By Richard Alverez, Timeoff.com.au
Honestly, the music of Public Enemy has been slowly becoming a spent force over the last 15 years, their trail-blazing first three albums setting a standard even they couldn't again reach.
And so, some 20 years after their birth, enter the rogue force of Paris. The California maverick has written an album specifically for PE, but with the edge that he has, and PE once had - Rebirth Of A Nation is crackling with a fire and energy that is palpable. Paris's hard leftist militant themes are still right up front, but delivered by a voice as trusted as that of Martin Luther King Jr.
Chuck D volleys rhymes with Paris that cover not just change but the realisation of Black Power ('Rise') and disgust at the media's barrage of false messages and goals ('Can't Hold Us Back', 'Plastic Nation') - all still backed with rump-shaking bass.
This album is as close to A Nation Of Millions... as PE are going to get, but gone is the good time JB vibe and in its place the grown up, gritty, cerebral beats of raised fists in the streets.