Friday, May 18, 2007

Friday Funk: 911 Is A Joke



A few little snippets from the classic Public Enemy track and video:

*The B-Side of the single was "Revolutionary Generation"
*Samuel Jackson appears in the video looking mighty similiar to his Gator character from Jungle Fever.
*Day-Glo yellow jumpsuits sooooo need to make a comeback in the 07. Try rockin that to your parent's house for their next BBQ.
*This track samples Sound Experience's "Devil With the Bus" and Wilbur "Bad" Bascomb's "Feel Like Dancing."
*At no time in the video do you see New York, Hoops, or any other "Flavor of Love" girls. In fact, they were probably all in grade school or diapers when this dropped (Summer of 90).
*A young Commish did in fact, wear his hats with the tag still attached ala Flavor. He didn't take it as far as the clock, but he thought about it.
*In the aftermath of the Sept 11th attacks, the Clear Channel radio conglomerate deemed this as an unacceptable track to play.
*Chuck D appears in this video for a grand total of 2 seconds.
*Flavor Flav has appeared in two movies: Mo Betta Blues and New Jack City.
*A non musical sample on this was Eddie Murphy from his debut 1982 comedy album, a track called "Hit by Car" (the audio snippet, "haha, very funny muthfucka.") Also included was Vincent Price's laugh from his spoken word on Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
*Duran Duran covered this song (no joke).
*Other Hip Hop songs that feature a phone number in the title include Gravediggaz "1-800-SUICIDE" and Mary J Blige's "What's the 411." Or you can dial 1-900-Mix-A-Lot and kick those nasty thoughts.
*Davey D wrote of being harrassed by NY's finest during the production of this track.
*I can't be 100% sure, but the three men sitting on the stage with Flavor look like Slick Rick, Jam Master Jay, and Erick Sermon

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:24 PM

    Ahhhhhhh - Fresh Marcus took it as far as the clock so everybody knew what time it was for the New Year's celebrations; you know, the wall-size joint the Commish was accustomed to watching in class while counting down the minutes to head back to the rest to peep Earle the Poet on Yo! MTV Raps.

    "Roof-top like we bringin' '88 back."

    One.

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  2. Anonymous7:10 AM

    yo, this was one of the few PE tracks that Flav was also included int he writing credits. Surprising b/c he was a accomplished drummer and musician

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  3. Anonymous8:54 AM

    911 is a joke and cold lampin' with flav are two of my favorite PE songs ever. classic shit

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