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Night of the Living Baseheads
Night of the Living Baseheads

Night of the Living Baseheads

Performing artist Public Enemy
Record company Def Jam Recordings
Date1988
Mediumpolyvinyl chloride; paper (fiber product); ink
DimensionsOverall (Diameter): 11 7/8 in. (30.163 cm)
Credit LineMoPOP permanent collection
Object number1999.197.3.A,.B
Text Entries

"Night of the Living Baseheads" is the third single released in October 1988 by Hip-Hop group Public Enemy, from their album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back on Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records. The lyrics deal with the effects of crack cocaine on African-Americans during the 1980s crack epidemic, referring to the slang for cocaine as "base". The song reached #62 on the U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks.

Public Enemy is a Hip-Hop group created by Chuck D and Flavor Flav in Long Island, New York, in 1985. The group rose to prominence for their political messages including subjects such as American racism and the American media. The group included members, Chuck D (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, b.1960), Flavor Flav (William Jonathan Drayton Jr. , b. 1959), DJ Lord Professor Griff (Richard Griffin, b. 1960) and Terminator X (Norman Rogers, b. 1966). The politically charged group were known for their renegade lyrics and protest songs like “Fight the Power” and “Burn Hollywood Burn.” Public Enemy was a group that adopted the military aesthetic early in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was known to wear military fatigues and parade on stage like a squad of guerillas. In 1988, the group was pictured wearing a woodland camo pattern during the promotion of their album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back. Public Enemy is considered the first Hip-Hop group to adopt camouflage and the military-style look. Public Enemy's first four albums during the late 1980s and early 1990s were all certified either gold or platinum. In 2013, they were inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at the 62nd Grammy Awards.

Seven men are in the hallway of a jail looking up at the camera. Public Enemy, Night of the Living Baseheads is printed across the top. Cold Lampin with Flavor Terminator X to the Edge of Panic is printed on the bottom.
CopyrightThis work is issued under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License. For more information, go to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
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