THE new Public Enemy album arrived this month as a surprise free release two years on from Man Plans, God Laughs.
The US has gone a bit mental between Public Enemy releases, but sadly 'The Donald' pretty much evades the PE cross-hairs on their 30th anniversary collection.
While the 45th president doesn't ever get called out by name, PE do deploy Trump's infamous "there have been terrorist attacks that no-one knows about" on the buzzing Terrorwrist.
Chuck D's opening line on the 'wild guitar'-smeared (courtesy of PE axeman Khari Wynn) Yesterday Man, "some want to be a spectacle instead of spectacular", is surely also directly inspired by the Orange One, before Chuck and hype-man Flavor Flav list a bunch of chuckle-inducing "what happened?" pop cultural head-scratchers ("Are Run and DMC still friends?" being a favourite).
The veteran band's 14th studio album is free-flowing, enjoyably lively collection bolstered by DJ Lord's top turntablism and appearances by handful of guest rappers including Ice-T, the latter spitting out a superb bounce-friendly verse on Smash The Crowd.
Elsewhere, Beat Them All's "if you can't join 'em, you know you gotta beat 'em" is a groovy bass-heavy call to action for the disaffected while Toxic finds Chuck pondering "can a song save the world in this time of 45?" over a prowling feast of scratch 'n' beats
The PE leader is in confident pro-active form on strident 'be the change you want to see' album stand-out So Be It and the head-nodding accusations of hypocrisy-baiting anti-social media rant SOC MED Digital Heroin (direct all feedback to @MrChuckD).
New PE, for free, featuring Ice-T? You know what to do.
