RSSDespite all the pigheaded controversy PE has waded into, that soundhas never quit. Its fierce militance has been bitten by hard guysboth gangsta and political, its multilayered dissonance by everyone,but the originals are still the greatst. To complain that 1990'sFear of a Black Planet or the brilliant newApocalypse'91: The Empire Strikes Black (Def Jam) break no new groundis like sayingThe Beatles' Second Album didn't topMeetthe Beatles, orSticky Fingers represented no advanceoverLet It Bleed.
Unlikely as it may seem, the first side/half ofApocalypse '91--whichbuilds from a mouth-dropping we're-here shout to Flav's nasty, swinging,catchyI Don't Wanna Be Called Yo Niga, then winds down intothe well-namedHow To Kill a Radio Consultant and an assualton Martin Luther King Day boycotters--is Public Enemy's most excitingsustained sequence ever. The rest is more mortal, its failings pointedup by Chuck and Flav's latest antimedia whine. But the second sideofLet It Bleed also has its duff moments. And 22 years laterevery one stands up.
Playboy, Sept. 1991
 | Aug. 1991 | Oct. 1991 |  |