This is a BBC documentary that tracks the history of Public Enemy from their roots in the late 1970s into the 21st century. There is quite a bit of focus on what the group was trying to achieve, how they interacted with one another, and how the group was covered by the press. There are lots of musical clips from their albums and video clips from video features about them.
My awareness of the group probably predates Do the Right Thing (1989) but seeing that movie and a few years later buying Fear of a Black Planet (1990), one of their albums, cemented their place in my memory and heart. I was working the graveyard shift at a diner in DC the summer that movie came out. The diner was one of the only places open in town after the bars closed. Everyone, or at least it seemed that way to me some nights even though the diner was in a predominantly white neighborhood, kept telling one another, mostly guys, and I want to say mostly black guys, "Do the Right Thing." I don't think I had seen the movie yet. I saw it for the first time at the Hoff Theater at the University of Maryland in the fall of that year. I got kind of sick of hearing people repeat that phrase over and over again. The phrase meant something but it was also a fad and eventually I began to hear it less and less. I'll never forget that summer for many reasons, Do the Right Thing being one of them. I still enjoy listening to Fear of Black Planet.
I ran across this documentary on YouTube when I went looking for some PE videos after watching He Got Game. The documentary is great and informative but it doesn't compare to the episode of Combat Jack Show from a couple years back that featured Chuck D and Keith Shocklee, two of the members of the group. The podcast episode is much longer than the movie as well as much rawer and unfiltered.
Combat Jack: The Chuck D Episode Featuring Keith Shocklee
https://soundcloud.com/thecombatjackshow/the-chuck-d-episode-featuring-keith-shocklee
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