So sorry, young man. You're 25 years late.

I recognize that "Public Enemy" is to you what "The Who" is to me - something older than you whose influences you recognize that occupies a place of legend where things aren't real and dynamic.

But fuckin' A, holmes, I had Yo Bum Rush the Show on tape.

And here's the thing:

I put this together to

Rock the bells of those that

Boost the dose

Of lack a lack

And those that sell to Black

Shame on a brother when he dealin'

The same block where my 98 be wheelin'

And everybody know

Another kilo

From a corner from a brother to keep another,

Below

Stop illin' and killin'

Stop grillin'

Yo, black, yo (we are willin')

Flava Flav was a comic foil deliberately designed to be the "jester" to Chuck D's most-decidedly political leanings. You joke with it so that you don't wear the audience with your constant nagging but holy fuck - "It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back" has the racial, socioeconomic challenge in the goddamn title. And it's not like Public Enemy was the only political rap band:

But the money didn't go that way.

N W A's fuckin' up tha program

And then you realize we don't care

We don't just say no, we to busy sayin' yeah!

About drinkin' straight out the eight bottle

Do I look like a mutha fuckin role model?

To a kid lookin' up ta me

Life ain't nothin but bitches and money

Cause I'm tha type o' nigga that's built ta last

If ya fuck wit me I'll put a foot in ya ass

See I don't give a fuck cause I keep bailin'

Yo, what the fuck are they yellin'

Easy E? Yeah, he wasn't a "comic foil." He was a stereotype. Los Angeles took that New York Political Anger

and turned it into frontin'.

And it's been downhill from there. Here's the thing: White kidz? "Yeah, I'm badass. Yeah, I scare everybody. Yeah, drugs are cool. Yeah, violence is cool." She Watch Channel Zero? "Bitch, that's my afternoon, fuck off."

You could tell it was over when the Fugees hit the scene. If you want to get young black men enlisted in improving their lot, throwing Enya behind it is not the way. Wanna get your shit played at The Gap? Well...

You been co-opted, son. You were co-opted before you were born.

Travel torn path, swung as pendulum

Now my thread of life's come undone

Remember back when Uzi's weighed a ton?

Now ever kid's got one.

Dipped in platinum bathed in aggression

Succumb to last temptation

Lost all my patience

Peace to last bastion:

Afrika... Zulu nation.

Remember days of cardboard, fat lace, and krylon?

Microphones and twelves, tools we all relied on

Niggas dropped a verse, the thought was one to die on

I remember hip hop, that's my Mt. Zion.

There is no truth behind this link. There can't be. The numbers don't add up.

But it feels true.

Go ahead. Tell me that video was made for black kids.