Public Enemy on Kimmel At This Moment Felt Bigger Than TV

On September 29, Jimmy Kimmel returned to the air. The first big musical guest wasn’t a pop star or the latest internet sensation. It was Public Enemy. And that choice felt almost too perfect for the moment.

Flavor Flav set the tone right away. He walked out, looked at the crowd, and said, “Hey yo Jimmy Kimmel. We are Public Enemy and I just want you to know that Public Enemy always got your back!” Then the band launched into “Don’t Believe the Hype.” That song hit back in 1988, but hearing it on national television this week, right after a host was yanked off the air for saying things the government didn’t like, made it sound brand new again. This is what Hip Hop is for.

View this post on Instagram

Public Enemy has always been about timing. Back in the late 80s, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back wasn’t just another record, it was a document of what it felt like to be ignored, criminalized, and silenced in America. When they released “By the Time I Get to Arizona” in 1991, they weren’t thinking about radio spins. They were calling out a state that refused to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Even in 2020, when they reworked “Fight the Power” for the BET Awards alongside Nas, Rapsody, YG, and The Roots, the group placed themselves squarely in the middle of the George Floyd protests.

The Kimmel stage at this moment was the perfect arena for what Public Enemy has always done, and that’s taking moments when expression feels threatened and reminding people that culture is supposed to push back. Seeing Chuck D’s voice cut through the beat while Flav rallied the crowd, you couldn’t help but think: this is what the First Amendment sounds like when it’s set to a James Brown sample and blasted through stadium speakers.

When they performed on Jimmy Kimmel last night, there was backstage footage of Kimmel thanking Flav, saying “Thank you for your support. I saw your message.” He was likely talking about Flav’s Twitter post, where he declared: “Team Jimmy Kimmel,,, that guys my family.” Flav standing publicly with Kimmel during the controversy, and Kimmel acknowledging it on camera, gave the performance extra weight. It doesn’t matter if you like Kimmels show or not. This is about Hip Hop and it’s voice. This is about standing up against injustice, against a violation of the Constitution and the Freedom of Speech we advertise to the world that we have and we claim to hold dear.

View this post on Instagram

And then there was Chuck D’s shirt, a stark black tee printed with the words: “FREE MUMIA / H RAP / PALESTINE / HAITI / RIP ASSATA.” Each line evoked a history of struggle, from Mumia Abu-Jamal and H. Rap Brown to the global fight for liberation in Palestine and Haiti, to the memory of Assata Shakur. Public Enemy has stayed true to this. Even under the bright lights of a corporate late-night stage, they remain unapologetically militant.

Last year around this time, Chuck D linked up with KRS-One, Melle Mel, and Scorpio for a track called “Project 2025.” That song wasn’t made for the charts. It was a warning. A warning about what we are seeing play out since the current administration took office. They were among the very few voices in Hip Hop who put that alarm on record. They pointed to the Heritage Foundation’s political playbook of the same name and said: pay attention, your rights can disappear if you don’t. Scorpio even said flat out that it takes the so-called “old heads” to remind people that Hip Hop was built to speak for the voiceless.

That makes the Kimmel moment seem more appropriate. Public Enemy has decades of receipts for speaking out or being the living symbol of the content of their music. Chuck D had already been warning about injustice. KRS-One had already been preaching about edutainment and resistance. Melle Mel had already been the voice behind “The Message.” These are artists who’ve been consistent in using music for more than just entertainment.

And it’s not like they’re stuck in the past. Public Enemy dropped a new album this summer, Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025, their first in five years. The physical release with CDs and three vinyl variants hits stores October 10. Flavor Flav kept it simple on Instagram the night of the Kimmel performance: “Tonite we fight the power with Jimmy Kimmel”. That’s about as clear as it gets.

Public Enemy Continues to Fight The Power

So yes, this was television. Yes, it’s promotion. But it was also Hip Hop doing what it has always done when it’s at its strongest. Showing up in the middle of the important conversations. For Kimmel, the performance marked a return. For Public Enemy, it was another reminder that silence has never been part of their vocabulary. And for Hip Hop, it was proof that even forty years on, the culture can still be the loudest, sharpest voice in the room. Now more than ever, we need more of this.