Public Enemy: Show Preview

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Look for those diehards to storm the gates when Public Enemy featuring Chuck D., Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, and DJ Lord perform with a live band Friday, Jan. 14, and Saturday, Jan. 15, at Yoshi's S.F. 8 and 10 p.m., $40; www.yoshis.com.

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• Public Enemy
• Professor Griff
• Flavor Flav
• Hip-Hop and Rap
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

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As hip-hop old-schoolers well know, Public Enemy set the bar for conscious rap in the late '80s. Albums like It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet melded the radical street politics of bandleader Chuck D. with banging beats, inventive scratching, and goofy MC antics from Flavor Flav, Terminator X, and Professor Griff. Provocative, anthemic, and seemingly quite dangerous, Public Enemy appealed to arena-sized crowds of young people. But the popularity and promise of such revolutionary rap soon gave way to more innocuous styles, and Public Enemy lost its megasized mic. Taking the D.I.Y. route, the group has continued to release hard-hitting albums every few years, but without mainstream attention and endorsements by Jay-Z or Kanye, its message falls mostly on the faithful.