Seen here is a sealed CD demo of Public Enemy’s 1991 single “By the Time I Get to Arizona.” The song was Chuck D’s request (demand?) that Arizona formally recognize Martin Luther King Jr Day. The middle of the song features a beat changeover that’s haunting, militant, and timeless. I place this one among the top three in PE’s catalogue.

Recently picked up this Public Enemy vinyl featuring three singles from their 1987 debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, signed by Chuck D. I believe this is their first single that features a formal cover.

I recently nabbed this CD longbox from Public Enemy’s 1988 album “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back”. These are difficult to find in any condition, let alone good condition, and I also got it for a low price.

Some of the younger crowd might be asking ‘What’s a CD longbox?’ In short, when the music industry was transitioning from vinyl records to CDs in the 1980s, music companies packaged CDs in longboxes so stores could continue using vinyl racks and also because it made it tougher to steal the CDs (which were expensive). They were phased out in the early-‘90s and most people chucked or destroyed the longboxes after purchase so they’ve become a nice collector’s item.

After hearing me talk for a year about collecting vinyl records - and knowing I don’t actually own a record player - my parents bought me one for my birthday, along with a 1990s alt rock vinyl collection that contains 5-7 of my all-time favorite songs.

I used a Public Enemy record for my first needle drop, so I finally know what some of these crooked sellers consider “mint condition”. Think I’ll stick to buying sealed vinyl from now on 😆

The fourth and final of my submissions to VMG was this sealed vinyl single of Public Enemy’s “Hazy Shade of Criminal”, released in 1992.

I love this single for its loud, gritty, and incendiary style. The song focuses on police brutality but in a way that would make this song seem ahead of its time even if it were released today. The cover features a historical photo of a lynching that occurred in Indiana in 1930. I obscured the image because it’s not fun to look at, but the cover photo epitomizes PE’s message on this track: We can’t avoid the results of institutions that fail society.

I’ve searched for this single on eBay and Discogs multiple times per week in the past year (this is the kind of time you have when you’re single with no kids) and this is the only copy I’ve found in sealed+mint condition. There are multiple reasons for this:

1. It was released on vinyl and CD during the transition period between the two mediums, so I’m sure lots of people passed on the vinyl offering.

2. It didn’t receive a ton of airplay because Public Enemy was moving out of their prime and some of their recent releases (namely “By the Time I Get to Arizona”) scared away some mainstream play.

3. It didn’t reach any meaningful heights on music charts.

As a result of these factors, a majority of the vinyl copies in existence have “cutouts,” which means the distributors literally cut off a corner of the album or drilled a hole in the barcode to demonstrate that the record was distributed at a discount to prevent stores from getting full credit on any returns. Imagine if sports card companies clipped cards from poorly-selling sets!

All things considered, a sealed 6.5 on this album is an incredibly strong grade, and it’s probably among the top-10 favorite collectibles I own.