How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul??? | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | August 7, 2007 | |||
Recorded | 2003–2007 The Mountain (Anaheim, California) | |||
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Public Enemy chronology | ||||
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Singles from How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul??? | ||||
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Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 71/100 [2] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
Blender | [4] |
HipHopDX | [5] |
MSN Music (Consumer Guide) | A− [6] |
NME | 6/10 [7] |
Pitchfork | 7.1/10 [8] |
Q | [9] |
Record Collector | [10] |
Rolling Stone | [11] |
USA Today | [12] |
How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul??? is the tenth studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released August 7, 2007 on Slam Jamz Recordings in the United States. Its release coincided with the 20th anniversary of their career. [13] The album debuted at number 49 on Independent Albums chart, [14] and it received generally positive reviews from most music critics, based on an aggregate score of 71/100 from Metacritic. [2] Music critic Robert Christgau named How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul??? his second favorite album that didn't make Rolling Stone's Top 50 albums of 2007. [15] In September 2012, the album finally entered the UK chart at number 199, followed by success of the top 5 single "Harder Than You Think" after it became the theme song to the British comedy talk show The Last Leg , which debuted the previous month as The Last Leg with Adam Hills .
Credits adapted from Allmusic. [16]
Chart (2012) | Peak position |
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UK Albums (OCC) [17] | 199 |
Public Enemy is an American hip hop group formed by Chuck D and Flavor Flav on Long Island, New York, in 1985. The group rose to prominence for their political messages including subjects such as American racism and the American media. Their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, was released in 1987 to critical acclaim, and their second album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988), was the first hip hop album to top The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll. Their next three albums, Fear of a Black Planet (1990), Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black (1991) and Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age (1994), were also well received. The group has since released twelve more studio albums, including the soundtrack to the 1998 sports-drama film He Got Game and a collaborative album with Paris, Rebirth of a Nation (2006).
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Gary Rinaldo, better known by the name Gary G-Wiz, is an American record producer and film score composer. Most known for being a member of the hip hop production team the Bomb Squad, G-Wiz is a longtime Public Enemy producer and contributed to many albums including: Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black, Greatest Misses, Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age, Autobiography of Mistachuck, There's a Poison Goin' On, Revolverlution, and How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?.
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