Today is a birthday milestone for a member of a legendary hip hop crew - as yes, Flavor Flav, co-founder of Public Enemy turns 65.
It is a life that seems to have had more than a few ups and downs - being a hip hop artist rarely seems to come without at least a little controversy. So, here is a brief look back at his first sixty five years.
William Jonathan Drayton Jr was born on 16 March 1959 in Roosevelt, New York - later moving a short distance across Long Island to Freeport. Hip hop is clearly genetic, as his cousins, Robert Diggs (RZA), Gary Grice (GZA) and Russell Jones (ODB) would also form a third of the Wu-Tang Clan.
Drayton taught himself to play piano from the age of five, and sang in the youth choir at church. He would also master the guitar and drums, with future bandmate Chuck D later claiming that he was proficient with fifteen instruments. He left Freeport High School in 11th grade, and was already often finding himself in trouble for burglary.
In 1978, Drayton found himself in culinary school for a while, before eventually ending up at Adelphi University, a private college on Long Island, where he would meet Carlton Ridenhour - the future Chuck D.
The Flavor Flav moniker that Drayton adopted came from his graffiti tag. He would later become especially renowned for the large clock 'necklaces', big hats and shades, that he was always seen in.
Public Enemy #1
Chuck and Flavor began performing together in the early 80s, initially as Chuck D & The Spectrum City. The crew grew with the additions of Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee and Eric Sadler - collectively The Bomb Squad - and also Professor Griff, the Minister of Information, and DJ, Terminator X.
The Public Enemy #1 demo was made in 1986, getting the attention of Rick Rubin at Def Jam Records, and Public Enemy were off. They started getting attention as a support act for the Beastie Boys on their Licensed To Ill tour, before getting their debut album out the following year.
Yo! Bum Rush The Show came out in early 1987 to a good reception, although some radio stations were nervous at the strong black nationalist themes and aggressive tones. Flav was perhaps providing some essential lighter balance to Chuck's politically charged words. It seems this balance was not always a happy one, as Griff saw Public Enemy as solely a serious political act, with no room for light heartedness - so relations between he and Flav could be tense.
What's Going On?
Follow up record, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, was another critical hit, but also a commercial one too. Labelled as a hip hop answer to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, the album upped the tempos and further explored social themes, with several reviewers noting that Flav added contrast with his more surreal lyrical content.
Don't Believe The Hype - here
(Official music video)
1990s Fear Of A Black Planet really cemented the band within the hip hop world, but also to a wider audience. The album would sell more then two million in the US alone, and included the singles Fight The Power and 911 Is A Joke. The record explored race, institutional racism, white supremacy and black empowerment.
Fight The Power - here
(Official music video - used as the theme for Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing)
Out, or in?
While other people had come and gone from Public Enemy over the years, Chuck and Flav remained constant. Then, in March 2020, a bizarre thing happened. A band statement announced that they would "move forward without Flavor Flav" apparently around a dispute that he was unhappy with their endorsement of Bernie Sanders for the 2020 Presidential election. Flav came out and said that he was Chuck D's partner and couldn't be fired, before D said that the whole thing was one big media attention seeking joke and that Flav was not fired at all! Flav commented that he thought that now was not the time for joking...
The truth of it all? Well, it appears Flavor Flav is still in Public Enemy, so it can't have been too serious.
Bring Tha Noize - here
(Rap / Rock crossovers became quite the thing - and this is a great one with Anthrax. A re-working of Bring The Noise, from the second album)
Troubled Times
It is fair to say that William Drayton has led a full and very colourful first 65 years.
He had three children with girlfriend Karen Ross, before spending 30 days in jail in 1991 for assault, which resulted with him losing custody of his children and spiralling deeper into addiction.
In 1993 he was accused of attempted murder, when he fired shots at a neighbour - that got him another 90 days of jail time. The following year saw another domestic violence charge, this time along with possession of cocaine and marijuana. Friends and family now intervened, forcing him into rehab, at the Betty Ford Center. He relapsed, and after his father's death in 1997, he re-entered rehab, this time at a Long Island facility.
By the turn of the millennium, he was scraping money together by scalping baseball tickets, living in a small Bronx apartment with his girlfriend Beverly Johnson. He would later admit that during his worst times, he could spend up to $2,600 each day on cocaine.
There was some more jail time in 2002, primarily for driving with a suspended license amongst other things. A concerned Chuck D persuaded him to move out to LA in 2003, where he ended up getting involved in reality tv show, The Surreal Life. Since then, there has been a child with Elizabeth Trujillo, and in one more in 2019, this time with Kate Gammall.
(Official video for 911 Is A Joke - Flav's big lead vocal)
William Drayton - a busy, and often troubled, man, it seems, but undoubtedly a key part of one of the most influential hip hop acts (and indeed, of any genre) to come out of the 1980s.
I didn't always understand Public Enemy, or hip hop more generally, at that time - but with the benefit of age, and a better understanding of the relevant history, politics and social issues now than then, the message I get from them is much more powerful, and the music connects much more.
So, he might be a flawed individual, but I think we can certainly wish a happy birthday to Flavor Flav - and here's to many more years of fighting the power.