Customer Reviews

How You Sell Soul to a Souless People Who Sold Their Soul???

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With American culture hijacked by American Idol and the infusion of six years of neoconservative anti-values, Chuck D., Flav and Company are back to remind us of the meaning of truth, where the struggle actually lies and how brilliant and relevant Public Enemy remain. After several replays, "Harder Than You Think" still brings a tear to my eye. It's that good. Five stars.

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.

20 years in the Hip-Hop Game and Public Enemy still carrying the torch of being the voice of the people. This album pulls all the stops from a harsh reality checking of Hip-Hop with tough love, wisdom, and inspiration (How You Sell Soul??.., Harder Than You Think), the current state of Hip-Hop (Sex, Drugs, & Violence, Can You Here Me Now, Frankenstar), the played out "50 Cent type" imagery of today's Hip-Hop culture (American Gangster, Escapism), anti-Bush Adnministration and the never ending War in Iraq (The Enemy Battle Hymn of the Public, Eve of Destruction), and my personal favorite and most recent hot button topic in Hip-Hop culture (See Something, Say Something) on how this "anti-snitching" code of silence is backfiring on the culture/black community, and how thug rappers are using the black revolutionary term "snitch" for different (and wrong) reasons. Ever since Tupac and Biggie's deaths, the Hip-Hop culture has been cursed will the notion that it's cool not to snitch (Case in point: that embarrassing Camron interview on Fox News); therefore, giving shady government agencies and law enforcement a license to unconstitutionally profile and police Hip-Hop, while making it harder on the black community by allowing crime to escalate and remain unsolved. Chuck D was right all along: Hip-Hop is unfortunately the new COINTELPRO.

As always, Public Enemy remains constistent in delivering the valuable goods with their powerful substantial message that instantly grabs the listeners attention along with their top notch production that's never afraid to boldly explore different territory, yet never disappoints with individuality and orginiality.

CONGRATULATIONS PUBLIC ENEMY ON YOUR 20 YEAR SUCCESS AND KEEP "FIGHTIN THE POWER" FOR THE VOICE OF TRUE HIP-HOP !!!!!

I got this the day it came out!! Lotta cats was downloading the poor quality bootlegs....not me!!
This WHOLE CD is CLASSIC. Ifyou wanna hear real hip-hop get the album. I first bcame a hardcore fan when the cd "He Got Game" came out, I lost track of them after that. till "New Whirl Odor" came out, (which is dope as hell too) then I got the "Rebirth of a Nation" (super dope)
They'v been on one man, just droppin shhhh left and right.
Quality an integrity and origionality. I love hearin Chuck D spit that style of his, just blows me away, such a unique timeless flow...yo get this cd, don't waste your time on Fabulous, chingy and any of these wack cats like TI an T-pain (mutha%$#$# can't sing without no vocoder Zap rip off)

TRUE HIPHOP FOR TRUE HIPHOP HEADS.

FRESH FOR 2007 YOU SUCKAZ!!!!!!!!!!

Public Enemy dropped a real banging CD. Uncompromising and in your face with raw lyrics. Chuch D, which I believe is one of the most underated M.C.'s in history, unleashes raw fury on the track "Harder Than You Think" and No. 7 "Can You Hear Me Now." Yes I can hear you Chuck even if everbody else can not. The ninth track "Flavor Man" is Flavors solo, way too noisy, annoying composition. I've heard Flav on other PE records hold his down much better. The 10th song Chuck D follows Flav's joint with the straight up commentary on the social & political issues of today. The 11th track "Escapism" is a throw back song that sounds like it could of dropped in the 60's complete with a tough saxophone by Daddy G, what a beat. The 15th track "See Something Say Something" is hot, and, Chuck displays his flow over some unusual old style beats, the base is in place "All those players driving Lexus's & hummers were taught by teachers defending Colombus." (Deep).

The 16th song "The Land Whinning Road" acknowledges 20 years in the struggle, it's pretty solid too. I must say track 18 is horrible it seems like the banging tracks are minus Flav. Except for (3). This was a great CD but probably would have been better with a little less Flav. This CD goes 19 tracks deep, maybe too many songs, 14 would have been good. But to hear Chuck D blazing the light of Truth in his lyrics, has made me change my outlook on the current Hip Hop landscape.

I've been a PE fan since their first album and usually buy their latest release out of respect. Admittedly, I think their stuff has been on the decline for some time and so I was pleasantly surprised by this album. As a whole, it's really good. If you're a long time PE fan, you'll be glad you bought this. I am.

I DON'T THINK ANY OTHER GROUP HAS HAD SUCH A PROFOUND IMFLUENCE ON THE HIP HOP MOVEMENT AS PUBLIC ENEMY HAS.THIS RECORD IS A RETURN TO THE FIERCE UNAPOLOGETIC LYRICS AND THE BRILLIANT ACCOMPANYING MUSIC THAT HAS BEEN A P.E TRADEMARK.IF THERE IS ANYTHING MISSING THE DISCERNING LISTENER MIGHT NOTICE THAT THE PROLIFIC SAMPLING OF YESTERYEAR IS GONE.ANY ALBUM PRODUCED TODAY WITH HUNDREDS OF SAMPLE CLIPS WITH THE CURRENT COST OF CLEARANCE AND LEGAL FEES WOULD NOT BE A WORTHWHILE UNDERTAKING.THIS ALBUM COMES AS CLOSE TO MASTERPIECE AS IT COULD.AFTER BEING IN THE WILDERNESS FOR A FEW YEARS P.E.IS BACK.THIS NEEDS TO BE IN YOUR COLLECTION.

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.

Public enemy is back yall! There is a special place for this album listening to this makes you feel as if you are in the late 80's early 90's
The only thing missing from this collection is terminator X, dj lord is awsome on the wheels but he aint terminator.Chuck and flavor really took it back.sounds a lot like their first three albums. Its like a breath of fresh air following rebirth of a nation which is paris painted over with chuck d. This album sounds alot like it could be their final studio album I hope it aint."HOW YOU SELL SOUL TO A SOULLESS PEOPLE WHO SOLD THEIR SOUL" should be purchaced by every true hip hop Fan!

Public Enemy is once again doing it the right way! Bringing the beats back! Hip Hop the way it was meant to be. Good message. Good music. Get inspired. Listen and learn.