Amazon.com: Another Public Enemy album is always good news for hip-hop fans, and How You Sell... carries the torch. Other than a few forgettable tracks pulled from a Flavor Flav solo record, highlights abound here. The rockin' "Black Is Back" and the horn-heavy "Harder Than You Think" serve heavy helpings of uplift mojo. "Sex, Drugs & Violence" features a chorus of kids and peerless verses from KRS-One. "Long and Whining Road," the album's most moving track, sees Chuck D's lyrics leaning heavily on Bob Dylan song titles and one-off references to U2, Snoop Dogg, Tom Petty, Beastie Boys, and more. Dramatic production touches include the muted metal riff of "Frankenstar" and orchestral flavors like chimes ("Amerikan Gangster") and vibraphone ("Bridge of Pain"). As always, though, the music is the message, and where this album is so musically eclectic as to court identity crisis, in the end the instrumental elasticity only mirrors Chuck D's vast grasp of the continuum of social ills that mainstream hip-hop long since gave up battling in favor of greed, fame, provincialism, or all of the above. So in answer to the indulgent question of this album's title, maybe--just maybe--this is how we do it. --Jason Kirk
Album Description: Public Enemy's been pioneers in combining verbal acumen with technological advances, performance artistry and theatricality, thematic integrity and artistic control. In an era where mega-national corporations dominate the marketplace and many rappers prefer being popular to being relevant, Public Enemy remain vibrant and topical. They've also forged and maintained a creative legacy that has a timeless quality, yet gives listeners intricate and compelling slices of life from the various eras in which these songs were conceived. They are not entertainers or performers but scribes and commentators providing insight and information through rhymes and music that has uplifted and still inspires legions of fans. Standard Jewel Case with bonus DVD.
Disc 1:
Who You Sell Soul To a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul???
3-1/2 stars -- Soul survivors Although Public Enemy haven't released a really solid album in a number of years, people still recognize their importance and influence, as they have been hailed as one of the best hip-hop acts by magazines as well as by fans even to this day. Still, the only member that has really been making appearances lately is Flavor Flav thanks to reality show mania (but WTF is up with that fade he's been sportin' on Flavor of Love 2???). Bur Flav, Chuck, Griff and the rest of them finally came back at us with How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?
First off, if you're expecting this to be on the same level as their first three albums, check yo'self. But it's far from being a bad album; there are plenty of great tracks that show the group's trademark political and socially conscious prowess. Reviewer Vaughn Deyhle (as well as editorial reviewer Jason Kirk) are pretty on-point, but I'll still say that there are notable selections like the title track and also the KRS-One-assisted "Sex, Drugs & Violence", where although children singing the chorus is usually corny, it actually works quite well in this case. Other highlights include "Escapism", "Long and Whining Road" and "Can You Hear Me Now" (an obvious single because it's censored). Speaking of that, though, I was surprised they made any new videos at all considering "Black is Black" calls out BET and even MTV (but damn; what else is left? Fuse???).
Anyway, there are also a few missteps. Two Flav solo tracks, "Col-leepin" and "Flavor Man", are not only wack but they also already appeared on Flav's self-titled album (but I doubt anyone bought it; I mean, come on -- who wants to hear an album from a 47-year-old hype man?). And I don't know who E.Infinite is, but he kicks some pretty average rhymes on "Amerikan Gangster". "The Enemy Battle Hymn of the Public" also suffers from a dull chorus.
Another thing is that the end of the album contains remixes of songs heard earlier on the album, and while the remix of "Harder Than You Think", sounds different, the remix of the title track sounds exactly the same. While this album (I'm not writing out that whole title again) isn't classic material like PE's earlier stuff, it should still satisfy fans that are tired of the iced-out, weed-smokin', gun-totin' rap of today.
Anthony Rupert
"Public Enemy #1 in [insert your home town here]" Right off the bat, this CD contains the best song PE ever put together: HARDER THAN YOU THINK. This song, in my mind, has become the National Anthem for anyone in Amerikka (black, white, hispanic) who feels slighted by this government, this culture, this status quo. It makes you want to throw your fists in the air, and it might even bring a tear to your eye. Other highlights on this CD include: See Something, Say something; How You sell Soul; Can You Hear Me Now; Escapism; Flava Man and Col Leepin'.
Now the negatives: there are too many "filler" tracks on this album. I give it 3 stars just for the lyrics alone. I've been a fan and loyalist since '87, owning every CD and off-shoot recording...basically anything Chuck D has recorded, I've bought. But this album simply can't compare to "New Whirl Odor." There are so many songs here that I have to question...Black is Back (great lyrics, but the music sucks); Sex drugs & Violence (kids singing?! Terrible background music. KRS-1 saves this song); Amerikan Gangster (PE's worst song ever); as well as a few others...truly forgettable songs, which is totally unlike PE.
Like 2006's monotonous "Rebirth of a Nation" (a.k.a., Paris's album featuring PE), you don't need to buy this CD unless you need to complete your PE discography. In my mind, some of these songs sound like vanilla, cookie-cutter hip hop songs...not PE.
Unfortunately, I am a sucka for a great track, and as I stated earlier, HARDER THAN YOU THINK, by itself, might be worth the price of this disc.
how MANY TIMES I gotta' tell you; THE BEST! Throw away all cds of so called "new school" rappers and get this to replace all that commercialized anti-n&&&a garbage. This is what's up. They're back, they're still the best. Step off clowns. Recognize one of the last true procurers of the true spoken word of the hip hop culture. Oh yeah, YOU NEED this album. PERIOD.
Works for me. I suppose I don't feel like qualifying my opinion, but with scant few reviews here I think I want to give it. I just picked this up today after checking out what was on Myspace. Obviously I liked what I heard. This is a very good album. Not every track is a winner, but there really aren't any losers. It is very diverse musically and does not get boring in the least. The flow of one song to another works well to keep changing things up.
The album sounds fresh but has throwback elements to old school. It is a nice mix. Perhaps that is what impresses me the most, the way they seem mature enough to bring all the things that work together, to just let it blend. I'm not going to get into Chuck D and the rest and how good they are, everyone already knows that and others have covered it enough. I will say I'm very happy with this purchase and I can tell it is going to get heavy play rotation for now.
Tough to rate actually... You know, it actually pains me to give this a three star rating. It's better than that. Pi perhaps? 3.62 stars, maybe? It ain't quite a FOUR but it's bloody PUBLIC ENEMY!!
Let me start with why I still deeply appreciate this album. Because I'm old enough (31) to remember rap before it became soulless, mindless, directionless, impotent, arbitrarily aggressive. I grew up on rap and loved it. It was a vital artform and there were so many guys out there with interesting stuff to say. IT PAINS ME NOW TO SEE WHAT IT'S BECOME. The current conveyor belt of slaptards that roll out albums now with all the same themes, near identical covers, coming from uniformly empty heads, ugh, it just pains me.
And this album gives the finger to all that.
For that, Chuck D, I thank you. When you listen to the lyrics, this album identifies the sheer stupidity in rap today with an ease comparable to explaining that 2 + 2 = 4. But once upon a time, they made albums addressing issues, huge ones, tackling them with a grandiose sense of revolution!! Why this now? Well, because it's necessary. Guys like Chuck and KRS need to reclaim hip hop from the pimps and hos who are perpetuating a very embarassing characature of it. Chuck is still one of the finest MCs, the lyrics are still solid, the message is still vital. Thank you, PE for refusing to disappear.
Now, here's why this isn't a 5 star album: because I remember It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back. Because I remember Fear of a Black Planet. The production on those albums just couldn't be touched back then. I still remember clearly the day I bought It Takes a Nation and got it home. I listened to it and it floored me as few albums ever have. I listened to that tape beginning to end three times nonstop on my bed with headphones on. The album would end and I just had to go through it again. I was absolutely stunned. The beats and production, I'd never heard anything like it. Think of songs like "Bring Tha Noise," "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos," "Welcome to the Terrordome." Think of the production on "War At Thirty Three and a Third," and remember just how insane it was. Lyrics aside, THE SOUND was just as revolutionary. It was fast, it was noisy, it was complicated.
This album makes me miss The Bomb Squad's production. It's a good album, but it lacks what made "Nation" one of the best rap albums of all time. The beats just feel a bit generic. Sigh. And OK, if you can't get the old production team in ... well, surely there is something that could have been done? Bugger, imagine if El-P was turning the knobs in the studio, designing the sonic chaos that made PE so awesome, the foundation for Chuck to rant over. Yeah, I'd probably sell a kidney for that album.
Chuck D, I still thank you. Thanks for creating an album all those years ago that really deserves credit as a milestone marker in my life. Please, don't stop now, hip-hop still needs guys like you more than ever.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
