It’s been seven years since Public Enemy leader Chuck D released a solo single. But on Friday (April 18) the lyrical Hard Rhymer came back into the frame with the psychedelic bomb track “New Gens.” A swirl of PE’s signature hard-hitting beats, layered samples and D’s twisty wordplay, it opens with the rapper borrowing last presidential election’s Democrat diss of choice.
“Weird, I’m weird too/ But damn, you weird/ Can’t stand the way you, goddamn you weird/ Oh way you can’t see, but can you listen for a minute?/ If you cannot see it, but cannot hear it/ Whoa, new gens can’t dance to this,” he booms over the free jazz-like track featuring rock guitar, vintage VHS tape educational videos samples, blaring horns and a disjointed drum track.
“Here right now the place to be/ Why everybody’s always pickin’ on we?/ We the people, ‘crossed all ages/ Now joined by a screen between/ Called screenagers,” he intones in the video that features a collage of stock b-boy and rollerskating footage from the 1970s and ’80s, news reels and fresh film of Chuck chilling on a couch having a drink. “And don’t forget, new gens I love y’all/ Have a ball,’” D says in a shout-out to the current crop of MCs.
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Stetsasonic legend Schooly D jumps into frame in the final stretch to amp things up with a frenetic guest spot.
“They say I got no filter/ I’m wonderin’ if it’s true/ But when you speak the truth/ Some punks ain’t into you,” he raps before adding the cold hard coda, “Some people claim they legends/ But don’t put nothin’ out.”
The single is the first taste of D’s upcoming solo album, Radio Armageddon, which is due out on May 18. The 14-track follow-up to 2018’s Celebration of Ignorance will find Chuck surrounded by some of his old school microphone brethren, from Schooly D to Philly rapper Phill Most Chill and Donald D and Jazzy Jay of the Universal Zulu Nation. Other guests include hip-hop’s original hype woman, Son of Bazerk’s 1/2 Pint, ULTRAMAG7, N.Y. MC Miranda Writes and artists from D’s SpitSLAM Record label, The Impossebulls and Blak Madeen.
Chuck will be on the road with PE this summer, playing a run of festivals in the U.S. and Europe in May and June before joining Guns N’ Roses for a run of European shows this summer.
Check out the video for “New Gens” and the album’s track list below.
Radio Armageddon tracklist:
- “Radio Armageddon”
- “What Rock Is”
- “Black Don’t Dead”
- “New Gens”
- “Station Break”
- “Rogue Runnin”
- “Is God She”
- “Station Identification”
- “Here We Are Heard”
- “Superbagg”
- “Carry On”
- “What Are We To You”
- “Sight Story Style Sound”
- “Signing Off”
