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PUBLIC ENEMY HE'S GOT GAME Def Jam  At Long Last They're Back And With A Vengence This Won't Disappoint Conscious Lyrics And An Updated Sound
The first thing ya gotta do is give PE major props for sticking with the script.. This sound track makes perfect sense.. The theme was the trials and tribulations of the movie's high school basketball star Jesus Shuttlesworth.. and PE pretty much made songs that reflected that.. Far too often you have sound tracks where the songs that are featured have nothing to do with the movie...PE is definitely not guilty of that trend... Tracks like 'He's Got Game', 'Politics Of The Sneaker Pimps', 'Super Agent' and 'What You Need Is Jesus' prove that Chuck D can get deep in this basketball thing.. For example in The Sneaker Pimp song Chuck drops some deep lyrics about the exploitation these basketball shoe companies do to our communities... 'Super Agent' insightfully spits much game on the role exploitative sports agents play in this drama. Other stand out cuts include a bomb ass duo with KRS-One entitled 'Unstoppable'... Here both Chuck and Kris flex their microphone skills.. and yes folks.. Chuck is indeed a rhyme animal..'House Of The Rising Son' and 'Resurrection' which features Master Killa of the Wu-Tang camp are also on point... It's hard to say how today's audience will like PE..A lot of kids are unfortunately checkin' for other things.. The positive messages that Chuck D delivers may have to reach the youth another way...However, I think PE fans will be into this album.. No, the group has not allowed themselves to be stuck in time.. They bring a refreshing more contemporary sound as opposed to the wall of noise sound which was forever, their trademark.. They can't be accused of remaking old hit songs from the 80s although Flav sort of goes there with a dance track called 'Shake Your Booty'.. Here PE borrows from the People's Choice classic..'Do It Anyway You Wanna'.. The title cut 'He's Got Game' borrows from the hit song 'For What It's Worth' by Stephan Stills... However.. Stephan is featured on the cut.. and hardly anyone has ever sampled from this groove.. All in all PE succeeds in 'Bringin' The Noise'.I give this album an A-
6-20-98
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At long last Public Enemy returns to the scene...I'm talkin' about the whole crew.. from the newly reinstated Professor Griff to Flava Flav to Terminator X.. The original Bomb Squad production team featuring Hank and Keith Shocklee also returns..And let me tell you they sound damn good.. This particular album is the first of two lps that'll drop this year... 'He's Got Game' was done specifically for film directorSpike Lee's basketball movie of the same name...