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

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Public Enemy

 
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How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?
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Avg: 4.0 (89 ratings)

Your new soundtrack to black power rallies — and spinning classes at the Y.

  • We Say...

    Review by Ben Westhoff

    “Soul power!” declares Chuck D on the title track of How to Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul, over a sample and chorus which both recall “Fight the Power.” It’s the first of many shout-outs to Public Enemy’s earlier works; just about every song they’ve ever done is name-dropped here, along with the career highlights of fellow politicopop pioneer Bob Dylan. Fortunately, none of this is a bad thing. In fact, surrounding these nostalgic rhymes are some of the group’s most explosive tracks to date, courtesy of recharged Bomb Squad producer Gary G-Wiz.

    First single “Harder Than You Think” is a brass-heavy adrenaline rush which, with any justice, will serve as the soundtrack to both black power rallies and spinning classes at the Y. Other highlights include KRS-One's verse on "Sex, Drugs and Violence," the Redman-produced "Can You Hear Me Now," and Flava Flav at his dadaistic best on “Col-Leepin" — the most absurd hip-hop song since the death of Ol’ Dirty Bastard. “Flava Flav, back in your face once again, from New York, London, Australia, Japan, and China, this jam goes out to my kids!” he tells us. (While Flav offers welcome comic relief to Chuck D’s insistent politicking, one wonders what the latter thought of Flavor of Love.) But the album’s most surprising feature is its preponderance of bangers. “Amerikan Gangster,” “The Enemy Battle Hymn of the Public” and “Frankenstar” all rank as some of the most insistent, inspired work Public Enemy has ever done. It isn't always pretty, but it's never less than honest.

  • They Say...

    Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

    Appropriately for the only hip-hop group that's been active for 20 years, cutting records and touring during that entire time, Public Enemy has a long memory. Long enough to be self-referential, as the title of their 2006 Paris collaboration Rebirth of a Nation suggested, but 2007's How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul??? bubbles over with references to their past: the title alone is an elliptical throwback to "Who Sold the Soul" on Fear of a Black Planet, but there are scores of musical nods to their past here, from the heavy metal shred on "Black Is Back" to how "Between Hard and Rock Place" plays like one of the bridges on Fear of a Black Planet, or the It Takes a Nation of Millions samples on "Can You Hear Me Now." Far from being recycled, these quotes and allusions provide a history that Public Enemy builds upon here, either in the beats or the words. The indictment of gangsta rap on "Sex, Drugs & Violence" or the materialism on "Can You Hear Me Now" carry a greater weight because their past is reflected within the music, offering a reminder of how things have changed in 20 years. Smartly, Public Enemy never tries to run from their middle age, but this isn't stilted like New Whirl Odor. They subtly yet sharply change the productions, expanding their signature dense soundscapes and sometimes departing from it as well, as in the hardcore gangsta of "Amerikan Gangster." Even if it hardly sounds like hip-hop that reaches the charts in 2007, this is ferocious and vital as music, while Chuck D remains one of the greatest lyricists in either rap or pop, as well as one of the more incisive political commentators. And in this context, Flavor Flav loses any of the cartoonish trappings his endless VH1 reality shows have given him, and remains a potent source of comic relief. In that sense, Public Enemy is the same as they ever were, but what's remarkable about How You Sell is how PE grows and matures without abandoning their core identity, proving that it's possible to age as a rap group without turning into an embarrassment. And even if PE doesn't pack the same kind of commercial punch as it used to, it's hard to call an album this spirited and alive irrelevant.

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