"On and on to the break of dawn
Some the 100 meter dash, I'm the Marathon
It's that grand old PE ammo
Different time different channel."
--Chuck D, Public Enemy

In a culture of hip-hop sprinters, Public Enemy is a marathon runner. In another fifteen years, someone willl be giving the "Lifetime Achievement Award" to Chuck D and Flava Flav. The award would not be any less deserved if it were awarded today, but it's a good bet that Public Enemy will be going strong well into the next millenium. And if their latest album is any indication, Public Enemy shows no signs of being "Public Friend" any time soon.

There's a Poison Goin On is the best PE album since 1990's Fear of a Black Planet, which featured the incendiary "Fight the Power". As is appropriate for a true public enemy, the release of the new album was also surrounded by some controversy involving ownership of creative material. When the group tried to release some new material in Mp3 format through the Public Enemy web site, their record label threatened to sue. Public Enemy promptly left the label (Def Jam), and released the Poison album entirely as Mp3 downloads through the Atomic Pop web site. The album can also be found on compact disc, but the decision to embrace the Mp3 format demonstrates PE's vitality as artists asserting control over their work.

What makes Poison so exciting for fans of intelligent hip-hop?

--Do You Wanna Go Our Way?
This one is haaard. With a screaming guitar, a live drummer, and what sounds like a distorted gong, this single doesn't say a whole lot (Give em a break. Even when they're not addressing social issues, they've still got more content in their rhymes than most rappers), but it KICKS ASS. After hearing it for the first time, I was inspired to rush out and join the Black Panthers. If nothing else, it definitely gets you pumped for the rest of the album.

--Swindler's Lust
"If you don't own the master, then the master own you." A large part of Public Enemy's venom these days is targeted at white-owned urban radio stations and supercorporate record labels. "Swindler's Lust" compares the owners of these companies to slave-owners-treating black artists and consumers as profit- producing slaves.

Profit off the souls of black folk
Turn em into bitchez and niggas
And stupid ass jokes
Laughin all the way to the bank

--Crash
"Crash" is PE's warning about the possible chaos that the first weeks of 2000 will bring. More than reactionary paranoia about Y2K, "Crash" cautions us about all the other things that are possible on this historic date. Amongst rampant inflation and stock market crashes and lunatics with machine guns, Chuck D prophesies a government that steps in to enforce order, but oversteps its authority. It's pure fantasy, but a reminder that our world can-and will--change really quickly on January 1.

Through it all, the unmistakable PE sound pumps through your speakers. Thick with intricate beats and ominous-sounding samples, all of the tracks are classic Public Enemy--a sound which remains current while at the same time hearkening back to the great PE tracks of the past decade. While many rap acts start to sound old-school after a few years, Pubic Enemy remains forever hardcore. Musically and lyrically, these guys stick to what they're best at, and also manage to accomplish the enormous challenge of being a true public enemy. This music is the reverse of jiggy.