New Whirl Odor--Public Enemy's new disc

Anyone pick this up? I like PE and picked it up at BB for ten bucks. It’s not as intense as Fear of a Black Planet or It Takes a Nation of Millions, but it has some pretty solid and mature Chuck D lyrics and some cogent and pointed commentary on modern mores. It’s broader and less overtly “racial” than their earlier stuff, but it also lacks some of the fire. In particular, Flavor Flav’s voice is conspicuously less prominent than on their earlier discs. Overall it’s pretty good, amd more “mature” in some ways, yet less satisfying too.

I don’t like it as much as the hitherto unreleased ‘Rebirth of a Nation’ album, which has PE fans up in arms because it’s so commercial and different to regular PE material. NWO is obviously more like regular PE, so it should pass muster.

Not being an expert at “rap” music, have only heard that this group used to produce politically and racially charged music. (May be mistaken.)

Aren’t the artists now too busy appearing in video games and reality TV shows? Thought they’d disbanded.

I keep hearing how “NWO” is a nice return to form for PE, who fell off somewhat with their last few releases (although it was probably unfair to expect them to sustain the incredible quality of their early material for more than three or four albums). So good to hear. I plan on checking it out later today.

I am curious about “Rebirth Of A Nation”, Sam - was that leaked or something? I looked at PE’s site but didn’t see anything that hinted at it being for sale online or in stores.

And by “commercial” - do you mean in terms of production? Because right about now, I’m at the point where I think that’s exactly the direction PE’s beats should go. I’ve been liking the beats of mainstream artists more than the underground dudes (in a general sense - I might make an exception for Quannum Records or MF Doom) for a couple of years now. Chuck D’s voice would be a natural fit with, say, David Banner’s beats.

Now if you mean in terms of lyrical content, then okay, I’d be pretty baffled too. I can’t picture Chuck pulling that off well.

Yeah, I thought they (Chuck and P.E.) shut down for a while and were trying to self publish and do internet releases. Tired of the “Music Biz” B.S. Going commercial just does not sound right. Anything’s possible, though.

I heard that NWO has a number of heavily anti-Corporate tracks, yet PE has granted Best Buy a limited exclusive for the CD.

Still gotta make money to stay alive. Part of the game, I guess.

What does Maynard say when he gets called a sellout in that Tool song, something to the effect of…

I soldout when I made my first record and you bought one so you’re a sell out too…bitch.

That’s pretty not close.

THe other option is stop making records at all and get no message out. I would have to choose the latter.

No, it’s been put back until after the release of NWO. It isn’t strictly a PE record, since it’s largely been put together by an artist called Paris (I’d never heard of him before). If you look at the PE forums, you can read up on some of the discussion/argument/ranting about it. I got it off P2P a few months ago when it was leaked.

And by “commercial” - do you mean in terms of production?

Yeah, production and the actual music. It sounds a lot more like something you’d hear in the charts than your typical PE sound. Fast moving and catchy, quite funky in places.