Public Enemy Harder Than You Think?
paquelas
206 Posts
anyone listening?your thoughts?
paquelas
206 Posts
Comments
im not not mad at it. pretty good.
Well, it's definitely better than anything they've done (that I've heard) in 13+ years, but I don't know...Chuck D sounds like he's rapping to a different track, off-beat but in a bad way. He seems to recycle his old rhymes and rhyme patterns a lot, which, while it does bring back memories of golden era PE, does not sound convincing at all in 2007. The beat is decent.
Yeah I'm with roisto on this, like the beat but Chuck's rapping sounds slightly off - like he needs an extra word per line or the beat should be a little faster. Sounds more like a remix than the beat he originally laid down the rap to. Really not sure about that album title.
title is kinda weird...especially with that question mark at the end
lyrics harken back to an old formula...while not in its prime, it did remind me of something froim the good ol days. on this song, flavs whole routine is a rehash
still, very listenable. i like the video (especially the uhaul truck)
and the horns are dope.
Yeah I am liking the horns - is this still a bomb squad affliated production? I must confess to never really having checked out a PE album properly since Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age but might give this a listen.
Grope, Flavor's an absolutely integral part of what makes Public Enemy, the ying and yang aspect has always worked brilliantly for them IMO.
classy!
I've watched this three times already, to me it's not bad at all.
It looks like Chuck and Flav are just driving around Roosevelt and Freeport (their hometowns) all day in a Uhaul, every spot featured in there are local landmarks (Centennial Park, Tony's Bakery, the Community Center on Babylon Tpke, all that is within a mile from where I live but heavily segregated from me...don't get it twisted, we didn't grow up in the same neighborhoods at all even though they are right down the road). I even showed Paycheck that same parkway sign from the Terrordome 12" on his recent guided tour of Merrick and Freeport.
Slightly off the topic, two friends of mine were students at Adelphi University and one was an art major. They were in the theater building and were looking around in some of the spare rooms that looked like they hadn't been used in years, and found one that had a bunch of old forgotten artwork in it that students left behind. They found a couple pieces with the name C.Ridenhour on them, done by Chuck D obviously. No word on how good they were though.
That is interesting. I'd love to see some of Mista Chuck's college paintings!
i do like those horns!
and its funny how Flav's vox are all sampled/recycled. like, he said it all before, why not re-use exactly what he said?
theyre showing heart and soul, if nothing else.
Anyhow, the CD comes with a dvd... kinda a little documentary about the tour they were on. It was actually pretty entertaining. The S1W's were seriously looking just like the spoof on that 3rd Bass video though... They were all out of sync with their dance moves...l not sure those dudes should be swinging swords if they're having a hard time staying synchronized... the martial arts forms looked ok though.
Anyhow, I will always really really dig these guys.
Peace...
FNM
shit is knocking
the acoustic guitar backing flav up is that cool calm before the storm of the horns
chuck might as well be a preacher...he's a smart focused dude who has been in the game forever without compromising his values.
The preacher comment is on point. Chuck has always had that pulpit feel to his delivery, and this seems like a natural extension. It also sounds less awkward when I'm not watching the video.
I wish they would have had the PE logo over the U in U-Haul for the whole video, instead of just the end. Makes most of it look like a U-Haul ad. I suddenly think U-Haul trucks are cool, and I have no reason why, aside from product association. They should be getting $$$ from those truck peoples.
on the cd, the 'harder than you think' track sounds a lot better, to my ears. sounds like chuck actually rapped to this song, and he doesnt sound like hes choking on a wad of bubblegum. i put it on repeat and enjoyed the pseudo-flashback effect the song has. whatever it was that they were great at, they still are pretty good at, depending on the song. i think that youtube video did something odd with the audio.
there are several other songs on this album that i really like. #16 and #17 are winners to me. #16 has Flava rapping about his (true? im assuming) experience of going to jail. Oddly serious yet in a flava way thats very funny and clever too. #17 is a slower song that had a lot of soul, sorta the righteous vibe they had when they did the "for what its worth" cover for 'he got game'. there were some other nice ones too, but the 19 song cd was about half 'ehh/whatever' id say. there was even a bit of chaotic bomb-squad-esque stuff going on in a few tracks, that odd 'repetitive noises but it sounds like music' style thats sorta a PE trademark. they even had KRS-one guest on a song and it actually didnt blow somehow!? Anyway, cut it down to a 10 song album and it would be pretty strong. (true for most 15-20 track cd's, no?)
b/w
it occurred to me, that because chuck raps about 'old school serious' stuff and doesnt go for (doesnt know?) the modern slang and street talk thats on most other hip-hop releases, PE appeals mostly to a 'non-street' audience. (...or always has??). Its odd - its like, PE doesnt feel threatening or subversive at all anymore, but instead of trying to change, theyre just staying themselves, which isnt really a bad look - you at least continue appealing to whoever you already had listening, as opposed to alienating them while getting clonned by the new school. or at least it seems this way to me.
Nah
P.E. has been "street" since day uno.