PUBLIC ENEMY 2nd album cover 1988. I stoked and proud to have been a part of this album. IMHO the greatest hip hop album ever! Chuck gave me the title when he was ready and i threw out the idea of them breaking out of a jail, likely inspired but some listening to the tracks or just the title. What ended up on the cover was actually a photo i was not happy with, see my books THE IDEALIST and the new MY RULES for better images from the same day and cell even. Fact is what i envisioned as the cover originally was a video still i made off the surveillance camera footage i made. I wanted the frame from the sequence where Chuck's huge lens distorted fist was just about to knock out the camera. And then you'd flip the cover over and see the whole sequence from two different angles of the Chuck busting the camera and he the rest PE CREW escape the prison cell. It all looked amazing, and you can see the single frame in The Idealist in B&W, in FUCK YOU HEROES made with a still camera and a old video camera. In the end i got out voted, everyone loved the work but thought it was a bit too abstract for the audience at the time, PARTICULARLY it turns out by the time of release up to 80% of sales were on cassettes! So they wanted a photo that showed them in jail as vividly as possible, with as many 'BARS" as possible showing up in the tiny square on the cassette... As an artist i threatened to scratch the negative so they couldn't use what i thought was a sub par photograph, then they hit me right back,"Glen, it's too late, its either this image or a graphic, DON'T DESTROY THE DOPE FLICK!" What could i do? I had to be down on what i knew was a masterpiece LP. And my sequence would be on the back of the LP used in some ad's and on the fold outs in the smaller packages.... Of course i don't regret giving in on this one. Lesson learned. BUT at least years later i a, abled to share all the better images in my books. You check them out and you'll get it, or maybe not because the original is so etched in your brain, and although i cringe a little almost every time i see it, knowing how great it could have been. Its there for eternity now.... #PUBLICENEMY #Blacksteel #channelzero #
A photo posted by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on
P.S. sorry for the lack of "new posts" I've been sick as a dog!
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