, right,
(05:39):
yeah, then he gets a littlebit more conventional for the next four.
But that's line three, five andseven. Yeah, so the idea
of a standard sixteen is completely outthe window at this point, right,
Yeah, aabb is not here atall. Now. The thing is really
what's off is Chuck doesn't drop hisrhymes on the snare. He probably wrote
(06:02):
this where the lines all do lineup like for him, it was probably
like basing your face, not aneight track, And that was probably the
whole first line, getting it goodto the woods, so the people give
you some of that react reacting tothe facts. That was probably like just
super long line too. That akick and a stick and stay around was
(06:24):
line three. Pointing to the joint. Put the Buddha down was line four.
That's probably what that looks like inhis notebook. The thing about Public
Enemy during this whole time is howthe bomb squad was making music. It
was chaotic, it was organized chaos. Yep, and Chuck's writing pattern is
also organized chaos. It's a beautifulthing, but it's chaotic, yeah,
(06:47):
just like the music. And Ithink one without the other wouldn't be as
perfect as as it is when they'retogether. I believe you're absolutely right up.
(07:13):
He's just he's got so much tosay. But then again, I
got a story that's harder than thehardcore cost of the Holocaust. I'm talking
about the one still going on,so we can get costs and Holocaust together
as far as rhyming. But thoselike you said like it's two words apart.
The harder hardcore Holocaust gives you somealliteration going on in there, But
(07:33):
the fact he stopped to say,I'm talking about the one still going on
makes it stand out. Chucks therhyme animals, so it's all over the
place. But typically whenever you seean MC, stop what they're doing and
stop rhyming, they're making a pointthat's supposed to stick out dramatically. So
he's basically saying he's talking about thecurrent Holocaust. I know where I'm from,
(07:56):
not the dumb. Did he dumb? From the base mother Land,
the place of the drum. Sohe's saying he's not stupid. He knows
his history invaded by the whag?Did he whack fool the black and left
us faded? The faded doesn't rhymewith anything. You see what I'm saying.
You know, but I think whenwe were talking about Andre three thousand,
we talked about the interesting word choices. Right, I know where I'm
(08:20):
from. I'm not dumb, right, That's not what he said. He
said, not dumb diddy, dumbright, We'll see. This is also
a throwback to his favorite rap groupRun DMC. The way back eighty three,
they had a song called here WeGo, and they'd be like one
(08:43):
two three to the three two onedumb diddy, dumb diddy? Did he
dumb dumb? Here comes Dre withthe big big drum drum? Did he
drum? Did he? Did hedrum? Drum? Here it come here,
It come here, It Kitty come. He's grabbed that and brought that
in here, which takes us backto eight trons, which takes us back
to knowing where he's from, whichhe's like, he's actually snatching these little
(09:07):
snippets of hip hop that's almost adecade old when this came out. She
probably had a big thief, nofool the black and left us faded.
King and chief probably had a bigbeef. And the thing is he's still
on topic and still time traveling backwardbecause he talked about he knows he's from
(09:30):
the motherland. Now we're talking abouthow the king, like a European king,
and the chief presumably the people orthe tribe that there had a beef.
And because of that, now Igrit my teeth. So my life
is hard now because of what happenedback then. So here's a song to
(09:52):
the strong about the shake of thesnake and a smile that went along.
So he managed to get along tothe rod with strong in there and song.
But he's saying, that smile andthat handshake that the snake has,
you can't trust that. But theshake of the snake and the smile that
went along with that, you can'ttrust it. It makes so much more
(10:13):
sense listening to it than reading it. His mind flows. It doesn't necessarily
always go sequentially at least not inorder that I would think sequentially. He
kind of flows like a river throughthoughts. Sometimes they change directions, they
go a little bit, but they'restill going where they're going, just not
necessarily in a straight line. Andthere's a uniqueness about it that you will
(10:37):
never see anywhere else. When Ilistened to Chuck. That's what I always
gather from him. That is alwaysvery intelligent and is he what he's saying?
Nobody else could say the same way, And that's exactly what I get
from pretty much every verse he does. But this one, this definitely encapsulates
it. The more I listen tothe song, the more I study this
song, the more I reflect onwhat's happening in it. I am impressed
(11:01):
by the ability to capture so manyfeelings, so many thoughts, so many
ideas, and deliver it in away that people feel it. You can
bypass the intellectualization of it and gostraight to the feeling of it. And
it's almost like he's delivering this feelingto you and the words are there so
(11:22):
that your heart has context. Yeah, this is a painting on the wall.
Yeah, he's giving you something withina framework, and it's clearly beautiful.
Yeah, Willie. Interesting side noteabout this, Yeah, I forever
(11:46):
listen to this song. Love thissong, put it on repeat. I
don't know exactly how much older Iwas before you happen to mention to me
that this verse is repeated twice inthe song. I never knew it.
He even says once again and startsit over. I never heard it.
Wow, Yeah, that's what forme. I was like, whoa,
(12:11):
I love this joy. And thenI was like, you can do that,
you can do the same verse again. I didn't know that that.
I thought it was like a ruleyou couldn't do that. I think the
abstract of how it's put together iswhat threw me off. Yeah, because
it's not after a chorus, it'sjust attached to like verse three. It's
(12:31):
like, now that I had gaveyou the whole song, we're going right
back to this against. I needyou to hear this once again. He
knew how dope this verse was.Against. This is hip hop hidden gems
perfect you to man, Thank you, MAXI so much appreciate you. Karen.
(12:52):
There is the Columbia Well. Thewhole time, I'm I'm I'm doing
this, I'm sitting here like thesecond verse is dope too, you know,
whole time like, oh my gosh, how do you how do you
do that,
One Jewel One Verse, the shorterepisode where we picked one song and do
a deep dive into an incredible verseand what makes it so remarkable? Hip
Hop Head and Jumps presents one Jewelone verse that started with slave ships pe
(00:28):
This gets me all fired up becausethis song, the video, all of
it would just make me like allright. Public Enemy Apocalypse ninety one The
Enemy Strikes Black. The song isCan't Trust It? Released September twenty fourth,
nineteen ninety one. Yes, sir, so, I don't slave ships,
(00:50):
yepp get big slave ships. Thereare more slave ships than one would
dream. It seems inconceivable until youreflect that two hundred years ship sale create
a card goo of slave Chuck mademovies that were three minutes long and call
them songs. And the projector wasin your head that that intro is just
(01:14):
He could not have started this songa better way. Fired up from the
start. I know we are stickingto one verse. Can we least acknowledge
that Malcolm X is always special tohere? Absolutely, there are more records
of slave ship than one with dreams. It seems inconcening a dreaming effective for
(01:36):
two hundred union ship of sale carryingfor all the slave round nine, non
violent in the face of the violentthat we've been experiencing for the bast four
hundred years. It's actually are doingour people that did better and bank it's
a crime. It's a crime.And then Malcolm has come in the non
non violent in the face of theviolence that our people have been experiencing.
(02:00):
It does our people with disservice.In fact, it's a crime. It's
a crime. Here comes the drums, and it's just it's like we're rolling
the opening credits. Yeah, it'sIt definitely feels like a blockbuster movie that
has the exciting scene right in thefront. It reminds me of one of
the Dark Knight movies when it overcomes in ropping a bank right in the
intro. Yep, Dark Knight,that's the one right from the beginning.
(02:21):
Okay, we're setting this off likethis, all right, I see where
we're going. Yep. And assoon as it comes in, the b
drops bass is crazy horns. Itsounds like you've got a series of ambulances
(02:43):
flying by now and basing your face. Not an eight track. Getting it
good to the wood. So thepeople give you some of that reactant to
the fats that I get. Onething about Chuck D is I do not
know how to like Chug D.Chuck D strings together pictures, ideas and
(03:06):
words in the middle of the line, at the end of the line two
or thread together, and it's simultaneouslyall over the place and laser focused.
Great point, because that's the thingabout it that always bugs me out about
Chuck versus with a lot of verses, you understand it more when you read
(03:27):
it With Chuck. I'm more confusedwhen I read it, Yeah, because
I know exactly what he was intendingwhen you hear it. When I hear
it, and then I look atthe lyrics, I'm like, it's so
confusing, because, like you said, how did he write this? The
first two lines the rhyming words aretwo words apart. The whole first line
(03:49):
doesn't rhyme, But then getting goodto the Wood does rhyme, and it
walks to the next rhymes how didthat just happen? And then when you
finish that whole next line, reactingto the Facts rhymes and connects you back
to the eight track. It rhymesback the facts rhyme with track. The
song has crazy base in it,so opening with basing your face. I
(04:09):
follow that, and this is somethingnew. It's not an eight track,
right, which also speaks to thefact that Chuck's been here a minute.
He knows what an eight track is. I know what an eight track is.
And then he says, so thepeople will give you some of that
reacting to the facts that I kicked. I feel like Chuck rhymes like a
(04:30):
slide show explaining why we had toburn this place down. It's like you
walked into the museum and there's aslideshow of the documentary of what caused the
riots and Chuck's song it's the soundtrackto it, and it's stick and it
(04:54):
stays around, pointing to the joint. Put the Buddha down. It's like
you have the scene of when Xwas taught, you have the scene of
okay, the beats dropping. Yougot the scene of there these people reacting
and Chuck is up there kicking allthese facts, and the stuff he's saying
is impacting them, is hitting them. Because he kicks the facts that it
(05:14):
sticks and stays around. And thenthere's a scene of him saying, man,
put that joint down, because let'sget away from the weed for a
minute. Let's sober up and dothis thing, and let's go deep into
the roots. And then he says, we ain't giving it up, so
turn me loose. So James boundjoint, give it up, turn me
loose. All right? Can Iask you a question about the structure because
I'm still less with the structure alittle bit? Okay? All right?
As you pointed out the first lineand then the third line Ryan, right,
(05:39):
yeah, then he gets a littlebit more conventional for the next four.
But that's line three, five andseven. Yeah, so the idea
of a standard sixteen is completely outthe window at this point, right,
Yeah, aabb is not here atall. Now. The thing is really
what's off is Chuck doesn't drop hisrhymes on the snare. He probably wrote
(06:02):
this where the lines all do lineup like for him, it was probably
like basing your face, not aneight track, And that was probably the
whole first line, getting it goodto the woods, so the people give
you some of that react reacting tothe facts. That was probably like just
super long line too. That akick and a stick and stay around was
(06:24):
line three. Pointing to the joint. Put the Buddha down was line four.
That's probably what that looks like inhis notebook. The thing about Public
Enemy during this whole time is howthe bomb squad was making music. It
was chaotic, it was organized chaos. Yep, and Chuck's writing pattern is
also organized chaos. It's a beautifulthing, but it's chaotic, yeah,
(06:47):
just like the music. And Ithink one without the other wouldn't be as
perfect as as it is when they'retogether. I believe you're absolutely right up.
(07:13):
He's just he's got so much tosay. But then again, I
got a story that's harder than thehardcore cost of the Holocaust. I'm talking
about the one still going on,so we can get costs and Holocaust together
as far as rhyming. But thoselike you said like it's two words apart.
The harder hardcore Holocaust gives you somealliteration going on in there, But
(07:33):
the fact he stopped to say,I'm talking about the one still going on
makes it stand out. Chucks therhyme animals, so it's all over the
place. But typically whenever you seean MC, stop what they're doing and
stop rhyming, they're making a pointthat's supposed to stick out dramatically. So
he's basically saying he's talking about thecurrent Holocaust. I know where I'm from,
(07:56):
not the dumb. Did he dumb? From the base mother Land,
the place of the drum. Sohe's saying he's not stupid. He knows
his history invaded by the whag?Did he whack fool the black and left
us faded? The faded doesn't rhymewith anything. You see what I'm saying.
You know, but I think whenwe were talking about Andre three thousand,
we talked about the interesting word choices. Right, I know where I'm
(08:20):
from. I'm not dumb, right, That's not what he said. He
said, not dumb diddy, dumbright, We'll see. This is also
a throwback to his favorite rap groupRun DMC. The way back eighty three,
they had a song called here WeGo, and they'd be like one
(08:43):
two three to the three two onedumb diddy, dumb diddy? Did he
dumb dumb? Here comes Dre withthe big big drum drum? Did he
drum? Did he? Did hedrum? Drum? Here it come here,
It come here, It Kitty come. He's grabbed that and brought that
in here, which takes us backto eight trons, which takes us back
to knowing where he's from, whichhe's like, he's actually snatching these little
(09:07):
snippets of hip hop that's almost adecade old when this came out. She
probably had a big thief, nofool the black and left us faded.
King and chief probably had a bigbeef. And the thing is he's still
on topic and still time traveling backwardbecause he talked about he knows he's from
(09:30):
the motherland. Now we're talking abouthow the king, like a European king,
and the chief presumably the people orthe tribe that there had a beef.
And because of that, now Igrit my teeth. So my life
is hard now because of what happenedback then. So here's a song to
(09:52):
the strong about the shake of thesnake and a smile that went along.
So he managed to get along tothe rod with strong in there and song.
But he's saying, that smile andthat handshake that the snake has,
you can't trust that. But theshake of the snake and the smile that
went along with that, you can'ttrust it. It makes so much more
(10:13):
sense listening to it than reading it. His mind flows. It doesn't necessarily
always go sequentially at least not inorder that I would think sequentially. He
kind of flows like a river throughthoughts. Sometimes they change directions, they
go a little bit, but they'restill going where they're going, just not
necessarily in a straight line. Andthere's a uniqueness about it that you will
(10:37):
never see anywhere else. When Ilistened to Chuck. That's what I always
gather from him. That is alwaysvery intelligent and is he what he's saying?
Nobody else could say the same way, And that's exactly what I get
from pretty much every verse he does. But this one, this definitely encapsulates
it. The more I listen tothe song, the more I study this
song, the more I reflect onwhat's happening in it. I am impressed
(11:01):
by the ability to capture so manyfeelings, so many thoughts, so many
ideas, and deliver it in away that people feel it. You can
bypass the intellectualization of it and gostraight to the feeling of it. And
it's almost like he's delivering this feelingto you and the words are there so
(11:22):
that your heart has context. Yeah, this is a painting on the wall.
Yeah, he's giving you something withina framework, and it's clearly beautiful.
Yeah, Willie. Interesting side noteabout this, Yeah, I forever
(11:46):
listen to this song. Love thissong, put it on repeat. I
don't know exactly how much older Iwas before you happen to mention to me
that this verse is repeated twice inthe song. I never knew it.
He even says once again and startsit over. I never heard it.
Wow, Yeah, that's what forme. I was like, whoa,
(12:11):
I love this joy. And thenI was like, you can do that,
you can do the same verse again. I didn't know that that.
I thought it was like a ruleyou couldn't do that. I think the
abstract of how it's put together iswhat threw me off. Yeah, because
it's not after a chorus, it'sjust attached to like verse three. It's
(12:31):
like, now that I had gaveyou the whole song, we're going right
back to this against. I needyou to hear this once again. He
knew how dope this verse was.Against. This is hip hop hidden gems
perfect you to man, Thank you, MAXI so much appreciate you. Karen.
(12:52):
There is the Columbia Well. Thewhole time, I'm I'm I'm doing
this, I'm sitting here like thesecond verse is dope too, you know,
whole time like, oh my gosh, how do you how do you
do that,
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