Public Enemy has new rhymes designed to fill your mind. The iconic hip-hop group dropped new protest song “March Madness” in honor of Juneteenth on Thursday (June 19).
“PUBLIC ENEMY IS STILL FIGHTING THE POWER,” Flavor Flav wrote in a statement posted to X that day before noting how President Joe Biden signed the national holiday into law on June 19, 2021, and that 160 years have passed since the Confederates surrendered in the Civil War in 1865. “But it feels like we are on the brink of something similar with ongoing efforts to dismantle diversity equity and inclusion. We don’t want what’s going on in Israel vs Palestine and now Iran. We don’t want what’s going on Ukraine vs Russia,” he continued. “I hate war. I hate what’s going on around the world and in US. We are supposed to be THE UNITED STATES and war ain’t about Unity. We have our rights and can use them while we still have them. I have this platform and will use it will I still have it.”
Flav then went on to share that the song was a collaboration with students from three universities. “It was an honor to work with the students from Harvard, Berklee, and Howard Universities to create a protest anthem about important issues we are facing as human beings right now,” he wrote before ending with, “MARCH ON,!!”
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The ominous “March Madness” kicks off with audio from a 911 call, with the operator asking if the caller is still hearing shots, with a newscaster then reporting, “You hear the teacher asking for help
As she also tries to keep her students calm.”
“Now I’m America’s nightmare/ A debonaire black millionaire/ Checking these crooked politicians who ain’t playing fair/ Shut up! Too much talk/ We know you don’t care,” Flav begins in verse one before throwing in one of his famous “Yeaaaah boys.” He goes on to rhyme: “911 is still a jokе/ So no, motherf–ka, you ain’t getting my vote.”
Chuck D comes in on the second verse with a scathing commentary on the numerous school shootings that have taken place in the United States in recent years. “Trigger happy, hi, I wanna ask a question/ Does a gun need to be in a school to teach or nones?/ Kids supposed to have fun, none of this ‘Run for cover for your life, son,’” he raps before blasting lawmakers for “acting scared off the NRA.”
He also addressed the issue in a separate statement. “Gun violence is not normal behavior, but it’s been going on for so long that it’s normalized,” Chuck D said. “We need to treat it like the sickness and the epidemic that it is.”
The Grammy-nominated group is currently on a world tour, which kicked off earlier in June in Florence, Italy. Public Enemy will also be the support act for Guns n’ Roses on several of the rock band’s European tour dates this summer.
Listen to “March Madness” and see Flav’s full statement below:
