Is this a scary one to vote for? Don't be afraid people go with your gut! I vote Public Enemy. Fear of a Black Planet is so much bigger than itself.

At risk of being labeled a complete wuss, I'll go with B&S.

This is such a comically different pairing that it's going to come down to straight genre preference. Twee for me.

More than that though, it's really hard for me to divorce B & S from their ultra romantic early persona. Shy recluses who recorded their debut for a class project, refused to be photographed, and included short stories of Scottish bohemia in every liner note. We grew up in a time when the "punk" and "indie" artists were still all over MTV, and the sort of dreamy anti careerism was so bizarre, that even if it was a gimmick I didn't care. And the lyrics are on par with their idol, Morrissey, no matter what the conventional wisdom says.

Plus, PE was slipping into past their prime, no longer "CNN for black folks," anti-semetic rhetoric mode here, right? There's no romance in that...

Public Enemy wins this one for me. Three reasons: "Brothers Gonna Work It Out", "911 Is a Joke", and "Fight the Power". Were any of them "Bring the Noise"? Nope. But those songs - - especially "911"- sent shockwaves through teenafe sensibilities like my own. This album itself was angry, powerful, and raw. Terminator X laid some great beats. But in the end, I think its legacy will be its message: there are problems out there and PE is going to make you take notice. They are not going to be quiet and play nice, no matter how big they got.
Plus bonus points go to it because I had to hide it from my mom.