It’s 3 a.m., and Chuck D is on a frigid bus from Belgium to France, where he’ll catch a ferry to London for Public Enemy’s sold-out concert at Royal Albert Hall. Fans don’t know it yet, but roughly 5,900 of them will be given a brand new PE album, Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025, the group’s first since 2020’s What Ya Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?
While the complex and, at times, chaotic production is reminiscent of the early Bomb Squad era and Chuck and Flavor Flav are rhyming with ferocity, the 12-track effort is a symbol of the duo’s ever-evolving relationship that, at its worst, crumbled under the weight of Flav’s substance abuse and, at its best, saw the two continue a friendship that stretches back to their college days at Adelphi University in New York.
For Black Sky Over the Projects to happen, Chuck D and Flav had to have some serious conversations, and compromises needed to be made. In the past, they had disagreed on how Public Enemy would operate.
“We never was arguing and fighting each other — we just had a difference of opinion on how Public Enemy should roll,” Chuck D says. “First thing Flav was able to do is get his shit together and prove to me that he was serious about it. That came about when he discovered his manager, who has done a 720-degree total job.”
It was evident at the 2023 Grammys, where Flav joined Chuck on stage for a “Hip-Hop 50” performance. Wearing his signature clock, sideways baseball cap and white sunglasses, Flav came out firing on all cylinders, joining Chuck for “Rebel Without a Pause” from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.
“I could not believe the 180-degree turnaround,” Chuck admits. “I was blown away.”
For years, Chuck helplessly watched Flavor wrestle with addiction, which only grew worse as his fame soared. In 2006, his VH1 reality show, Flavor of Love, made him a household name, but he was doing cocaine, crack, weed and alcohol, an affliction he fought for 18 years. But that night at the Grammys, Chuck saw someone else. Clear-eyed and focused. Flavor Flav was beginning to heal.
“He was finally able to take on the things that were addicting him. I’ve always had sympathy for people who were the victims. I’ve been affected, my neighborhood’s been affected and my family’s been affected by the drug game, so I was always sympathetic to what Flavor was going through to medicate himself, but then also at the same time, you have to draw the line.”
With those boundaries firmly intact, Chuck and Flav have resumed doing what they do best, blazing trails and rocking stages. Now 65 and 66, respectively, they are literally among the senior citizens of hip-hop.
MCs are often considered “washed up” or “past their prime” as soon as they hit their 40s. But Ice-T, Kurtis Blow, Melle Mel, D.C. Scorpio, and Slick Rick are still thriving. At 68, Ice-T is older than Chuck and Flav, but he’s shutting down packed venues with his band, Body Count. Public Enemy, meanwhile, wrapped up an international tour with Guns N’ Roses in July.
Black Sky Over the Projects is the latest example of how Public Enemy is pushing the culture forward, whether they’re speaking on ageism in hip-hop or society’s obsession with screens. Perhaps even more importantly, it illustrates just how important it was for Flav and Chuck to reconcile to prove hip-hop is no longer just a young man’s game.
“As Public Enemy, it was never ever one-sided,” Chuck says. “It always needed Flavor to be Public Enemy, because whether he’s the Public or I’m the Enemy, or he’s the Enemy, I’m the Public — whatever — at the end of the day, if you talk about the Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of hip-hop, that’s me and Flavor Flav.
“Listen, we are the most sampled voices, the most distinct voices, and Flavor is probably one of the most distinct icons visually out of anybody.”
Flav was always larger-than-life, but since his hard-earned transformation, he’s become the face of Raising Cane’s fast food chain, signed a five-year contract to sponsor the USA Water Polo Women and Men’s National Teams — yes, read that again — and helped save Red Lobster from bankruptcy (is that God’s work? I don’t know), partnered with SmartFood Popcorn for an ad campaign. And he routinely pops up to support fellow musicians, including Taylor Swift during her Eras Tour.
With Black Sky Over the Projects, Flav and Chuck have yet another opportunity to lead the way.
“Every year, Ice-T breaks new ground because nobody is where he’s at in his stage and age, so following Ice is pretty cool,” Chuck says. “Nobody’s doing this at this stage in life. They will be in the future, but they ain’t doing it now.”
