Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age 1994 Album

Public Enemy

By 1994 the rap landscape had changed and Public Enemy's politically-charged style was seen as cumbersome compared to the fast glamor of gangsta rap, modern R&B, and the East/West feud. This did not stop them from pushing the envelope; to the contrary, this is their most progressive record post-Black Planet, featuring live drumming, chant vocals and field-type noises to replace the layers of sampling, with Flav and Chuck rapping at apoplectic levels. Admittedly, there is filler, as the group still has it in their heads to make these conceptual records with regular tracks surrounded by lots of interludes, but more than ever before the line between the two are blurred - a good example of this is the first half of the second side of the album. Additionally, they re-imagine a couple of older songs - The Chambers Brothers "Time Has Come Today" ("Race Against Time") and The Last Poets "White Man's Got A God Complex" ("Godd Complexx") - but make them sound like stone-cold P.E. originals. I completely recommend this to any listener and arguably, this is the last classic record the group released.