Disco de Public Enemy: “Fight the Power: Greatest Hits Live! [PA]”

I've been a PE fan since 1987/8, loved all their records, kept up with them right through. I'm not into the recent rap stuff but PE's intelligent lyrics and great music I always loved. That's the disclaimer in case I'm too positive.

Given that this is a recording from 16 years down the track, I'm thoroughly astounded. It's a selection of the best stuff from them over the years, some of the later stuff, but a great selection. But what is so stunning about the recording is the way they did it. It's with a live band - they re-arranged the whole set, and did it really well in a funk/hard rock style.

The recording is fantastic (recorded in Melbourne, Australia in 2003), good enough to make one think it was almost a studio recording, but it's just such a brilliant fresh take on some great songs from a great band.

A must for anyone into PE and an embarassment for a lot of the Rap/Rock bands - it's just brilliant.

"Fight the Power: Greatest Hits Live!" is a live-in-concert recording of hip-hop pioneers Public Enemy, recorded in Melbourne, Australia, in 2003. As of the recording time, Public Enemy is as follows:

Chuck D- lead vocalist/frontman

Flavor Flav- 2nd vocalist, lead on "911 is a Joke", etc.

Professor Griff- backup vocalist/percussion, dancer, leader of "S1W's"

DJ Lord- turntables

"The Banned": Brian Hargrove (bass); Khyri Wynn (Guitar); Mike Faulkner (drums).

At this concert, the group goes into startling renditions of their long-standing catalog of hip-hop songs, going from the Def Jam era into their more recent independent releases-- "Shut Em Down", "Bring the Noise", "Black Steel...", "Give it Up", "Son of a Bush", are among the best songs in the set. This is the only official live Public Enemy album released so far, so this is a rare opportunity!

When Chuck D said to the crowd 'Were filming this for a DVD so you better go nuts ..' I didnt really believe him at the time - but here it really is !!

I was lucky enough to be at the Metro in Melbourne on this great occasion - I had not seen PE since the Festival Hall gig of '92 so I didn't know what to expect .. but as you can see from the performance & crowd reaction PE absolutely blew us away with a high-energy performance that belies their years (and they still got - as witness on their '09 New Years Day gig here again in town) ..

And I am glad and relieved to see it has been mastered brilliantly on DVD - great visual & sound quality far better than some of their other releases .. with good direction of the camera shots.

The Rock Band was a departure from the usual PE style but I think it works brilliantly - my mate who is a complete non-rap fan watched it with me last night and absolutely loved it ..

My only gripe is with Chuck D - cutting some of their greatest songs to only 2 verses !!! Cant Truss It & Dont Believe the Hype being the two notables, but when you have such a huge catalog its understandable.

The CD is also great with equally good audio quality - though far shortened setlist than the DVD ..

A must for any PE fan !!!

I'm a huge fun of P.E. I've been listing to them for years but I'm not really digging this live album, the live band it's actually killing all the classics I miss the old P.E. live shows, I'm not digging the P.E. Band. If you are a true fan get it like I did but if you're checking P.E. for the first time, stay away from this record.