Public Enemy Spat Puts New Twist on How Candidates Use Hit Music

Chuck D and Flavor Flav espoused the mantra “Fight the Power” for decades. Now they can’t agree what power needs fighting.

Flavor Flav’s firing from the rap group Public Enemy in a dispute over Chuck D’s performance at a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders put a new twist on well-worn disputes over whether artists can prevent politicians from using their copyrighted works.

Bruce Springsteen famously objected to Ronald Reagan’s proposed use of “Born in the U.S.A.” in 1984, and such disputes have been a fixture of virtually every presidential campaign season since. Elton John, R.E.M., Tom Petty, the ...