This page contains some reasons why I like Public Enemy, what the group is about, some of my experiences related to PE, and just some general thoughts and comments from me.

How did you get interested in Public Enemy?
I started listening to Public Enemy at a pretty early age. My sister used to play her PE tapes all the time on her boom box, and every time I'd go in her room, I'd hear some PE. I'd borrow and listen to her tapes every chance I got. Fear of a Black Planet was the first PE tape that I bought with my own money. I've bought every PE album I could find since then, most of them on their release dates. After CDs became the thing to have, I started to buy CDs of the albums I just had on tape.

Ever since I started listening to Public Enemy, I've followed everything I could find PE related. My parents never had cable, so I probably missed a lot of Public Enemy information when I was young. But I'd make sure to watch everything I knew about, like appearances on Saturday Night Live.

Have you seen Public Enemy in concert?
I've been to four PE concerts in Wisconsin. The first three I went with a guy I used to work with - Tony. My first PE concert was on August 24th, 1990. I can't find that ticket stub anymore, but I'm positive that was the date. That date has stuck in my head for over 9 years, I'm not exactly sure why. The only explanation I can think of is that it meant so much to me - even at that time.

Are you associated with Public Enemy?
No. I wish I was, but I'm just a fan. 

Are you being paid for this?
Nope.  I do this page strictly for the love of the group.

Where can I go to find more information on Public Enemy?
I would definitely recommend www.public-enemy.com.  Other than that, check out my other web sites link.  There's a bunch of links there.

My experience with PE on the web
The very first time I was exposed to the internet was with a friend of mine. He showed me all the cool stuff that you could find. And then he asked me what I wanted to search for. Immediately, almost without thinking, I said "PUBLIC ENEMY!" (Keep in mind that PE hadn't released anything for a few years.) So he searched. And we searched some more. And more. And then we found a page that wasn't complete, but at least it was based on Public Enemy. And I was like "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen!" And about 30 hours later, I had an internet connection at my house, and with my own internet account, I could make my own web page! But I had no clue how you do that. But if I were to make a page, I'd put on Green Bay Packer stuff, Orlando Magic stuff, and Public Enemy stuff. So I started to find my way around the internet, and I started becoming efficient. Now, I just needed to get my information together so I can start to make my web page. I searched for Packer stuff - no problem there, plenty of that. I searched for Magic info - no problem there either. Now, just some Public Enemy info and I'm set. I searched and I searched, but I could never find too much. I was extremely disappointed. I thought, "Why did I get this internet connection again?" I made my homepage, and I put up my Packer and Magic links, and that was that. I probably searched for Public Enemy on the internet once every three months, but I'd always find the same stuff. Nothing too much PE related.

Then one day I read the He Got Game soundtrack insert and it said "Check out the Public Enemy web site." So I went, but it said coming soon. So I forgot about it for awhile. And doing one of my "Public Enemy" searches on the internet, I came up with a new site, and some guy had a link to an Official Public Enemy web site. I couldn't believe I forgot about it! But I went to it, and at the bottom of the page, it said "Mail us". So I did. Before I even looked at any of the pages I had to send an email to let them know that I have been waiting for this forever and I've been searching the internet forever and now FINALLY I found what I'd been looking for since I got on the internet. And then I started to look at the site. And I couldn't believe it! It wasn't some everyday website that is produced by a company and not updated regularly. This actually looked like Chuck D was a part of the site and was involved in what was put on it. I spent about an hour or two reading every single page that was up on the site. After I was done, I emailed them again telling them how much I enjoyed the site and hoped they keep up with it. Then I emailed all of my friends and told them about the site. At this time, I was still kind of leery, but I pretty much believed that Chuck D was involved with the site.

About a month passed, and I had visited the PE site pretty regularly. I loved the fact that Chuck D wrote his thoughts every two weeks in an article called the Terrordome. One night I checked my email, and I got one back from the first email I sent to the "Mail us" link. I read it, and it was signed "chuck d". I was sure that it was from mistachuck himself, considering everything I had read on the site. I forwarded it to all of my friends, but nobody believed that it was actually from Chuck D. They'd all say stuff like "Yeah, like Chuck D actually wrote that" and "I'm sure he's got his people to answer the emails" and stuff like that. But it took him a month to respond, and he said on the site that he responds to emails. It made sense to me that it was actually from Chuck.

One or two days later, I got another email, from Chuck D once again. This was the response to my second email I sent. I even asked a question about why Chuck said something on Letterman way back in '94. He answered it. And now I was 110% positive that it was Chuck that responded to my email. I sent it on to all my friends and they still didn't believe me. I wish I wouldn't have lost all my email, or I'd have the date handy of my first communication with Chuck D. Since those original emails, mistachuck has mentioned me in his Terrordome comments 4 or 5 times.

One day, Public Enemy released a new song on their website called Swindlers Lust. It was released in MP4 format, which is a music format with a built in player that runs on Windows machines. I could play it just fine, but I was also actively reading and posting on the Enemy Board on the official PE website. Some people couldn't hear this new song because they owned a Mac or had Linux or some other Operating System. So I converted the MP4 to MP3 that Saturday night, and posted it at my website. I then put a message on the Enemy Board that people could download the file from my site and that if Chuck D had any problems with this, just let me know and I'd take it down. The next morning he responded "That's what this board is for - access. Thanx for helping out." So a lot of people could now listen to the song that couldn't before. And I didn't really realize the impact of Public Enemy until that Monday, when someone posted a message on Slashdot.org about PE putting up the MP4. And half-way through the discussion, someone realized that I posted it in MP3 on my site and put up a link to my site. And people started coming to get the file like crazy. I had almost 1000 people download that file that morning. A lot of these people were complaining because MP4 is not a standard and it only supports Microsoft and all this other stuff. But they were happy to read mistachuck's response to my post, and I think most of them realized that PE didn't put this out to promote Microsoft.

That night I got an email from Gary G-Wiz at Public Enemy that they had converted the file to MP3 from the original and it was now up at the official site. So I linked to their file instead of mine. This is when I realized that I could make a Public Enemy site and that people would actually come to it.

So I started to build a site 

Why do you like Public Enemy?
coming soon