The inimitable Taste Flav has been omnipresent in recent times, sponsoring the U.S. Girls’s Water Polo crew, saving Pink Lobster and exhibiting up on the 2024 Paris Olympics, Taylor Swift exhibits and the Grammys—and that’s solely a sliver of Flav’s endeavors.
It was sufficient for his Public Enemy associate Chuck D to take notice and coin him the “all over the place man.” In reality, they dropped a collaborative single of the identical title in January 2024, highlighting Flav’s second (third and even fourth) chapter. Taste Flav is at it once more, this time because the official face of 1-Hour Vitality, made by the identical firm behind 5-Hour Vitality.
Throughout a latest Zoom interview with AllHipHop, Flav talked about the advantages of 1-Hour Vitality, Public Enemy’s future and the way he’s been capable of reinvent himself in his 60s. From his iconic profession in Public Enemy to actuality tv fame with exhibits like VH1’s Taste of Love, Flav has lived many lives. However on the finish of the day, one factor stays the identical: his admiration for Chuck D. Though, as he identified, they’re “equal companions,” Flav has regarded up Chuck since they had been college students at Adelphi College.
Their chemistry, too, continues to be palpable on stage. Final month, the Black Music Motion Coalition hosted a Restore & Rebuild L.A. occasion throughout Grammy Week at Deliah in West Hollywood, the place he and Chuck carried out Public Enemy’s revolutionary anthem “Combat the Energy,” a tune that also rings true at present.
“The tune continues to be related, the entire 9,” he stated. “When Chuck wrote the tune, he was type of forward of his time. I’m saying that’s one factor that I can at all times say about my associate, Chuck D. Chuck, when he writes, he’s at all times forward of his time. That’s why I at all times again him as a result of normally earlier than Chuck writes down something, he does the analysis first. That approach, as soon as the knowledge does come out on information, we all know what we’re speaking about.”
The “Combat the Energy” video, which was initially shot in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn on April 22, 1989, doubled as a political rally. Taste Flav is at all times transported again in time once they carry out it collectively.
“It appears like the primary time once we made the video,” he stated. “It at all times brings me again to that. I had a lot enjoyable that day making that ‘Combat the Energy’ video. Not solely that, but in addition proper now at present, too, that the file ‘Combat the Energy’ continues to be a really, very sturdy assertion.”
Public Enemy revolutionized Hip-Hop with their politically charged lyrics and The Bomb Squad’s modern manufacturing method. Their albums, notably 1988’s It Takes a Nation of Thousands and thousands to Maintain Us Again and 1990’s Worry of a Black Planet, redefined what rap music might obtain, addressing problems with racism, media manipulation and social injustice. Their innate skill to mix schooling with leisure challenged listeners to mirror on societal points, setting a brand new normal for significant inventive expression—they usually’re nonetheless at it a long time later.
“We’re scheduled to exit on tour with Weapons N’ Roses this summer time and we’re engaged on some new songs proper now to deliver out on the street,” Flav stated. “We obtained some contemporary model new songs proper now that we’re placing collectively, and we’re virtually achieved with them. We’re simply placing the ending touches on them, a few little knick-knacks, tweaks, this and that. Increase. Then y’all may have a contemporary model new EP from me and Chuck.”
Whereas Chuck and Flav have actually had their variations over time, it’s crystal clear Flav has immense respect for the Rhyme Animal.
“I ain’t gonna lie, man, however I’ve at all times been one in every of Chuck’s greatest followers, not solely simply one in every of his greatest supporters—the entire 9,” he stated. “However Chuck at all times was like a pacesetter to me. He provides off that sense of management, despite the fact that we’re companions. what I’m saying? We’re equal companions, however he’s nonetheless extra like a pacesetter to me.”
Flav didn’t hesitate when requested what his favourite Public Enemy tune was. It’s the tune that began all of it. The tune that landed them at Def Jam Recordings. The tune that modified their lives.
“My favourite private Public Enemy tune is ‘Public Enemy Quantity One,’” he revealed. “That’s the primary one out the field, child! That one did it. I’m simply most pleased with nonetheless with the ability to be right here speaking about what we’re speaking about proper now. There’s loads of brothers and males that I got here up with that’s not alive proper now who can sit round and speak about it like me or like Chuck. I’m most pleased with nonetheless with the ability to exist proper now and have the prospect to maintain reinventing myself.”
Taste Flav is on the transfer on any given day and there’s not one which goes by the place he’s not acknowledged or swarmed by followers. At this level, Flav has been well-known for almost 40 years and stated he doesn’t actually take into consideration “the celebrity” an excessive amount of.
“All I ever do is simply dwell day after day and benefit from the folks that get pleasure from me,” he concluded. “And that’s it. I really feel that I’m some of the humblest folks. I’ve by no means actually seen my measurement. Lots of people inform me I’m big and I’m bigger than life, however I don’t see me that measurement. I simply see me this measurement. That is the dimensions you’re going to get.”
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