Public Enemy
After becoming the first group to make an album available for Internet purchase before its retail street date (2000’s stellar There’s A Poison Goin’ On), Public Enemy now joins a much larger club — acts that issue what should be Web-site-only fan-club freebies as proper releases. Perhaps PE figured no one but its hardcore following listens anymore, given that Poison and its near-perfect predecessor, 1998’s He Got Game, faded into undeserved obscurity. So in addition to a few new tracks, Chuck D and Flavor Flav give the peeps what they don’t really need: two thirty-second radio public-service announcements, an incoherent “making of” skit and an unenlightening interview snippet. Add two PG-rated cuts (Professor Griff solo songs — admittance to listeners of any age not advised), and you’re left with an album that requires more skipping than a jump-rope competition.
Even after removing the audio equivalent of packaging peanuts, there’s still some disposable rap. PE remains committed to overhauling compositions that don’t need a remix. (Greatest Misses, a 1992 effort devoted to this questionable cause, provides the only other blemish on the group’s discography.) The album’s attempts to hypnotize stark percussive backdrops into a techno trance can be summarized by the name of one of the remixers: Scattershot. These guest producers, chosen for inclusion through an online contest, create serviceable beats that don’t serve the songs, turning Chuck’s radical rants into distorted disco-diva dressing. Completing the padded portion of the program are three live recordings, two of which are listenable.
Eliminating “Put It Up,” an unsatisfying sequel to “Shut It Down” and “Give It Up,” leaves just 7 tracks out of 21 left to peruse. These tunes contain flashes of brilliance — Gary G-Whiz’s juicy funk hooks, Chuck’s gift for placing his old lyrics in new context (9/11 ain’t no joke) — and plenty of well-intentioned calls for “raptivism.” But they can’t save Revolverlution from becoming Public Enemy’s first inessential album in a decade.
