What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down?

AlbumSep 25 / 202017 songs, 44m 6s
East Coast Hip Hop Political Hip Hop
Popular

Some years you have to wonder how Public Enemy sustains such righteous indignation. Others—let’s say 2020, just for example—you wonder why everyone isn’t as angry as they are. That they have strong thoughts on the 45th president of the United States isn’t surprising (“State of the Union”), nor is their crusade to uphold old-school values about hip-hop and art in a frictionless digital world (“Public Enemy Number Won,” “Toxic,” the Ice-T-featuring “Smash the Crowd”). The surprise is how vital, engaged, and unflinchingly on message Chuck D and Flavor Flav sound this side of their 60th birthdays, and on their prodigal return to Def Jam. If you think YG’s line “Pull the trigger, kill a negro/He\'s a hero” on the revamp of “Fight the Power” sounds hyperbolic, remember George Zimmerman and welcome to Kyle Rittenhouse. Breonna Taylor is mentioned, but because systemic racism comes in many forms and flavors, so are Craig Hodges and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. And if PE\'s politics seem preoccupying, listen to “R.I.P. Blackat”—their feelings about friends are just as strong. Yes, they’ve been confronting us with the same stark reality for more than three decades. But that’s not their fault, it’s the world’s. And that’s the double-truth, Ruth.

732

Continuing to hold the powers that be accountable, Public Enemy's 15th studio album boldly captures everything hip-hop should stand for

If anyone is going to deliver hip hop’s state of the nation address in 2020, it should be Public Enemy.

8.0 / 10

If there was ever a time for a new Public Enemy album, it's 2020.

4 / 5

Revolutionary hip-hop legends Public Enemy return to bring the noise in 2020...

Chuck D and Flavor Flav summon the steely spirit of their Eighties heyday for a new hour of chaos

Let's face it: If any year needed a new album from Public Enemy, it was 2020.

7 / 10

Public Enemy's 15th official studio release and first on Def Jam Recordings since 1998, What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?, is a nos...

7 / 10

The past 18 months have been a bizarre time to be a Public Enemy fan. The group seemed to split into pieces, with Flavor Flav dismissed for his wayward

This mashup of tracks from a free album and retreads of classics should have been a mixtape

7 / 10

In 1988, right in the thick of what has since been canonized as hip-hop's golden age, the trailblazing rap outfit Public Enemy issued one of the all-time...

Most of their heroes STILL don't appear on no stamps, and PE are mad as hell about it. Album review by Kathryn Reilly

6 / 10