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Louder
Entertainment
Merlin Alderslade

"It's never been a phase!" Watch Public Enemy's Flavor Flav casually turn up in the middle of a circle pit at emo club event Emo Nite last month

Flavor Flav.

Picture the scene: you're partying with your mates at your favourite rock night, singing your wee heart out to classic Bring Me The Horizon anthem Can You Feel My Heart?, and a circle dance pit breaks out around you. As you see the usual run of twenty-to-thirty-something emo diehards skip, jump and bounce around you, out of the gloom comes Flavor Flav from Public Enemy, who merrily sings in your face for a couple of seconds before disappearing into the giddy mob again. 

That's exactly what happened at a recent edition of Emo Nite, the smash hit, touring emo club night that has appeared at cities across the US as well as at festivals like Coachella. In a video since uploaded to social media by Emo Nite themselves, Flavor Flav can be seen enjoying himself to the hallmark Bring Me track, surrounded by fellow clubbers who are either happily surprised to see him or completely oblivious that they're sharing dance floor space with a certified rap icon. Flavor himself acknowledged the video later, posting in the comments that most emo of sentiments: "IT'S NEVER BEEN A PHASE." 

Watch the video below.

Many fans who have watched the footage have been quick to point out that Flavor Flav already had serious cred with the emo scene: he appeared in the video for Taking Back Sunday's 2003 single You're So Last Summer. Both Flavor Flav and Taking Back Sunday are natives of Long Island, New York. Public Enemy, of course, famously also have cred in the heavy metal scene: the hip hop icons sampled Slayer's Angel Of Death on 1988 track She Watch Channel Zero?!, and collaborated with Anthrax for a metal reimagining of Bring The Noise in 1991. “Bring The Noise was the logical evolution of a seed that was planted," said Chuck D in an interview he and Anthrax's Scott Ian took part in with Metal Hammer in 2016. "Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys were the precursors, but before that there had been Johnny Lydon collaborating with Afrika Bambaataa in 1984.” Anthrax and Public Enemy would embark on a historic co-headline tour in 1991 following the release of Bring The Noise.

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