Harder Than You Think : The Return of Public Enemy

Dear UK media, if Public Enemy's "Harder Than You Think" (Channel 4 Paralympics theme) is such a classic tune why weren't you playing it four years ago when it got released? Was X-Factor that good in 2008?

Just some of the great music you were listening to in 2008 instead of "Harder Than You Think"

Leona Lewis
Scouting For Girls (who could forget their singles "She's So Lovely" and "Elvis Ain't Dead")
Andy Abraham
George Sampson
Chris Brown
ABBA's greatest hits (after Mamma Mia!)
Boyzone
Alexandra Burke

PE's album of 2008, How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People That Have Got No Soul???, was their 20 year anniversary and a real return to form. Why was it so studiously ignored? A few duff albums wasn't enough to completely sideline one of the seminal black acts of all time, it can't have been that they just became unfashionable - could it? When has that ever stopped Coldplay?

PE don't really help themselves, Flavour Flav's adventures in reality tv did the band no favours (though the same thing didn't seem to hurt John Lydon) and some of their earlier output seems to flirt with anti-semtism.  "Swindlers Lust" off There's a Poison Goin On might be about crooked money grabbing money executives, but if so, that is a catastrophic choice of title (too close to Schindlers List) in light of earlier accusations.

'Back in Black', one of the tracks off "How You Sell Soul.." is an indicator of the talent they still have and the resistance they were begining to get. Intended as a cover of the AC/DC classic,  they were denied use of samples from the original (an example of how low they'd fallen from being one of the biggest bands in the world) and had to completely record the track again in short order. They shrugged, got their heads down, and their completely new version of Back in Black is one of the best tracks on the album.

In an industry where Chris "I like to use my girl as a punchbag" Brown is completely forgiven why are PE so forgotten? 

Where Public Enemy used to aim at US Government in their lyrics, the target of How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul? is pretend gangsters preaching to a music market interested only in bling and materialism. After years of fighting the system Chuck D and co seemed to have realised that the system has infiltrated their own industry, and bling obsessed goons like Jay Z and P Diddy (and his f**king English butler with his fake name) and thugs like Chris Brown and (famous Bush supporter) 50 cent have far more in common with the scum that exploited their people than they have with their own community.

Lyrics from track 'Frankenstar'

WE THE FANS 
HOPIN THEY WOULD BE OPEN
TINTED GLASS
BEHIND THAT TINTED GLASS
CROWD WAITING IN LIMBO
IS THAT THE LIMO?
BUT HE DONT GIVE A DAMN
SHE DONT GIVE A DAMN
JUST BUY THEIR PRODUCT
CAUSE THEY A BY PRODUCT OF A MARKETING PLAN
CAN I JUST GET AN AUTOGRAPH?
IM FANATIC NUMBER 2 MILLION
SIGN IT TO MY MAMA
SO SHE CAN CUT THE DRAMA
BOUGHT IN A STORE IN NICARAGUA
but you ignore The POOR
CANT EVEN GET TO YOUR DOOR


FRANKENSTAR 
YOU DONT EVEN KNOW WHO THE HELL YOU ARE
I DONT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR CAR
FRANKENSTAR
FRANKENSTAR
FRANKENSTAR
YOU DONT EVEN KNOW WHO THE HELL YOU ARE
WE DONT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR CRIB
ONLY GIVE A DAMN ABOUT WHAT YOU DID

Try selling Harder Than You Think to radio and media when the album is screaming of the corruption and greed in the same industry (and look back to 2008 - they were spot on)

'Harder Than You Think' is a massively empowering tune and brilliantly compliments Channel's Four's genuis 'Meet The Superhumans' ad campaign, but was only intended as Public Enemy giving themselves credit for two decades of the kind of musical and media agitation that the Sex Pistols could only manage for 2-3 years. They defined a musical genre in the 90s and 90s only to be sidelined and ridiculed in the following decade, a disgusting and corrupt political era that could never face the truth. That was the world of 2008.

Public Enemy are releasing two new studio albums this year.