Fourteenth Public Enemy album, two years after the last one. The cover takes us to a desert with a pile of damaged, broken and abandoned technological junk, surrounded by candles, the devastation of the desert has spared boom bax and computer, there's a full sun lighting up the scene.
The title track kicks off the record, short piece with beatmaker DJ Pain 1's cheap and poor boom bap, pounding drum machine, and uninspired lazy slow delivery by Chuck D: is the prelude to the entire disc. The next track is another cheap beat, provided by this edition's major producer C-Doc, drum machine pounding, Public Enemy's rapper tries to spit something. "Yesterday Man" is one of their worst cuts ever: poor beggar boom bap created by Racer X & DJ Infinite, wacky drum, good guitar riff, weak delivery by Chuck D and bad hook by Flavor Flav along with the song's host, Daddy-O from Stetsasonic. A skit leads to the fifth song, C-Doc's poor and cheap boom bap, ridiculous hook. Ice-T & PMD are the guests of "Smash the Crowd", also not inspired by this ridiculous C-Doc rhythm: they both have a better flow than Chuck D and they try to restore liveliness to this dead record. After an annoying interlude, DJ Pain 1 is the beatmaker of "So Be It", where Public Enemy's MC and friend Jahi drop a few bars on yet another weak soundscape of the edition.
Solé restores dignity to the project in "SOC MED Digital Heroin", with a smooth performance and one of the best deliveries of the record, aided by a good ethereal bridge made by Dejuan Boyd for her verse. Chuck D is at his best on "Terrorwrist", on a decent hardcore beat provided by Mike Redman with decent samples and pounding drum machine: the MC delivers hardcore and energetic in his best track, the shortest of the LP. Threepeeoh offers a weak rhythm for "Toxic", a track that anticipates "Sells Like Teens Hear It", a song for the club with a ridiculous and commercial production of East Duel West and Sammy Vegas. Wacky drum machine, Sammy Vegas ridiculous delivery, beat changes to a shoddy commercial boom bap, Chuck D ridiculous vocoder delivery, horrible cut. C-Doc completes the record with a seven-minute choice, "Rest in Beats (Part 1 & 2)": decent boom bap, jazzy vibes, mediocre drum, decent slow flow of Chuck D. Marcus J & CM decent slow delivery on the third verse, before the long C-Doc outro, which should be a dedication to deceased rappers: it would be good, except that C-Doc is completely overshadowed by the heavy guitar riff that hangs over him, a genius idea of the mixer (which is himself).
Album of 41 minutes and 13 choices, 3 skits. The production kills Chuck D's socio-conscious political effort, the boy delivers lazy and never inspired, with forgettable lyricism. It's one of the worst albums in Public Enemy's career.
Highlights: "SOC Med Digital Heroin", "Terrorwrist".
Rating: 4.5/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment