What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?

Let's face it: If any year needed a new album from Public Enemy, it was 2020. Faced with disease and unrest at every turn, PE returned to their original home, Def Jam, for What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?, a record that consciously reconnects with their past while addressing the present with a clear eye. At first, it's hard to avoid the chaos of the modern world, with Public Enemy pushing their "State of the Union (STFU)" and the existential digital quandary of the title track, but the record subtly shifts gears with "Public Enemy Number Won." Its title is a nod to "Public Enemy No. 1," a pivotal track from their 1987 debut, and it doesn't hide from the fact that neither Public Enemy nor their guests Mike D, Ad-Rock, and Run-DMC have been at this since the '90s. The vibe isn't necessarily nostalgic. Rather, it's an acknowledgment that the years have piled up, that PE and their peers are now not only the old guard, they're survivors. That's an undercurrent that runs through What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?: It finds room for additional cameos by Cypress Hill, Nas, Questlove, and Ice-T, fellow hip-hop veterans who have turned lifers. The departed are saluted on "Rest in Beats," too, and PE and Daddy-O wrestle with how today doesn't jibe with days gone by on "Yesterday Man," but this isn't a record stuck in the past, even if Public Enemy rely on their thick collage of classic soul, funk, and rock for What You Gonna Do's production. Instead, the album pulls off a trick: it's an affair that makes no apologies for the artist's advancing age while also sounding vibrant and alive. It helps that Chuck D sounds robust and Flavor Flav sounds lively as their performances keep pulling the album into the present. It's not the sound of a group resting on their laurels, it's the sound of a band summoning their strengths with a hint of sentiment to figure out how to deal with a world gone mad. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine