Let's face it: If any year needed a new album from
Public Enemy, it was 2020. Faced with disease and unrest at every turn,
PE returned to their original home,
Def Jam, for
What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?, a record that consciously reconnects with their past while addressing the present with a clear eye. At first, it's hard to avoid the chaos of the modern world, with
Public Enemy pushing their "State of the Union (STFU)" and the existential digital quandary of the title track, but the record subtly shifts gears with "Public Enemy Number Won." Its title is a nod to "Public Enemy No. 1," a pivotal track from their 1987 debut, and it doesn't hide from the fact that neither
Public Enemy nor their guests
Mike D,
Ad-Rock, and
Run-DMC have been at this since the '90s. The vibe isn't necessarily nostalgic. Rather, it's an acknowledgment that the years have piled up, that
PE and their peers are now not only the old guard, they're survivors. That's an undercurrent that runs through
What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?: It finds room for additional cameos by
Cypress Hill,
Nas,
Questlove, and
Ice-T, fellow hip-hop veterans who have turned lifers. The departed are saluted on "Rest in Beats," too, and
PE and
Daddy-O wrestle with how today doesn't jibe with days gone by on "Yesterday Man," but this isn't a record stuck in the past, even if
Public Enemy rely on their thick collage of classic soul, funk, and rock for
What You Gonna Do's production. Instead, the album pulls off a trick: it's an affair that makes no apologies for the artist's advancing age while also sounding vibrant and alive. It helps that
Chuck D sounds robust and
Flavor Flav sounds lively as their performances keep pulling the album into the present. It's not the sound of a group resting on their laurels, it's the sound of a band summoning their strengths with a hint of sentiment to figure out how to deal with a world gone mad. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
