On this date in 1991, legendary Hip Hop collective Public Enemy dropped their fourth full-length album entitled Apocalypse ’91…The Enemy Strikes Back on the Def Jam/Columbia imprint.

Drawn from the fictional movies Apocalypse Now and Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back, the Bomb Squad produced project was a rush job according to Hank Shocklee, having to re-create the production after the discs from the past five years with album contents were stolen. “Once you lose all your data, it’s very difficult to get that data back…you may get some of it back, but you’ll never get the complete set. You won’t even know what the complete set is, because there’s data in there you didn’t really know you had,” Shocklee said of the missing project. 

The certified platinum album offered up a couple of timeless singles including “Shut Em Down”, “Can’t Truss It” and “By The Time I Get To Arizona”, where in the video the depicted killing of Arizona Governor Evan Mecham was seen in response for not recognizing MLK Jr. Day as a national holiday.

Salute to the entire P.E. for this timeless 14 track piece of Hip Hop history!

The post Today in Hip-Hop History: Public Enemy Released ‘Apocalypse ’91…The Enemy Strikes Back’ LP 31 Years Ago appeared first on The Source.

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