The other day Public Enemy got threatened with a lawsuit from their label Def Jam/ Polygram for releasing songs on their website www.public-enemy.com from their yet to be released album 'Bring The Noise 2000'. Apparently the album was supposed to be released several months back. If you recall earlier this year we had reported how PE was returning to the scene with two lps. The first was in actuality a soundtrack for Spike Lee's movie 'He's Got Game'. The second lp which was to immediately follow was the 'Bring The Noise 2000'.

In any case the lp release date was pushed back twice, causing the group much frustration. All this was compounded by the lack of support the group received from the label for 'He's Got Game'. Behind the scenes there were some major rifts between Public Enemy and Def Jam label heads Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen. The rift had reached a point public acknowledgement when the Chuck D put up a website and let his beefs be known in his bi-monthly commentary called 'The Terrordome'. Here he referred to Russell Simmons as 'Hustler Scrimmons' and Lyor Cohen as 'Liar Conman'.

The soured relations took a turn for the worse when the label heads step to Chuck and company about them putting tracks from their unreleased lp up on the website. Taking advantage of a new technology called MP3 which allows users to have CD quality sound from downloaded recordings, the group had hoped to create a 'street' buzz for their lp. This of course is same type of approach taken by numerous artists and now increasingly more labels, when they allow unreleased songs to appear on 'mixtapes'. In this instance the commonly used marketing approach was put on a high tech level. The real deeper problem is that the MP3 technology is one that has not been wholeheartedly embraced by record companies. In fact they have been one of the leading opponents calling for limited use of the technology. Their collective protest resulted in a recent court injunction which has since been overturned.

In a recent column, Chuck D noted the following;

'The execs, lawyers and accountants who lately have made most of the money in the music biz, are now running scared from the technology that evens out the creative field and makes artists harder to pimp.'

. So now disappointed fans will have to wait to see how this whole thing plays itself out. However, the word is that there are a few webheadz who managed to get a hold of the entire album and will be making the lp available on their respective websites.... If you wish to voice your opinion on this topic .. Hit up the Strictly Hip Hop Message Boards...

Davey D
12/7/98