As epoch-defining as Public Enemy have been – continue to be? – it has to be said that their albums did have a tendency towards flab. That’s okay; it’s something that’s true of a lot of albums, particularly rap ones.

Power to the People and the Beats makes it easy by compiling eighteen pretty much non-stop thrills. Chuck D and Flava Flav provide both natural born leadership and a bombastically wicked sense of humour; both coupled with a furious energy and determined passion. Chuck D is a master wordsmith, right from the get-go with 1987’s Yo! Bumrush the Show.

Two cuts are lifted from that for Power to the People and the Beats, with a further five each coming from the band’s essential It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet, meaning that there’s scant selections from their remaining catalogue.

And that’s the way it should be – Power to the People and the Beats finishes with the excellent “He Got Game” (from the soundtrack to the film of the same name). This chronological succession works a treat, even if it does mean that the first twelve tracks in particular are nothing short of some of the most sensational rap music ever recorded.