It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold This Look Back

I promise you, this is *fascinating* even if you don't like PE

Hey, There,

So, I’ve been a Public Enemy fan for a long, long time. They were one of my primary gateways into hiphop. Loved the production, the politics, the interplay between Chuck’s and Flav’s voices, the whole package. And the aesthetic. Let’s not kid ourselves, Public Enemy has a very distinct aesthetic.

Public Enemy, 1987

It’s a very militaristic aesthetic. Uniforms, military signifiers, a lot of berets. The guys in the berets, of course, are the S1Ws (for “Security of the First World” in PE parlance). Theoretically, they’re PE’s security force. Functionally, they dance at shows and look cool at press events.

Note 1) the S1W’s unusual naval look here, 2) the combination of Chuck’s skull and Flav’s entire look, both of which seem to be callouts to a Vodou aesthetic associated with Haiti, which will seem important later.

There are those berets! Also: note the crescent-moon-and-star collar insignia on the S1Ws, this’ll also tie into something else before long

Anyway, Public Enemy is a smart band and Chuck D is a smart guy in particular. This isn’t random. This resonant look came from somewhere. It’s naggingly familiar.

Chuck D with two S1Ws

Huey P. Newton of the Black Panthers

It’s naggingly familiar because it’s pretty much a direct visual quote of the distinct aesthetic of the Black Panthers. It’s clearly not an accident:

Yes, that’s Marlon Brando.

The Panthers, for what it’s worth, were very savvy about the use of imagery. They were great at mass communication; I’ve seen some fascinating presentations about their use of visual art in their newspaper:

So, OK. A militant political rap group borrowed some visual tropes from a militant political group. So what?

Well, the interesting thing is that the Panthers pretty clearly borrowed a lot of elements of their look – the military signifiers, the regimentation – from the Nation of Islam. If you’ve read this far, you probably already know who the Nation of Islam are; if you don’t, they’re a major combination Black nationalist/religious group. They were tied to—sometimes in complicated ways—major figures like Malcolm X and Muhammed Ali. They have supporters and detractors, but you can’t really minimize their importance in the history of 20th century America.

Members of the Fruit of Islam, the Nation of Islam’s security branch

Muhammed Ali in NOI regalia, which prominently includes a star and crescent.

And here’s where it gets really interesting… the Nation of Islam, in their turn, clearly borrowed a lot of their imagery from Marcus Garvey, the pioneering pan-Africanist / Black nationalist who was active in the early part of the 20th century.

Marcus Garvey

Garvey, photographed in 1924 by James Vanderzee

Some of Garvey’s supporters

So, OK, we can trace this thread of visual signifiers for Black militancy back to the 1920s. What of it?

Well, here are some paintings of heroes of the Haitian revolution, the only successful rebellion by African slaves. Pretty obvious thing to hearten back to if you’re Marcus Garvey.

General Toussaint L’Ouverture

Jean-Jacques Dessalines

Pictured above, we have Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, heroes of the Haitian Revolution. Those uniforms look a lot like the uniform Marcus Garvey was wearing in the pics above, which of course inspired everything after. As far as that goes, keep in mind the Haitian Vodou callouts in the PE group pic way above.

(By the way, do Michael Jackson’s bedazzled military uniforms make more sense now? They should)

And Michael was not the only Jackson to tap into this same visual current:

Have I mentioned that Janet Jackson recorded Control about 2 blocks from my house?

So… Public Enemy is old news. Barely a band now. What does this have to do with today?

Well, Beyonce’s 2016 Super Bowl Halftime show wasn’t that long ago.

And that freaked some people right the fuck out:

This imagery is obviously still present, and still powerful.

–Fin–

Oh, but:

Emperor Napoleon, by Jacques-Louis David, who sucks

Scroll back up and take a look at the pictures of Chuck D and Huey Newton on thrones.

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CLOSING STUFF

OK, so here at the bottom, sorry for the ragged copy editing; my deal with myself was to keep this fast and loose, which is gonna mean typos. On the other hand, that also means it’ll actually come out, instead of being obsessed over.

If you have any thoughts/reactions/what have you about this, I’d love to hear about it, either by email or on Twitter. And if you know anybody who might dig this, please forward it on to them, or send ‘em the signup link! And thanks!