There's a Poison Goin' On... [Bonus Tracks] [PA]

Performer: Public Enemy
Artist: Kyle Jason
Producer: Tom E. Hawk; Flavor Flav
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: This reissue contains 5 bonus tracks. Public Enemy: Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Terminator X, Professor Griff. Additional personnel: Kyle Jason (vocals). Recorded in 1999. Includes liner notes by Chuck D. Personnel: Professor Griff (vocals, spoken vocals); Flavor Flav, Kyle Jason, Chuck D (vocals); DJ President Ike (turntables). Audio Mixers: DJ Johnny Juice; G-Wiz; The Nextmen. Audio Remixer: C Doc. Liner Note Author: Chuck D. Recording information: The Icehouse, Long Island, NY. After more than a decade as one of hip-hop's most pioneering and successful rap acts, Public Enemy forged new ground once again in the music business with 1999's THERE'S A POISON GOIN' ON. The album was one of the first feature releases available exclusively on the internet and is PE's loudest, most forceful record in years. Though the album does contain the radio-friendly "Do You Wanna Go Our Way," Public Enemy proves that it hasn't lost its vitriol with tracks like "Crash," "Last Mass of the Caballeros," and "LSD." Flavor-Flav is back in full jokster mode on such tracks as "41:19" and "What What." And of course, what's a PE album without controversy? "Swindler's Lust," in which Chuck D criticizes greed-driven record companies, has drawn considerable fire. For what it's worth, Chuck D and Public Enemy are as relevant today as they were when they first appeared on the hip-hop scene. Opening with a sonic collage straight out of Fear of a Black Planet, There's a Poison Goin' On. . . comes out of the gates sounding like classic Public Enemy, which is exactly what Public Enemy intended, since their slight sonic change-up on He Got Game didn't result in a hit. In a way, PE's feud with Def Jam over downloadable MP3 music was a good thing, since it brought them media attention, which is rare for a veteran hip-hop band. Such increased exposure also brought a minor controversy over "Swindlers Lust," which some perceived as anti-Semitic, but this outrage was isolated because Public Enemy was now at the margins of hip-hop. They were no longer considered cutting-edge, and younger kids never picked up their records, so the only place for this controversy to reside was among the rock critics and aging fans who remembered when It Takes a Nation of Millions changed the world ten years prior. Chuck D must have known that they would be the only ones paying attention to the album, since it consciously copies PE's past and never really breaks from that blueprint. In some respects, that's a disappointment, since He Got Game showed that PE could subtly incorporate modern hip-hop, and do it better than some modern acts. But There's a Poison Goin' On is nevertheless a strong album, even if it is doggedly classicist. It's also dogmatic, with Chuck preaching to the converted about the evils of the record industry and conformity in hip-hop, which does become a little trying by the end of the record. But he delivers lyrically and PE delivers musically, in a manner that's entirely familiar to fans of Public Enemy, offering a solid continuation of Apocalypse 91. Ultimately, it's their most satisfying record in several years -- which is a subtle difference that only the converted will notice. [The album was reissued in 2004 via Koch with bonus tracks.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone (8/5/99, p.64) - 3 1/2 stars (out of 5) - "...there is some jigginess on this record....the emphasis is on sparser, more spacious mixes- less claustrophobic and dizzying...but still gripping..." Alternative Press (11/99, p.119) - 4 out of 5 - "...the still-strident PE are back....best as an eyes-closed, headphones on high-volume experience. It takes extremely seriously the idea that hip hop should be consciousness-altering music..." The Wire (8/99, p.55) - "...Public Enemy are back and this time it's personal....Everyone...finds themselves caught in Chuck's rhetorical crosshairs and no one survives intact....this is the loudest, noisest Public Enemy album in nine years..." Muzik (8/99, p.84) - 5 stars (out of 5) - "...defiant, provocative and reassuringly abrasive music....this album is a treat....POISON is vintage PE, all the more welcome at a time when there had seemed to be no one left who was prepared to make rational, thoughtful, incisive hip-hop."

In the late 1980s, Public Enemy connected the dots between politics, soul music, hard rock, marketing, turntablism, and rhyme, and turned hip-hop into an urban global youth movement. PE's pioneering albums are heralded as avant-garde artworks whose disparate sample sources combine into a gloriously chaotic mosaic of polyphony and African-American unrest. Powered by Chuck D.'s political fury, enlivened by Flavor Flav's antics, and made controversial by Professor Griff's ethnocentrism, Public Enemy influenced virtually every rapper who followed in their wake.

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