Public Enemy - What you Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down? review: Hip hop’s state of the nation address for 2020

Empowering: Public Enemy take on the pandemic and police brutality on their latest album
Getty Images
Harry Fletcher25 September 2020

If anyone is going to deliver hip hop’s state of the nation address in 2020, it should be Public Enemy.

One of the most empowering voices of the Eighties and Nineties, they have always tackled oppression and racism in their music. They’re hardly short of inspiration on their first album for Def Jam in more than 20 years. Grid tells of pandemics, police brutality and the degeneration of society, while State of the Union (STFU) takes aim at Maga rhetoric.

But the highlight is Fight the Power: Remix 2020 — a new take on the group’s 1989 anthem, reimagined in the light of the Black Lives Matter movement and the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Rapper Rapsody steals the limelight on her guest verse, telling how “George [was] killed for a 20,” before reminding us it’s our collective duty to “fight for Breonna and the pain of her mother.”

It’s a powerful record from the masters of political hip hop.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT