Public Enemy Draws The Ire Of The ADL

06/23/1999 4:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(6/23/99, 1 a.m. PDT) - The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has notified Internet-based record label Atomic Pop that it finds the title and lyrics of Public Enemy's "Swindlers Lust" anti-Semitic and offensive to Jews. In addition, the organization calls the label's response to its complaint "completely unacceptable."

On June 17, Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the ADL, sent the Santa Monica-based label a letter noting that he was "outraged and offended" by the title and lyrics of "Swindlers Lust" from the new Public Enemy album, There's A Poison Goin On. According to Foxman, the song's lyrics feature "classic anti-Semitic code words and seem to blame Jews for the plight of financially underprivileged Blacks."

In addition to the title, which is a play on Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, Foxman says that the song's lyrics make references to the Holocaust and the 6 million Jews who were killed.

In a written response, Atomic Pop countered that the song's lyrics contain "no anti-Semitic references. We support artistic freedom, yet we are aware that art is always subject to interpretation." Atomic Pop representatives could not be reached for additional comment at press time.

It should be noted that Atomic Pop is run by Al Teller, the former head of MCA Records, who is Jewish. The song, which was released by Public Enemy in digital form on its own website prior to the group's signing to Atomic Pop (LAUNCH, 1/11), appears to have more to do with the group's dissatisfaction with the record industry than Jews, unless of course, its target is Jewish record executives.

In the song's spoken-word introduction, Public Enemy frontman Chuck D notes, "A dollar a rhyme, but we barely get a dime." He goes on to rap repeatedly in the track, "If you don't own the master/ The master owns you."

Even before the track was released by Atomic Pop, P.E. seemed to know that the song would create controversy. A message posted on the band's website in January said, "Swindlers come in all shapes, sizes and colors, don't they? The majority of fans and artists are heaped upon each other, pile swept in a horrorcost...A lotta folk been had by the execs and legal lust of the industry...So this is anti-corporatism, and watch the reaction to this lyrical swirl...."

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