What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?

Last updated

What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?
Public Enemy - What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down.png
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 25, 2020
Length43:57
Label Def Jam
Producer
Public Enemy chronology
Nothing Is Quick in the Desert
(2017)
What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?
(2020)
Singles from What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?
  1. "State of the Union (STFU)"
    Released: June 19, 2020
  2. "Fight the Power: Remix 2020"
    Released: August 28, 2020

What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down? is the fifteenth studio album by American political hip hop group Public Enemy. It was released on September 25, 2020, on Def Jam Recordings, making it the group's first album for the label since 1998's He Got Game . [1] [2] [3] Production was handled by C-Doc, The LBX, DJ Infinite, DJ Pain 1, DJ Premier, Easy Mo Bee, Flavor Flav, Johnny "Juice" Rasado, Racer X and Threepeeoh. It features guest appearances from George Clinton, Jahi, Ad-Rock, Black Thought, Cypress Hill, Daddy-O, Ice-T, James Bomb, Mark Jenkins, Mike D, Ms. Ariel, Nas, PMD, Pop Diesel, Questlove, Rapsody, Run-DMC, The Impossebulls and YG. [4] It was supported by two singles: "State of the Union (STFU)" and "Fight the Power: Remix 2020".

Contents

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic? 7.6/100 [5]
Metacritic 76/100 [6]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [7]
And It Don't Stop A− [8]
Clash 7/10 [9]
Consequence of Sound B [10]
Exclaim! 7/10 [11]
Kerrang! 4/5 [12]
NME Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [13]
Paste 8/10 [14]
PopMatters 7/10 [15]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [16]

What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down? was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 76, based on 12 reviews. [6] The aggregator AnyDecentMusic? has the critical consensus of the album at a 7.6 out of 10, based on 13 reviews. [5]

Reviewing in his Substack-published "Consumer Guide" column, Robert Christgau acknowledged Public Enemy's continued noisy aesthetic and felt engaged by Chuck D's thoughts on "the dependence of everybody's world economy on an information system susceptible to attack from actors who could prove as dangerous as Donald Trump himself". He highlighted in particular the song "State of the Union (STFU)" and "a host of committed cameos" elsewhere. [8]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."When the Grid Goes Down..." (featuring George Clinton)
C-Doc1:31
2."GRID" (featuring Cypress Hill and George Clinton)
C-Doc4:32
3."State of the Union (STFU)" (featuring DJ Premier)
DJ Premier2:54
4."Merica Mirror" (featuring Pop Diesel) The LBX0:08
5."Public Enemy Number Won" (featuring Mike D, Ad-Rock and Run-DMC)
C-Doc5:25
6."Toxic"
Threepeeoh3:11
7."Yesterday Man" (featuring Daddy-O)
  • DJ Infinite
  • Racer X
  • C-Doc [a]
3:03
8."Crossroads Burning (Interlude)" (featuring James Bomb) C-Doc0:12
9."Fight the Power: Remix 2020" (featuring Nas, Rapsody, Black Thought, Jahi, YG, and Questlove)
Johnny "Juice" Rasado4:57
10."Beat Them All"
  • Ridenhour
  • Snyder
C-Doc2:52
11."Smash the Crowd" (featuring Ice-T and PMD)
C-Doc3:06
12."If You Can't Join Em Beat Em"
  • Ridenhour
  • Snyder
C-Doc0:50
13."Go at It" (featuring Jahi)
  • Ridenhour
  • Ankeney
  • Pacal Bayley
  • Trevor Helt
  • Torman Jahi
DJ Pain 1 3:21
14."Don't Look at the Sky (Interlude)" (featuring Mark Jenkins) C-Doc0:09
15."Rest in Beats" (featuring the Impossebulls)
3:57
16."R.I.P. Blackat"
Flavor Flav 3:35
17."Closing: I Am Black" (featuring Ms. Ariel) 
  • C-Doc
  • The LBX
0:14
Total length:43:57

Note

Personnel

Musicians

Technical

Charts

Chart performance for What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?
Chart (2020)Peak
position
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [17] 81
Scottish Albums (OCC) [18] 36
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [19] 37
UK Albums (OCC) [20] 100
UK R&B Albums (OCC) [21] 2
US Top Album Sales (Billboard) [22] 26

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References

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