I have never really had a songwriters block, but that doesn't cover the fact that writing a so called blog that is called a 'terrordome' is block-proof. Having completed PEs 62nd Tour that I simply call PETOUR62 has really brought home some significance of what we do. Upon playing 4 dates in the Netherlands , a few of us were catching the hour long ride northeast to Utrecht and was barraged by the 25 year old or so driver of Dutch-Suraminese decent blasting a Rick Ross mix CD. In the past I would be more democratic , but in this coming toward the 30th year next year in rap recordings I had to speak what was on my mind in the car. While I couldn't really call Mr Ross's music 'garbage'... I just knew it was a long way from Diana Ross. The beats were expected, but I couldn't really separate it from the level of a sixth grader, in beat and rhyming style. The topics though were toxic. That too was expected, and over the top. Something that DEF JAM and Universal stands proudly behind. For this I fell into the gap. Generational yes. But also fundamental, quality, and standard gap as well. Rick Ross clearly looks older than my father, so is it just a generational gap thing or is RR the virtual ice cream truck man to trick daddy the kids?

While I wouldn't waste my T-Dome time making it a Rick Ross bashfest .....I had questions. I had to look at the game real close and ask who Rick Ross was talking to? Was it JR High and High school black kids? Was it white folks across america hearing about the hustlin? Was it the hustlers themselves , music for the pimps, the pushers, the element on the edge of criminality? This Rick Ross is not the same Freeway Ricky Ross who was responsible for setting the drug-game in the west , with some big federal help from some government friends. That Rick Ross is paying a price that many think is a 'game'. This one raps about it for a price. Everybody talks about the truth, but I never heard any truth about this Rick Ross , and when folks learned he used to be a corrections officer some thought it was funny, others thought it was blasphemy. Bottom line I was disturbed because half way around the world this young driver really couldn't explain why he liked it. I told him next time he made a CD for a long drive to make a more diverse one at least. The gap swallowed me on that one.

A lot of cats are searching hard for a topic. The standard of rap has dipped below the eighth grade level. There seems to be a total non-understanding of the definition of what HIP HOP and rap is right now. A damn shame that we can't get and much less keep a solid definition straight. The ignorance runs rampant across the board, like in describing the singer AKON a hip hop superstar. He's a R&B superstar. He ain't Hip Hop or Rap anything. This all started when ignorant lazy scribes labeled Bobby Brown and later Mary J Blige rappers and hip hop. Mary J till this day is trying to run far away from that term as possible to stay paid. To re introduce the standard it may take one to take the road of ' hater'. Why? Because the lack of maintenance is in fact hating on the standard of raising the game.

I'm just calling what I see and hear and I'm not def, dumb, or blind. I'm taking a world survey while i'm at it.. 2008 i watched and listened. The financial background of the game shrunk like a block of ice in Panama. Radio continued to be terrible. The inner core continued to shrink because the program and music directors only kept talking to themselves while throwing music and meaningless on air personality-less verbage 'at' the people. BET's main channel couldn't decide whether 106 and PARK was a teen show or one for clubbing adults. Viacoms MTV has MTV BASE go into Africa to see if they can 'pimp' it the same way they did the majority of the planet. Like i've said before the magazine XXL confuses me because I doubt the writers or staff really dig the music they cover. Or at least admit that they're different people from whom they cover. And last but not least i'm troubled by the fact that to 'remain' in a zone of credibility , an area that shows less financial results in the street, that rappers will say something entirely different than what they truly believe. Its discouraging about the severe lack of women in the hip hop game from an autonomous control standpoint.Producers, songwriters, administrators, women in key roles and positions. Lack of women groups. Something i'm gonna promise to work on. Im hating the fact that there's less groups period.

So in this upcoming 30th year of rap recording and im saying start commemorating around JULY because thats when KING TIM III of the FATBACK BAND was first heard a few months before the SUGARHILL GANG brought home Rappers Delight. We hope the standard is held in high regard here. What I simply mean is that this is performance art. The goal is for artists to develop themselves into an act and somewhat entertain the audience that digs their point of view. To take it from there so to speak. No more laziness in what that rap game delivers to the fan base. This will hopefully stop the gap in rap.

PETOUR62

PE European Millions Tour Dates 28.11 Belgrade Fair Hall 12, Belgrade, SERBIA 29.11 Greece Athens 30.11 Greece Athens 01.12 Greece Thessaloniki 02.12 Italy, Bologna 03.12 Custard Factory, Birmingham, UK 04.12. Berlin - Postbahnhof 05.12. Hamburg - Große Freiheit 06.12. Köln - Live Music Hall 07.12. Mannheim - Alte Feuerwache 08.12. Frankfurt - Cocoon 09.12. München - Backstage Werk 10.12. A-Vienna - Gasometer 12/11 ROTTERDAM Watt 12/13 UTRECHT - Tivoli 12/14 GRONINGEN Oosterpoort 12/15 AMSTERDAM Melkweg

Some notes from the last tour, again these shows were 20th year anniversary shows celebrating IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD US BACK. Especially special because 1988 was before many were born even , but the folk legend lives on. Strong in the east where Serbia is a land of so many past wars in history. Tour is without PROFESSOR GRIFF and JAMES BOMB. We are undermanned and will miss them as well as my brother ERIC who holds down some loose ends in merchandising. BROTHER MIKE the original S1W , now management expands his role and fills in alongside POP DIESEL.

BELGRADE Second time in Belgrade Serbia . The first was very historical , this was a big followup and with the Master Of Records, Zulu Nation King DJ Afrika BAMBAATAA. The show was very energetic from both ourselves and a crowd standpoint. Enemy Board friends from the east like Comrade, and Tuma were present and we were visited by SLAMjamz artist TIJANA BASS and her producers who we discovered in that same city. NATIONS was made before some of these people were born ,but PEs meaning in this war torn strategic former Yugoslavian territory is strong. The next day courtesy of COMRADE we visit the castles, and war fortresses on the hill banking the two rivers through BELGRADE.

ATHENS- For 2 full days in ATHENS , there was little indication outside the gigs themselves that there was civil unrest . In fact my wife GAYE and some members went to have an enjoyable second day checking out the Acropolis and the cities ruins. In fact we catch a cab from the ruins and I ask the cab driver did he know any restaurants we could go to especially after climbing that mountain. He said yes, then I asked if he was hungry , he replied yes. He then drove us to the banks of the Mediterranean where we ate some great seafood and greek cuisine. Special time. At the gig in the middle of town 2 days of them getting NATIONS and encores , and they were amped. It seems any mention of BARACK OBAMA is getting universal props.

THESSOLONALIKI, GREECE- Flew up to the beach town and got destroyed by the smoke in the venue. I don't smoke and doing the fast paced TAKES A NATION album requires much wind. Inhaling smoke and spitting at 110 BPM is like running a marathon in a smoking car, damn. Good gig, hot but my vocal cord were badly burned. The longer the show , the more punishment on my throat. Im telling you it seemed like folks were intentionally blowing smoke at me. My wife GAYE supplies me with a wet towel that I inhale from as well as wipe my hot head. The set is the same but we encore the second half and stretch it ...into music frenzy. GAYE returns to the states after the gig to accept an award from TRANSAFRICA at their year banquet dinner in DC. We move on to ITALY

BOLOGNA , ITALY- in Bologna the Italian audience seems to be very hyped on the appearance of PE in its town and country. My scorched vocal chords get a great boost from Flavors energy , this cat never ceases to amaze. I definitely needed it. Plus Flavor senses where his TV fame is spread, and by now after 5 seasons of Viacom radiation its pretty well saturated around the world on international western TV and of course the web. I personally don't have it but Its why we built this team. The baNNed alone can carry an hour by themselves , and DJ LORD himself can amaze for the same. Together Lord, Hardgroove on bass, Khari Wynn on guitar, and NYC Michael Faulkner on drums ride out and play extended instrumental versions on NATIONS ...hot.

BIRMINGHAM UK- The city has always been great to PE and vice versa. We had a classic photo from 1988 where the crew is in the middle of the city centre. The Custard Factory is the venue and bassist Brian HARDGROOVE suggests that we riff a bit on hometown metal legends BLACK SABBATH in the set where Flav and I freestyle a bit. Although Birmingham is close to Manchester and some of the other British Isles cities we've played recently, playing the city itself makes its own distinctive mark. The baNNed proves again we can stretch a hip hop show to the outer limits of sonic genre .

BERLIN GERMANY- In the morning the driver who I'd seen grooving in the crowd , happens the be ver, very, late. And we got a 2 hour drive blending into a rush hour morning to fly from Heathrow Airport. This is not good. As expected when we get there it is too late , and if changing a flight is not bad enough , try trying to re route 14 people. This now requires a switch of airline taking us now into Brussels Belgium then late night into Berlin. Sht. We rush somewhat into the show and BERLIN gets rocked. DJ LORD was incredible as Terminator X To The Edge Of Panic he takes to another level on dedication. This is LORDs 10th year with PE coming up. Seems like yesterday he first joined in 1999, replacing TX. As long as these T-Domes itself. We play a venue a block from where the former infamous 'wall' stood 20 years ago. 20 years ago when cats born in East Germany hearing the music and the commercials on underground Berlin radio were prohibited to come to the concerts. Long time. And it takes ol heads like us to shape new scenarios into some perspective. Do an hour of interviews afterwards with DJS and journalists amazed at the energy we do our thing.

HAMBURG GERMANY- We played this same place in 1987 on the DEF JAM tour with LL. I recall it from the wooden bannisters surrounding the venue. This place was also frequented by the early Beatles in their Hamburg days, so it goes way back before our 20 years. This place has seen it all. The show is fitting and our extended vamps are appreciated. Many DJs in the house and others covering the elemental gamut . At the end of the show I start giving my MY SPACE page, and tell peeps to head over to PE.COM.

COLOGUE GERMANY- Recovering throat wise but playing a smoky venue although they a'int supposed to. Oh enough with me writing about smoke. KOLN is a city where we've played a bunch in the past and this winter it looks like its always been. For some reason 2-3 hours before the show I get the hardest sleep going. Comatose. Body clock sideways. WULF GAEBLE from RED BULL is here and we're supposed to hook up but don't . I heard he was here and left.

FRANKFURT GERMANY- Frankfurt has a lot of leftover population from military cats. Plenty of Afro-Germans in this city which also has gone very high tech. Can't even describe the hotel and I wont , other than the fact it seemed like a 50 story tube in the sky... We play a great club called the Cocoon. Wished we couldve filmed it . It was out of an AUSTIN POWERS flick. Circular and had the logos spinning around the venue. Occasionally cool steam would come from the walls and floors. Gave Drew a cold. Damn wished somebody could've really filmed this ..maybe useable for a future video perhaps. PE at the Cocoon. Rebel in the HoneyComb.

MUNICH GERMANY- Last date, great venue and we slept at a great Holiday Inn. Showtime was in a great venue like a semi club, half gym arena. Perfect to fill and spread a stage with. It would 've been very difficult to do these gigs if smoking was still allowed in performance venues. I definitely move my earplugs in and out of my ears because the monitors are unbearable. I think we set a standard with this German run that showed a lot of cats lost on hip hop where to take their minds, bodies, and shows. Like some Black Metallica....

VIENNA AUSTRIA- Had to remember what COMRADE told me about giving a shout out to the Balkan people who have migrated to VIENNA. Yet so close , yet so far. E border and Public Enemy REVOLVERLUTION remix contest winner in 2002 FUNCTIONIST brings me to his radio station and we chat and talk about what we have been doing. Also his music has been a theme opener for my AIR AMERICA ON THE REAL radio show as well. The VIENNA show was in a large modern club like venue. , big stage , it felt good to run. Many cultures in the audience. A mix bag of culture out there.

ROTTERDAM NETHERLANDS- Wish I could say it was simple flying directly to AMSTERDAM but it wasn't . We had to get up break of dawn to switch through PRAGUE , CZECH REPUBLIC which has become a real switch hub in this neck of EUROPE. Like ATLANTA of mid east EUROPE. The CZECH aviation and airport has even stepped up much these past 10 years, for people and cargo. Although we just played AMSTERDAM in 2006 and absolutely crushed the venue with a great show, we are relishing in playing some of the other cities in this Dutch nation. The plan to make it easier is to stay at one hotel in AMSTERDAM and car-van it to the other cities. Nobody can be mad at that. The press comes to the hotel Saul van Stapele Dutch Hip Hop Journalist covers me for the national newspaper. Its a sharp interview you can find on www.publicenemy.com. The concert the next night in ROTTERDAM is a smash. The venue magnificent , and the crowd is on every lyric , because NATIONS is embedded into the roots of this hip hop culture here. Our first appearances here were revolutionary and foundation building.

Man outside it's COLD as HELL, KIM ZICHEM longtime friend and high tech superperson and I go to dinner and I make the tragic mistake of not dressing warm enough on the way back walking her to her car. Glad I didn't send my coat vest back with my wife but it is too late , the Netherlands winter jumps me and kicks my ass into a 48 hour cold.

UTRECHT - Remember playing here back in the day, but before I talk about the gig, I have a lecture back down in Rotterdam , we first drive ...mistake.... massive traffic back to back everywhere. We get the driver to drop us off in DEN HAAG and we catch the train down there. Alongside the river makes it colder to my bones. Michael Carsenti the promoter helped set it up with Dr Moon a professor of Hip Hop culture at Tilberg and a WU Tang disciple. Myself , Bryan Hardgroove chat with the audience and deliver ideas and encouragement on the music. There are about 100 students getting solid advice on how to look at their art and this business , couple that with about an hour of interviews and drops afterwards and it was a well worth lecture. The gig was in a very hidden place and again we took the show to them. The locals were appreciative we came to that area and put it down. They knew every syllable of NATIONS.

GRONINGEN- Not even trying to get caught in any traffic MALIK and I take the train to the northern college town of Groningen. Very cold. Glad I didn't send my vest coat home. We sit in a first class car with economy tickets. Didnt know no better and were told that its a crime in Holland. The trainman allows us and says happy holiday . Appreciated. Fast forward to the gig in a very large place. It reminded me of getting down at Adelphi back in the day. JERU THE DAMAJA who was again touring, chillin and staying finishing up in Europe comes up with Flavor. He drops a strong freestyle on Flavors drumplaying. Classic. Probably up on YOU TUBE. Also JERU is a great photographer and he's got a camera and he gets the mike as well. By the nights end we trip a 2 hour ride back to A-DAM.

AMSTERDAM- Earlier I shot video pieces for the collab record I did with Holland Hip Hop legend DEAMS call 'I SEE' who I also run into ALL STAR FRESH , the legendary black dutch DJ who along with RUDE BOY were the first peeps I met in Amsterdam in 1987. I promise ALL STAR FRESH that I would do and say something about answering the element of crime in the community, for he lost his brother to a shooting incident this past year. I promised that we should as artists say something to this effect and the hurt on his family.

We have a special dinner at longtime friend and photographer NATALIE and her partner PASCHA a brother originally from PHILADELPHIA who is a incredible graphic portrait artist. Shows great works of PHAROAH MONCH, RZA, KOOL KEITH , and others. Along with MALIK, KIM Z and her daughter ROMY we eat a fantastic Indonesian dinner and the whole crew was supposed to be here but they were scattered across the DAM. Damn. Oh well then. Again we play the Melkweg where we played not too long before. It would've been anti climactic if it wasn't for the NATIONS show. JERU was also there taking photos as well, during his free style I took his camera and shot him from a great lower angle. During the show we brought PASHA and Natalie on stage.The show at the MELKWEG was again a great time. I got too cocky and forgot the second verse of Louder Than A Bomb, and switched out the third instead. Couldn't believe it , here of all places. Hardly anybody knew but you wanna do the song right regardless. --------------------------------------------------------------

PETOUR63 After jetting straight to ATL direct flight from A-DAM, I relished the warm weather. But getting up to NY , it was thumbs down to some f the brickest weather possible. I did my year end radio show, headed west to CALI and thus prepared to head on down under for PETOUR63

SYDNEY AUSTRALIA- Coming a full 13 hour flight from LAX to AUCKLAND , NEW ZEALAND then switching through customs , i'm wondering why all the detail between these two countries. I guess its that same thing between US and Canada , gotta do customs coming through here and then customs again arriving in Australia. Sht. Arriving into SYDNEY is a welcome back into summer ..one especially since New York ICE and snow kicked my ass. I never so wanted to be outta there so bad. Being that I was also in a jacket-less ATL and headed to a semi jacketed CALI , summer was / is appreciated.

Its BOXING DAY the day after XMAS which we spent for about a half hour while crossing the dateline. Clock was upside down then up again , so jet lag wasn't an issue. We enjoyed the summer in the streets of SYDNEY, at the same time FLAVOR was to come in the next day. Again we didn't have BOMB or GRIFF and no FLAVOR wold be absolutely bananas in 08. Our PE Rebel Baser SCOTT READING comes by our hotel around 7pm and he and his girlfriend Alicia take my wife and I for a drive through SYDNEY HARBOR across the familiar bridge , over the OPERA HOUSE to a THAI place to talk , chat and eat on some old, caught up and new times ahead.

SYDNEY Well FLAVOR ain't coming to do the first show.! Sht. I just knew it. wtf. I hear there was snow in VEGAS where he lives. O boys I let all of management hear it when they finally tell me. This is Saturday night , holiday weekend, the main city in Australia. I tell the promoters and managers theres no possible way this gig is happening. Although I have covered this before it was just that....before. Younger, Flav had less profile, and we at least had GRIFF and all the other parts. By the end of the night I catch up on decent sleep. And then adjust myself to doing the event. Packed Saturday crowd. We cut to the chase and let them know the FLAV situation.

2 things that make it NOT a show tragedy. 1. I can handle it , the baNNed are tight and ready, as with LORD and the S1W effect. . 2. We are playing the Festival in SYDNEY next week.. And the shows a success by the end of the night. The songs have a life of their own but you still gotta rock em. And besides FLAV makes the job so much easier. The next day FLAV ARRIVES and I am not so much pissed at him as much as the reasons that he could've flown with everybody else the day before. As usual he said a couple of things about snow in VEGAS and got me laughing...

ADELAIDE AUSTRALIA-Having played here a few times before I knew that my clock wasnt crazy . It was the place where the time difference is on the half hour. Its the mid west of OZ. Like Chicago or mid california like. Grid designed city center seems to built up a bit more since we've last been here. We play a rainy soaked festival field. Good electric show , and most of these down under performances are festivals. Which are outside, and shorter. Scotty Reading and Cliff White are not going to NZ instead we see them again in PERTH.

AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND- Took the 3 and change hour flight east back to NEW ZEALAND where we had a day off but stayed rather near the airport , which in turn was 20 KM away from AUCKLAND. The PE site was down and internet a bit crazy , so much for contacting EB'er JDEE . I was anticipating staying in the city but after getting in rather late we all decided to camp out and prepare for the next day and the small flight to the festival. We eat a nice dinner with most of the crew in attendance.

GISBORNE , NEW ZEALAND- Take small private prop plane over the lush NEW ZEALAND scape. First the group upon landing in GISBORNE make a special appearance at a Maori temple of peace, chat , and prayer.This revitalizes the reasons we do what we do as PUBLC ENEMY. Very grateful and gracious as the indigenous proceedings has invited us a rap group into their acknowledgment. The youth there had performed a nice ritual along with their elders and it signified the beauty of culture. In my heart I felt it as a mission to stomp out as much niggativity as I could for 2009. I felt this passionately to my bones as a goal. The same way I felt when I first went to GHANA in 1992 , came back to the USA and immediately had MUSE SICK N HOUR MESS AGE as my mindset only to have limited journiggalists at that time usher in and praise thug and gangsta rhyme , and criticize PE because they were impressionable and they were tired of conscious rap. A mistake. Because all over the earth there is war and PEace , and those that seen war , want PEace and most americans and black included at that time were sheltered from the ways of the world, thus it all in hip hop seemed a game. A visit to a winery, then the ride to the hilly venue where thousands were on a mountain. about 20,000 I say. Rock show. Big stage. We give em extended blast. They dig it. The way sht supposed to be. The small private plane lifts into the night against the moon . Little rest . We gotta travel about 5000 miles tomorrow.

PERTH, AUSTRALIA New years Eve and starting it in the air tonight , but before that we take a 10 hour transition from NZ to the west coast city of PERTH in the state of WESTERN AUSTRALIA. Think Texas times two when you think of this area. Also think of OZ's track record of atrocity on indigenous people. With that said we land in blazing heat. Flying over massive patches of sea and scorched earth humbles you. Makes you think back when the British dropped off their convicts , that behavior spread to killing everything in its path calling that takeover a 'discovery'. So W.A. track record on aboriginal peeps is largely remote and hidden to the west because it still is as a territory. Beautiful place to live , also in need of more people out west but the infrastructure is a bit underfunded so I hear there's more people moving to the east. Festivals off the hook. Thousands . Not only is our show truncated , but so is our stay here. It was impressive with a electronic backdrop. Thank god for the logo. We have to catch 11;55p flight 3000 miles back east to Brisbane to do 2 shows in 2 cities , BRISBANE in the afternoon and MELBOURNE 1000 Miles down to the south at night. We will be there for two nights of shows. New Years starts in the AIR as did XMAS.

Bailout? Even If it was such thing ,the greed, money, and affluence that the United States rappers boasted, roasted and bragged about in recordings and videos from 1995-2005 would at best be a corporate trickle down. Or a Trick-puff-Daddy down at best.

Instead of funds allocated to bailout hip hop in 2009, lets talk about the style that bailed out ON hip hop thus gutted out the record industry to leave it in the financial shambles it is now in. From the very first rap recordings in 1979, rap records and hip hop were done rather inexpensively. It was the R & B years meaning Reagan and Bush , the costs for making a single front and back was usually in the 2500-5000 range recording, production, artwork if needed. etc. Distribution was independent. And locally nationally advertisement was minimal. It was the advent of major record companies and albums 1985-1989 taking on rap that the costs rocketed, but not initially. Budgets for recording the required 12 tracks ranged between 50-$100,000. When rap video was accepted by MTV with YO MTV Raps in 1988, thus the video area of artist contracts were in effect. A video then cost between 20-$75,000 around that time. Somewhere in the 90s Black record departments got bigger and thus the budgets.

Once radio, and corporate america accepted rap, somehow the game forgot that it once raged against the opulent. Instead of the wealth being spread across a terrain of responsible contributors to make it last forever, cats took the quick road to stuff themselves. The game once was a wonder of the record world meaning that any money poured & invested would return 5-10 fold. By the millennium ,budgets were 10 fold , but sales were dwindled.in opposite direction. A flip flop of hip hop. When you don't develop artists with performance skills, and community concern you get temporary audience that is less and less awestruck by what they see and hear.

A bailout plan for the game now is to simply pay for a structure within these buildings called schools to teach all the cultural history of hip hop before and beyond, and to be humble. I'd build schools with the ethic of the re-educating Afrika Bambaataas ZULU Nations; PEACE, LOVE, UNITY and having fun from the 5 elements of MCing ,Turntablism,Breakdancing ,Graff -Art and Knowledge. But raps bail out plan needs more than money , it needs the care of those who understand its ability to be a balance of reflection and a lookout of love. That in essence is what black music here in america has always been about.

More in 2009 mistachuck@rapstation.com myspace/chuckdpublicenemy