PUBLIC ENEMY 1988 from my instagram

PUBLIC ENEMY between jail cells in Hell’s Kitchen NYC 1988 This photo was used on the inner sleeve to the LP version of this album, becuase yes, vinyl was held in a sleeve inside the actual album cover and the sleeve gave artists more room to express themselves on occasion, sometimes that art may end up in a CD booklet or folding cassette package, sometimes not, certainly not the 12”x12” version. There was no hesitation from the group when I asked them to stand on the flag I had in my bag that day. I’m 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 . Fact is what i envisioned as the cover originally was a video still i made off the surveillance camera footage i made. 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 am able to share all the better images in my books. You check them out and you'll get it ... #SheWatchChanelZero #PUBLICENEMY #DefJam #MyRules #FuckYouHeroes #BlackSteelInTheHourOfChaos #ChuckD #S1Ws #FlavorFlav #HipHop #GoldenEra #ExtraStrengthPosse #BringTheNoise #OG #classic #PUNKrock

A photo posted by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on Oct 13, 2016 at 9:53am PDT