Public Enemy
"What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?"
(Def Jam (ASTERISK)(ASTERISK) {)
The times could hardly be more right for a new Public Enemy album.
Politically charged rap that aimed to "reach the bourgeois and rock the boulevard," as Chuck D put it in "Don't Believe the Hype," peaked with 1988's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" and 1990's follow-up "Fear of a Black Planet."
"Fight the Power" is forever. The emphatic, fist-raised single that soundtracked Spike Lee's 1989 "Do the Right Thing," still speaks loudly in 2020.
"What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?" aims to bring hard-earned wisdom to songs about police violence, systemic racism and Donald Trump _ to again function, in Chuck's famous formulation, as "the Black CNN." Unfortunately, the album only intermittently strikes with cohesive force.
It opens promisingly enough on the woozy, dystopian title track, with scant lyrics muttered by guest George Clinton. That's followed by "GRID," a beware-of-the-internet rant built around grating singsong repetition of the album's title phrase by Flavor Flav. Meanwhile, Chuck _ still in fine, booming voice _ imagines a world with "no internet, no texts and no tweets."
That banal idea that we could better connect if we could only put our phones down has the air of cranky complaint. Kids these days!
PE, which includes DJ Terminator X and the Bomb Squad production team, does better on the blunt, Trump-targeting "State of the Union (STFU)." Surviving members of the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC give "Public Enemy Number Won" nostalgia appeal. And "Rest in Beats" and the Flav showcase "R.I.P. Blackat" convey real tenderness.
"Fight The Power: Remix 2020" exposes "Grid's" weaknesses. Guests Rapsody, Nas, and Black Thought of the Roots all excel (Questlove also shows up on drums), and the track crackles with energy. But it's also a three-decade-old song that makes the new material sound stale in comparison. _ Dan DeLuca
