Public Enemy There's A Poison Goin' On CD

After more than a decade as one of hip-hop's most pioneering and successful rap acts, Public Enemy forged new ground once again in the music business with 1999's THERE'S A POISON GOIN' ON. The album was one of the first feature releases available exclusively on the internet and is PE's loudest, most forceful record in years. Though the album does contain the radio-friendly "Do You Wanna Go Our Way," Public Enemy proves that it hasn't lost its vitriol with tracks like "Crash," "Last Mass of the Caballeros," and "LSD."

Flavor-Flav is back in full jokster mode on such tracks as "41:19" and "What What." And of course, what's a PE album without controversy? "Swindler's Lust," in which Chuck D criticizes greed-driven record companies, has drawn considerable fire. For what it's worth, Chuck D and Public Enemy are as relevant today as they were when they first appeared on the hip-hop scene.

Opening with a sonic collage straight out of Fear of a Black Planet, There's a Poison Goin' On. . . comes out of the gates sounding like classic Public Enemy, which is exactly what Public Enemy intended, since their slight sonic change-up on He Got Game didn't result in a hit. In a way, PE's feud with Def Jam over downloadable MP3 music was a good thing, since it brought them media attention, which is rare for a veteran hip-hop band. Such increased exposure also brought a minor controversy over "Swindlers Lust," which some perceived as anti-Semitic, but this outrage was isolated because Public Enemy was now at the margins of hip-hop. They were no longer considered cutting-edge, and younger kids never picked up their records, so the only place for this controversy to reside was among the rock critics and aging fans who remembered when It Takes a Nation of Millions changed the world ten years prior. Chuck D must have known that they would be the only ones paying attention to the album, since it consciously copies PE's past and never really breaks from that blueprint. In some respects, that's a disappointment, since He Got Game showed that PE could subtly incorporate modern hip-hop, and do it better than some modern acts. But There's a Poison ...