Public Enemy - He Got Game - Soundtrack (Def Jam) It is appropriate that Public Enemy chose 1998 to make their comeback.
Perhaps more than at any other point in its history, rap is in dire need of some uplifting.
Their first release since 1994's Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age does deliver. The soundtrack to Spike Lee's basketball film He Got Game is filled with the calibre of material Public Enemy is known for.
Like the socially conscious material they produced in the '80s and early '90s, Public Enemy has plenty to say about race relations in America and particularly race politics within the game of basketball.
'White men in suits don't have to jump,' announces Chuck D in the astounding title track, which loops from the Stephen Stills anti-war track For What It's Worth.
In Politics of the Sneaker Pimps, Chuck D calls on his listeners to question the exploitative practices of multi-nationals in Asia as well as pointing out that in America's inner cities, people have been shot for a pair of Nike sneakers.