Emotions Fuel Public Enemy’s Tank, with Years of Built Up Anger / Public Enemy What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down? Review
Emotions Fuel Public Enemy’s Tank, with Years of Built Up Anger
Public Enemy What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down? Review
“What happens if all media networks are destroyed?
Are you afraid to pick up a book?
Are you afraid to even deal with who you are as a person?”
These are just a snippet of the
thought-provoking questions delivered by hip-hop legends Chuck D and DJ Lord in
Public Enemy’s new, ground-breaking record What You Gonna Do When The Grid
Goes Down?. It’s hardly a surprise for me to tell you that this album feels
like a historical moment as the revolution-starting group don’t exactly retain
a reputation for ‘holding back’ when it comes to politics and questioning the
media and the impact it has. It also proves the first release for the group
under Def Jam recordings for over two decades- a cultural institution they
helped to build. Plus, their return to Def Jam
was heralded around the globe earlier this month with the group’s iconic logo
projected onto some of the world’s other most iconic cultural institutions
including the Eiffel Tower and Moulin Rouge in Paris; Parliament, Marble Arch
& Tate Modern Museum in London
After a historical year for police
brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, a new Public Enemy album is
perfectly timed. However, the release of names featuring on the record adds to its
speciality. The album includes, Nas, YG,
Rapsody, DJ Premier, Black Thought, Questlove, Cypress Hill, Run-DMC, Ice-T,
PMD, George Clinton, Daddy-O, Jahi, The Impossebulls, Mark Jenkins, S1Ws Pop
Diesel and James Bomb and Mike D and Ad-Rock of Beastie Boys and each
involvement is tasteful, important and brings nostalgia as well as reiterating
current messages for those who still need to hear them.
The album is a rude
awakening for Trump and racists alike with a brilliant and severe lack of
subtlety to the lyrics. With its leading single, ‘State of the Union STFU’
literally including the instructions, “State of The Union; shut the fuck up”
whilst containing a backing layer of Trump being aggressively told to “Go!”,
it’s clear that the collective voice of Public Enemy is continually getting
louder. Cypress Hill make a welcome appearance in ‘Grid’ questioning police
brutality and the effects of ‘justice’. We are then hit with a series of anger
driven phrases that cannot help but rile one up into wanting to fight against
everything Public Enemy want you to. “What are you gonna do- whatever it
takes!”
Beastie Boys and Run
DMC nostalgia run through the veins of revisited track, ‘Public Enemy Number
One’. They exit the album with a dance remix while embracing an 80s hip-hop
exterior whilst Mike D maintains that distinctive Beatie Boys sound. Then we
have tracks such as ‘Toxic’ that possesses an almost hard-to-swallow raw
emotion that leaves one speechless. “Citizens suffering while he be
balling…. If a mule died, he used to say buy another one, if a n*gger died, he
used to say try another one”. The moving message is difficult to
listen to at times and the emotion is the petrol fuelling Public Enemy’s tank
that is already filled with years of built up anger.
The first gig I have
memory of attending at the age of six years old was Public Enemy in 2003 at the
Respect Festival in London’s Millennium Dome. I do not remember too much
unfortunately (apart from the rides and sweets) however, their messages have a
powerful way of imbedding themselves in your memory. Public Enemy take closure
into their stride when finishing What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down?.
Featuring Ms. Ariel, we are hit with a 15 second message of power, emotion, and
peace in ‘Closing: I am Black’. It sums up the overall philosophy of this
record and embodies the beauty of Public Enemy and their legacy:
“I am black, woman,
beautiful, magic, intelligent, resilient, loved, innovative, powerful,
influential, unapologetic and woke. Peace”
Say it louder for the
people at the back…
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