2020 will go down in history. What a year! Also, from a musical point of view, it'll not be forgotten. Hip-hop has seen several great albums and several disappointing ones: in particular, Public Enemy have released two studio albums, and they both sucks, unbelievable to say.
I thought the Trump presidency did enough things to give a good number of insights to political music artists, such as Paris or Public Enemy, however, the group is very uninspired, and tries to snatch a few more sales with this product. Almost a semester after April Fool's Day, with the joke of the Flavor Flav exit from the group, and the bigger joke of the entire album they released under the name "Enemy Radio", the group releases the his second disk of the season a few days before the elections: it follows "Nothing Is Quick in the Desert" in cover, content and even cuts, borrowing seven, half album, in order to complete this project. Few details distinguish the two covers: still in the desert with a pile of damaged, broken and abandoned technological junk, we're at sunset, the candles are going out, computers and boom bax haven't been saved from the devastation of the desert, in the background, a trellis is burning.
From the credits, it seems that a whole team of people worked on this record, when instead the original songs are four out of seventeen: the first three and "R.I.P. Blackcat", the rest are re-releases of classics ("Public Enemy Number Won", "Fight the Power: Remix 2020"), half "Nothing Quick" and five useless skits, for a total of 44 minutes. Among the many guys who are called to work on the record, there's Chuck D's friend David "C-Doc" Snyder, who's the main producer and mixer, also deals with bass and drums on several tracks. Rhythms are also provided by Flavor Flav, The LBX, DJ Premier, Threepeeoh, DJ Infinite, Racer X, Juice, DJ Pain 1 and Easy Mo Bee.
Basically, a mixture of known and complete unknown producers. Mixing works like this: whoever goes into the studio fixes their track, then it doesn't matter if the album isn't musically cohesive, it should work just the same. Instead, someone really needed to review the project and fix the mixing for each track. Guests are George Clinton, B-Real from Cypress Hill, Run-D.M.C., Nas, Rapsody, Black Thought, Jahi, YG and The Impossebulls. Daddy-O from Stetsasonic, Ice-T and PMD are on tracks taken from the 2017 record, while all the others, including Mike D and Ad Rock, are credited as guests but either don't perform or are relegated to skits and short intros.
After George Clinton's intro, the first cut is "GRID" with George Clinton and B-Real as guests, on a cheap hardcore boom bap with a weak drum: Chuck D is decent, B-Real looks better, he has better flow. It follows the single that was to carry the entire project: "State of the Union (STFU)", first single from seven years, energetic boom bap made by legend DJ Premier, powerful drum machine and rhythm with his typical formula, tightly looped female soul sample, solid verses by Chuck D, pop chorus by Flavor Flav failed but that it's still one of their best hooks of the past eight years.
Skit by Pop Diesel, then "Public Enemy Number Won", a reissue of a classic of the group, the almost homonymous track of the debut album. It's supposed to be a posse track with Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys, however, Mike D and Ad Rock are limited to the opening intro: four verses, Chuck D doesn't want to spend too much time on this track and fully reproduces his first verse from the original piece, leaving it to Flavor Flav; he's followed by Run & DMC, now deprived of their original alchemy, before the last new verse by Chuck D. It'd also be a pretty decent cut, if it weren't for the album's more annoying beat, a cheap and shoddy boom bap, unbearable noise made by C-Doc, unlivable for over five minutes.
The sixth choice's "Toxic", the first of seven simplistic cuts taken from the 2017 album and inserted here: cheap and lean production of an amateur, poor delivery by Chuck D. "Yesterday Man" is another track from the same album of three years earlier: DJ Infinite's poor and frantic rhythm, good guitar riff, and Daddy-O delivers a wacky, sung bad chorus with Flavor Flav. James Bomb's Skit, prelude to what should have been another potential high point: Nas, Rapsody, Black Thought, Jahi and YG in the same cut, a reissue of "Fight the Power", 1990 classic from "Fear of a Black Planet". On a hardcore jazzy boom bap, with skeletal, slow and pounding drum machine, no one disappoints. After Nas, Rapsody attacks with the right energy and determination, killing the cut with one of the most memorable verses of the year, which deserves at least a couple of immediate replays, performed with the right energy and determination. Black Thought and Jahi follow, before YG's heavy bars; closes Chuck D, doesn't want to risk to look bad and decides to bring back his original verse, which doesn't stand up to that of Rapsody and struggles to stay in the wake of YG.
The following four choices all come from "Nothing is Quick in the Desert": the rhythms are provided by C-Doc, DJ Pain 1 is the author of the beat of "Go at It" (the track is "So Be It" on the previous album, only the title changes), simplistic and hardcore boom bap, slow and cheap drum machine, Chuck D spits something, but he's never incisive. Ice-T and PMD spice up the record with their flows, but they're both uninspired, and as if they were reluctantly forced to record the song, while Jahi adds little or nothing to his rap rock track. A short skit by Mark Jenkins leads to the final section of the LP: "Rest in Beats" is the seventh and final track from the 2017 album, features The Impossebulls as guests, rappers Marcus J and CM provide their third verse, but the song is halved, the long outro of C-Doc is cut. "RIP Blackcat" is one of the rare original songs of this project, the first in this sequence (chosen by C-Doc) since the single "State of the Union (STFU)", about half an hour before: it's a cut that pays homage to a friend of Flavor Flav, on his jazzy-funky production that's better than most tracks, before Ms. Ariel's final outro.
There have been more disappointing albums this year, but this is definitely a big disappointment. The group signs with Def Jam twenty-two years after the last album, and their return is sensational on the contrary: two singles, the album is ignored by the public at home, but still manages to fool someone in Europe (#2 among the UK Urban records), there's only one original track without guests in over forty minutes. There is braggadocio, socio-conscious, political bars and a few lucky good lines, on top of a bad and mediocre production: this completely random mix of new, old and remixes songs, should be a kind of mixtape compilation, and instead, is still better than the latest five discs of the group. None of the insiders feel able to crush this thing, understandably, but Chuck D & Flavor Flav have already said the same things, better, in their first albums: this is not necessary, not recommended.
Highlights: Rapsody & YG in "Fight the Power: Remix 2020".
Rating: 5.5/10.
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