Chuck D

“We have coined our own term for what we do: Raptivism,” Chuck D explained during Public Enemy’s 2013 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction speech. Most musicians are put into genres; exceptional artists create their own. In February of 1987, with the release of its debut LP “Yo! Bum Rush the Show,” Public Enemy entered with a boom and forever changed the trajectory of hip-hop. The group created a catalog of disruptive protest music, addressing issues that still resonate after 30 years.

In the venerated 1989 film “Do the Right Thing,” director Spike Lee shows how festering issues can snowball. A sobering reflection of American race relations, it remains equally significant for launching Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.” 

Goddess, guerrilla, guitar-slinger. Singer, songwriter, sorceress. Sculptor, poet, performer. Polly Jean Harvey’s arrival on American shores in 1992 with her power trio PJ Harvey startled everyone — a siren call into a tantalizingly deep, dark vision, potently punk and powerfully female. Over nearly three decades and a dozen albums, she’s morphed from electric blues-infused upstart to authoritative rock stateswoman, but has never strayed from an uncompromising artistic core, and a talent for surprise.