{"id":2455214,"date":"2020-03-01T19:17:25","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T02:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=960272"},"modified":"2020-03-01T19:17:25","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T02:17:25","slug":"public-enemy-fires-flavor-flav-after-bernie-sanders-rally-spat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/public-enemy-fires-flavor-flav-after-bernie-sanders-rally-spat\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Enemy Fires Flavor Flav After Bernie Sanders Rally Spat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Public Enemy<\/a> announced Sunday they are permanently \u201cmoving forward\u201d without Flavor Flav<\/a>, firing one of hip-hop\u2019s most memorable hypemen after 37 years. The abrupt dismissal comes just two days after the rapper sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bernie Sanders<\/a> over Chuck D<\/a>\u2019s concert at the campaign\u2019s Los Angeles rally Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPublic Enemy and Public Enemy Radio will be moving forward without Flavor Flav,\u201d the hip-hop legends said in a brief statement Sunday. \u201cWe thank him for his years of service and wish him well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The group reiterated that Public Enemy Radio \u2014 a Chuck D-led offshoot featuring DJ Lord, Jahi and the S1Ws \u2014 would still perform at the free, livestreamed<\/a> Sanders rally gig at 6 p.m. PST at the Los Angeles Convention Center.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to Flavor Flav\u2019s firing \u2014 and after the hypeman accused the Sanders of using his \u201cunauthorized likeness, image and trademarked clock\u201d to promote the rally \u2014 Chuck D said of his bandmate of 37 years in a statement, \u201cFlavor chooses to dance for his money and not do benevolent work like this. He has a year to get his act together and get himself straight or he\u2019s out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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A lawyer for Chuck D added, \u201cFrom a legal standpoint, Chuck could perform as Public Enemy if he ever wanted to; he is the sole owner of the Public Enemy trademark. He originally drew the logo himself in the mid-80\u2019s, is also the creative visionary and the group\u2019s primary songwriter, having written Flavor\u2019s most memorable lines.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Legal issues had been simmering between Flavor Flav and his fellow Public Enemy bandmates for years, when Flavor Flavor sued Chuck D and the group\u2019s business management firm in 2017 over unpaid profits<\/a>. \u201cThis action involves the usurpation of money and property rights from Plaintiff William J. Drayton, known as \u2018Flavor Flav,\u2019\u201d the suit stated. \u201cDespite Drayton\u2019s position in Public Enemy, the group\u2019s management and related companies have for years attempted to minimize his role in the Public Enemy business, while continuing to rely upon Drayton\u2019s fame and persona to market the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the lawsuit, Flavor Flav claimed that he and Chuck D had a long-established agreement that profits from their music, merchandise and concerts would be split between them. Despite that alleged arrangement, Flavor Flav claimed that Public Enemy\u2019s business management firm Eastlink had not been sending the earnings he is owed, which have \u201cdiminished to almost nothing, and Drayton has been refused accountings, even on the items bearing his likeness,\u201d according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlav will be OK. TMZ Drama is beneath me considering our age,\u201d Chuck D tweeted<\/span><\/a> at the time, blaming Flavor Flav\u2019s \u201cnew management\u201d for the lawsuit. \u201cIt\u2019s low entertainment, but I definitely like to find those 50 songs he wrote.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a tweet earlier Sunday, Chuck D clarified that the Sanders issue was not the only reason the group fired the hypeman. \u201cMy last straw was long ago,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s not about BERNIE with Flav\u2026 he don\u2019t know the difference between [former NFL running back] Barry Sanders or Bernie Sanders. He don\u2019t know either. FLAV refused to support Sankofa after Harry Belafonte inducted us. He don\u2019t do that.\u201d Sankofa, a grassroots organization founded by Belafonte, aims to, as they note on their site, <\/span>\u201cfocus on issues of injustice that disproportionately affect the disenfranchised, the oppressed, and the underserved, which left unaddressed will continue to impact the lives of too many individuals and remain a scar on our nation\u2019s moral character.\u201d  <\/span><\/p>\n

Public Enemy\u2019s statement added that Public Enemy Radio would release a new album in April; in December, Chuck D\u2019s previous project Prophets of Rage dissolved<\/a> following news of Rage Against the Machine\u2019s reunion.<\/span><\/p>\n

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via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Public Enemy announced Sunday they are permanently \u201cmoving forward\u201d without Flavor Flav, firing one of hip-hop\u2019s most memorable hypemen after 37 years. The abrupt dismissal comes just two days after the rapper sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bernie Sanders over Chuck D\u2019s concert at the campaign\u2019s Los Angeles rally Sunday. \u201cPublic Enemy and Public Enemy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-music-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-24 20:39:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}