Members of Earth Crisis and Public Enemy Team up for Charity Single to Benefit Punks for Autism

In
the
latest
bizarre
collaboration
news,
vocalist
Karl
Buechner
and
guitarist
Scott
Crouse
of
legendary
straight-edge
vegan
metalcore
crew
Earth
Crisis
teamed
up
with
Chuck
D
of
Public
Enemy,
Craig
G
of
hip-hop
collective
Juice
Crew,
and
producer
Krohme
to
create
a
new
7”
single
called
“Live
Free”
with
proceeds
going
to
benefit

Punks
for
Autism.
That
last
sentence
sounded
like
a
Mad
Lib.

The
combination
of
Earth
Crisis
and
Public
Enemy
members
sounds
positively
wacky
when
you
first
hear
about
it,
but
it’s
really
not.
It’s
not
the
first
time
that
Chuck
D
has
teamed
up
with
rock
musicians,
having
famously
partnered
with
Anthrax
for
the
1991
version
of
Public
Enemy’s
single
“Bring
the
Noise,”
and
also
having
formed
Prophets
of
Rage
with
members
of
Rage
Against
the
Machine
in
2016.
Similarly,
it
could
be
argued
that
Earth
Crisis
flirted
with
rap-metal
on
their
2000
album

Slither
when
that
sort
of
thing
was
becoming
popularized
in
mainstream
metal.
Still,
if
you
didn’t
have
an
Earth
Crisis/Public
Enemy
team-up
on
your
2024
bingo
card,
nobody
could
blame
you.

According
to
a
2022
interview
with

Kerrang,
Punks
for
Autism
was
started
by
punk
scene
veteran
Steve
Lombardo
who
has
two
children
on
the
spectrum.
The
organization’s
motto
is
“Be
different.
Be
free.
Be
punk
rock.
Be
you.”
The
organization
creates
merch
to
raise
money
for
autism
charities
and
raise
awareness
about
autism.
There
does
not
seem
to
be
any
known
connection
between
Punks
for
Autism
and
more
controversial
autism
charities
like
Autism
Speaks.

Lombardo
explained
in
that
interview
that
his
son
Vinny’s
autism
reminded
him
of
the
punk
rock
ethos:

“Vinny
marches
to
the
beat
of
his
own
drum,
like
a
punk
rocker.
I
started
seeing
parallels
between
autism
and
the
ethos
of
the
punk
rock
community.
Everyone
is
accepting
of
people
who
are
the
black
sheep,
or
people
that
don’t
fit
in
in
mainstream
society.
Autistic
people
are
kind
of
similar
to
punks
in
that
they
don’t
fit
in
the
mainstream.
I
saw
the
parallel
and
the
connection.”

The

Live
Free
7”
is
available
now
from

Bitter
Melody
Records.