Rappers typically perform with hype men, who keep the crowd’s energy up by waving around towels and feeding the audience granola bars. Get pumped with this deal to see Public Enemy at Sound Academy. For $15, you get one G-Pass for general admission on Sunday, September 2, at 8 p.m. (up to a $31.75 value, including all fees). Doors open at 7 p.m. Because the ticket is a G-Pass, our customers can use it to enter the venue directly; they will not need to redeem their voucher at will cal.

In the infancy of hip-hop, when the genre was still a niche, rap was a gentler thing. Bouncy-ball rhyme schemes mixed good-natured themes about busting moves and misunderstood youth. Then Public Enemy rushed the show and altered the architecture of the art form. Ranked as one of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time by Rolling Stone, Public Enemy stirred up controversy by using music as a weapon in critically exalted classics such as It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Down and Fear of a Black Planet. They brought the noise with a hardcore sound packed with penetrating beats and samples that pounded like a gong-hitter who traded his mallet for a jackhammer. Hype man Flavor Flav added madness and levity that gave Chuck D’s gruff baritone extra sting as he spat lyrics that were urgent, political, critical, and fearless invitations to a revolution. Nearly 30 years since the group’s formation, that invitation remains extended.

Burning with the intensity of the Bed-Stuy summer of Do the Right Thing, Public Enemy defiantly steps back into the crosshairs with a new tour, two new records, and a lot to be mad about. The latest, Most of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear on No Stamp, directly references the Elvis and John Wayne smackdown of their 1989 hit “Fight The Power” and reflects how little has changed. Its next album of the year, The Evil Empire of Everything, promises to pull no punches in its assault on current events. Onstage, the chemistry between Chuck D and Flavor Flav is explosive: Chuck wields his mic like a pair of brass knuckles as the group knocks out classic hits and new calls to arms. The effervescent Flav, with his signature clock draped from his neck, keeps fans riled up and aware of their curfew as he plays class clown in favorites such as “911 is a Joke” and “Don’t Believe the Hype.”

_Due to security restrictions, G-Passes must be printed out and presented in person at the event. They cannot be redeemed through the mobile app._