Oct
14
How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul???
Posted by admin Comments (5)
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 lif… More >>
How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul???
Tags: national corporations, technological advances, Soul, People, Sold, Soulless, artistic control
Categories: All About Selling
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.
Rating: 3 / 5
I give this album 5 stars not necessarily for the musical aspect, but for the lyrical message it brings. Chuck D and PE never fails to impress me. I believe they have released enough material for a boxed set of all their hits and then some. The standout tracks on this project are….. ALL OF THEM!!!
As long as PE keeps putting out albums, Im gonna keep supporting them. As I have said in previous reviews of PE, this is what REAL Hiphop music sounds like.
Rating: 5 / 5
Chuck D is such an underrated artist and a lyrical monster on the mic. This album is a true masterpiece. Flavor Flav is on point and more vocal on this album, and it great to see him in his former self and not that Flavor of Love non-sense. For true fans of PE and love of the intellectual rap music and real Golden Era styled lyrics, go and purchase this album. Its a good listen from beginning to end.
Rating: 5 / 5
Public Enemy is one of the greatest rap groups of all time. If you consider yourself a hardcore fan of hip-hop then you will definitely have some of their albums in your collection. However, their latest release, ‘How You Sell Soul…’, is an intriguing and enjoyable listen, but falls below the standards expected from the legendary group.
‘Public Enemy’ was one of the rap groups I’ve grown up listening to. I’ve loved most of their work throughout their glory years, but skipped their last few albums (if you’re a new fan, pick up Power to the People and the Beats: Public Enemy’s Greatest Hits because it expertly chronicles their amazing career).
While Chuck D is as good as ever here, Flavor Flav definitely brings down the entire album. I would have preferred a solo album by Chuck D instead of having Flavor Flav put in here for no reason. He used to be the hype man of the group, and once did a great job doing that, but there is little chemistry between the two here. It almost feels like Chuck D recorded the album himself and someone tacked on Flavor Flav’s parts at the last minute. Also, the solo tracks from Flavor Flav, such as ‘Flavor Man’, may sound decent at first but they grow old very fast. If nothing, they should have at least taken those off the album.
Although the group feels very disjointed as this point in their career, there are many quality tracks on here. The opening track, ‘How You Sell Soul to a Souless People Who Sold Their Soul?’ is a highlight, and many of the following songs such as ‘Escapism’ and ‘Can You Here Me Now’ (which has a very dope beat) have great lyrics.
However, while some of the beats are nice and unique, many feel low-budget and generic. In the early days of their career, Public Enemy put out some of the best-produced albums of all time, but you won’t find the creative production of ‘It Takes a Nation…’ or ‘Fear of a Black Planet’ here.
Also, several tracks might have sounded good in concept (Sex, Drugs & Violence (feat. KRS-One) is a good example), but in reality they come off as corny tracks with a neat concept and good lyrics but failed execution.
Sure, it has some bumps in the road, but Public Enemy’s latest effort is still worth picking up. Although I criticized this album heavily in my review, there are many aspects that make it worthy of the P.E. legacy. However, the album as a whole comes off very flawed and disjointed. Also, the lyrical content here is strong (though again not as good as their glory days), and in this day and age in hip-hop it’s good to hear Chuck point out legitimate problems in our society (as well as the modern hip-hop industry).
3.5 Stars
Stand-out tracks: ‘How You Sell…’, ‘Escapism’, ‘Can You Hear Me Now’?
Rating: 3 / 5
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
Rating: 3 / 5