Public Enemy - He Got Game - Released April 1998

    After keeping quiet for a long time, P.E. is back in this bitch. This is the first album released from Public Enemy since 1994's Muse Sick N Hour Mess Age (not including Chuck D's solo join - Autobiography Of MistaChuck). And although fans were generally pleased with Muse Sick, the critics had a field day ripping it apart, so there was no doubt that they'd be eage to get their claws into this jam as well. But, I tried to ignore the hype and listen to the album for myself. The first track, appropirately titled Ressurection is a pretty good song. Rather than the long introductory instrumentals that we're used to with PE, this CD has Chuck rhymin right off the mark. This track, although a little choppy in the rhyme flow, features a nice set with Masta Killa and generally comes off okay. The next cut, the title track of the album, is the bom shit. The beat is chill but it's there and it suits the song and the lyrics can't be touched "it's scary, like lies buried in a library" or "human beings screamin vocal javelins, sign of the local nigga unravelin'". The next track is probably one of the best on the CD as it parallels the intense rhyming skills of Chuck with KRS-One. And we see both MC's at their finest. The rest of the album has a lot of variety. There's the Flava track "Shake Your Booty" which is in typical Flava fashion. There's a slow creeping sounding track about the 'Politics Of The Sneaker Pimps' (ie: Nike). There's tracks like What You Need Is Jesus where Chuck rhymes so hard you can almost feel the spit flyin into the mic. And then there's Go Cat Go which, remixed by Meat Beat Manifesto, is a big change from regular PE joints. All in all this is a really good album. You might have to replay it once or twice before you can really get into it, but when you do - you'll be glad you did.