Legendary hip-hop group Public Enemy confirmed it will be “moving forward without” Flavor Flav after he slammed Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for using the group’s name for an endorsement he didn’t agree to.
“Public Enemy and Public Enemy Radio will be moving forward without Flavor Flav,” the group said in a statement Sunday, provided by a spokeswoman for Public Enemy and founding frontman Chuck D. “We thank him for his years of service and wish him well.”
Flavor Flav, whose legal name is William Drayton, expressed disappointment with Chuck D’s decision to break up the group “and fracture the movement more than three decades after Flav founded the group in 1985,” according to a statement provided by Matthew H. Friedman, a lawyer for the group’s famed hypeman.
“Flav reached out in the interest of unity, supporting Chuck’s right to speak his mind but without unnecessarily misleading the public,” the statement read. “Unfortunately, for the time being, Chuck has opted to fire off an increasingly unhinged series of tweets, including one where Chuck regards Flav as property (a car) he can park until he is ready to use him again. Chuck may own the name Public Enemy but all you had to do was look at the masses of clock-wearing fans pouring out of the rally … to know that there is no Public Enemy without Flavor Flav.”
