Unfortunately, Eric and his boys never produced Eddie’s record. When Eddie moved from Roosevelt to Baldwin in Long Island his new management felt they had to dish out a dose of reality. ‘His managers were like, “You’re not understanding what you have here,”’ Eric recalls. ‘They talked him into getting away from all his neighbourhood friends and moving out to Jersey.’
At the same time a deal was worked out with Prince for the then rising star to produce Eddie’s record. So when it was time for Prince to send out the two-inch tapes, he sent them out to 510, where Eddie’s equipment was. Eric, a big Prince fan, was suitably impressed. ‘When we received the tapes coming from Paisley Park, nothing even said Prince on it, it said Jamie Starr and Alexander Nevermind. It was two songs but I remember one of the songs was called “Chocolate”.’ After a few weeks plans changed again. This time it was decided that King of Funk Rick James was going to shape Eddie’s album. So off Eddie went to have many of the adventures that his brother Charlie would eventually relive in the classic ‘True Hollywood Stories’ segment of Dave Chappelle’s all conquering Chappelle’s Show.
Eric simply shrugged and carried on as normal. ‘It was like, “Well at least I got to hold on to the equipment for a while, good luck with what you’re doing”.’
Although he had spent days and nights learning this new equipment, when he first turned up to the studio to record with Spectrum Eric discovered he was surplus to requirements and was sent home. ‘I was like, “Okay, no problem”. I went back and started playing cards with my boys. Pinky was going to produce the record so they didn’t need me any more.’ But on the very next day, Chuck called him back complaining about Pinky’s hip-hop studio shortcomings and asking him back to knock out one jam real quick. Eric agreed, he was picked up and driven to the city and they banged out ‘Check Out the Radio’ in about an hour. ‘And that was kind of it,’ Eric says. ‘After that, I’d still mess around with some junk with them while they were upstairs and I was downstairs.’ They weren’t about to take over the world just yet.
It was around this time that Eric discovered, quite by chance, that Hank and Keith Shocklee were his cousins. One day after making some beats at 510 South Franklin Eric went to the Shocklee household to hang out. After playing football the three of them went into the kitchen for some drinks. ‘My grandmother always sat by the kitchen,’ says Keith Shocklee. ‘And she looked at Eric and said, “Eh Eric, you look just like Joe Sadler.”’ A surprised Eric confirmed that Joe Sadler was his grandfather.
It took Grandma Shocklee about five minutes to piece the whole thing together. She had grown up in a part of St Kitts chiefly populated by Matthews and Sadlers. Of her nine brothers and sisters, some had moved to England and some to America. ‘It was crazy,’ Keith continues. ‘We knew each other for two and a half years, me, him and Hank were all working together, hanging out, going to parties, till my grandmother saw him and that’s how we figured it out.’
Even though they were developing artistically, Spectrum City’s debut twelve-inch failed to set the rap world alight. In 1984 it was going to be very hard to outdo the likes of LL Cool J, Run DMC and Whodini, all of whom were selling healthy amounts of records.
For a brief moment, it seemed like things were going to fizzle out. Harry Allen was not alone in feeling very nervous that this could end up being the case. ‘I always felt like if these guys had a break, if people were to hear their music, it would really be amazing, and so when their first break came with the Vanguard record, I thought that was going to do it and then it didn’t. After that, they weren’t doing as many mobile gigs and I kinda thought, “Wow, I guess that was it”.’
But it transpired that the lull caused by the failure of ‘Lies/Check Out the Radio’ was only the calm before the storm. Another of the radio promos made was called ‘Public Enemy Number One’. It was put together with two tape decks in the studio. This Keith Shocklee production would eventually change everything for the young group. An element of necessity would play its part in the creation of Public Enemy. It was necessary for Chuckie D to defend his lyrical reputation. ‘I made “Public Enemy Number One” ’cos there were some elements in the neighbourhood that heard my other promos and one of these cats that was part of a legendary crew called the Play Hard Crew told Flavor he was gonna take me out rhyming.’ Sound familiar? This is the cat Flav is talking about at the beginning of the (slightly different) version of ‘Public Enemy Number One’ that was released on Def Jam just over two years later. He’s the dude that complains to Flavor about how ‘that brother Chuckie D swears he’s nice’.
At first, emcee battles were not top of Chuck’s to-do list. He wasn’t trying to be ‘one of those battle cats’. He was trying to improve things for all of the local emcees by getting them on the radio and building up a local scene. Ironically (and unluckily for the Play Hard Crew), Chuck’s mic skills were called into question at the same time that Chuck and Flav began to put together their unmatchable back-and-forth style. Prior to PE, no two rappers had jammed together in the way Chuck and Flav made famous. Run and DMC had traded lyrics and even finished each other’s lines, but they did it on a far more equal footing. Chuck was definitely in charge, but Flavor’s contribution was priceless, and always funky.
Unbeknown to the Play Hard Crew, they would be the first to be blown away by the combination of Chuck and Flav. Chuck’s father had a furniture removal business. Chuck managed to hit his boy Flav off with a job, and by working a job together, they came up with something that would later prove to be one of PE’s greatest assets. Their interaction not only made their records memorable. The PE live show would not be the devastating affair it undoubtedly is without their chemistry.
After leaving the offices on 58th street in Times Square Flav would write down ideas if Chuck was driving and vice versa. Once they got back to Hempstead they would work on their ideas in the studio. ‘Me and Flavor were driving trucks for my father, for a year and a half, two-year period. Flavor needed a gig, my father was moving furniture in trucks, so we would drive the new furniture and go through new routines while in the truck.’
Their interplay, though unique for hip-hop, was not without precedent. One major influence was the legendary James Brown and Bobby Byrd. The Godfather of Soul didn’t only influence hip-hop with the loops that formed the basis of many great rap records. His vocal stylings were equally influential. ‘You know the “everybody over there, get on up”, that contrast,’ says Chuck. All the years spitting on sub-par equipment had taught Chuck a thing or two about voice levels. He realised very early on that he would work well with Flav. Flavor’s voice is high pitched and ‘trebley’ but it has some ‘bassy’ strength to it. Chuck’s voice is of course as bassy as they come, but has the tiniest amount of treble there too.
Their voices,