{"id":5743,"date":"2025-06-27T18:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T22:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/?p=5743"},"modified":"2025-06-27T19:46:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T23:46:27","slug":"public-enemy-makes-an-explosive-return-with-a-surprise-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/public-enemy-retour-explosif-avec-un-album-surprise\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Enemy: Explosive return with a surprise album"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After a marked absence, <strong>Public Enemy<\/strong>, a legendary hip-hop group, makes a thunderous comeback in 2025 with <strong><em>Black Sky Over The Projects: Apartment 2025<\/em><\/strong>. This album, released on June 27, marks a significant evolution in the group\u2019s dynamics and revives the protest flame that made their fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Founded in 1985 in Roosevelt, New York, <strong>Public Enemy<\/strong> has established itself as the flagship group of committed hip-hop. <strong>Chuck D<\/strong>, <strong>Flavor Flav<\/strong>, <strong>Professor Griff<\/strong> and <strong>DJ Lord<\/strong> make up today the heart of the collective, but the formation has undergone many changes over the years. Their first album, <strong><em>Yo! Bum Rush the Show<\/em><\/strong> (1987), marked the band\u2019s sensational entry into the musical universe, with a sample-heavy production and accusatory lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DJ Lord<\/strong> joined <strong>Public Enemy<\/strong> much later, in replacement of <strong>Terminator X<\/strong>, who was the main DJ of the group during nearly 40 tours. This change brought a new live energy, while respecting the sound heritage of the group. <strong>Public Enemy<\/strong> was inducted into the <strong>Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013<\/strong> and received the <strong>Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award<\/strong> in 2020, hailing their major influence on hip-hop culture and society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before <strong><em>Black Sky Over The Projects: Apartment 2025<\/em><\/strong>, Public Enemy had released <em><strong>What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?<\/strong><\/em> in 2020. This fifteenth studio album was expected as a strong message in a context of American social and political crisis. The album already addressed current themes: systemic racism, the rise of extremism, and the resilience of Black communities, while bringing together several collaborations from artists of the new generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Five years after their last album, <strong>Public Enemy<\/strong> surprises his audience again with an unexpected release. <strong><em>Black Sky Over The Projects: Apartment 2025<\/em><\/strong> is launched without a massive promotional campaign, on the occasion of a sold-out concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The album, composed of twelve tracks, is offered in 'pay-what-you-want' for 72 hours on Bandcamp, as a gift to fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3753605552\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless><a href=\"https:\/\/publicenemy.bandcamp.com\/album\/black-sky-over-the-projects-apartment-2025\">Black Sky Over The Projects: Apartment 2025 by Public Enemy<\/a><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The pieces, of which <strong><em>March Madness<\/em><\/strong>, address burning themes like systemic injustice, political disillusionment and gun violence. The profits of certain titles are donated to associations fighting against armed violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On this new opus, <strong>Flavor Flav<\/strong> takes a more important place than usual, without becoming the central voice of the group. He delivers several verses and actively participates in the narration of the pieces, bringing a new energy to <strong>Public Enemy<\/strong>. However, <strong>Chuck D<\/strong> remains the undisputed leader: his presence is felt at every moment of the album, and he remains one of the most important voices in the music industry, not only for the hip-hop scene, but also for the music of the 80s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At 64 years old, a subject he openly addresses in pieces like <strong><em>Sexagenarian<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>Ageism<\/em><\/strong>, <strong>Chuck D<\/strong> proves that it is still as relevant and fiery. His commitment, maturity and depth give a particular dimension to this new album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Professor Griff<\/strong> (Richard Griffin) , who formerly held the position of Minister of Information of the group, has left <strong>Public Enemy<\/strong> several times during his career, before being reinstated at different times. Despite these distances, he has always remained close to what constitutes, in his eyes, his second family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To conclude, the return of <strong>Public Enemy<\/strong> with <strong><em>Black Sky Over The Projects: Apartment 2025<\/em><\/strong> proves that the group has lost none of its strength or relevance. All that remains is to remain on the lookout: with <strong>Public Enemy<\/strong>, the story is never really over, and each new release may well turn the hip-hop scene upside down again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-97d9fa7c673cd0a280cc2997802ce37b\">Download the app <strong>Magazine Hip-Hop<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/ca\/app\/magazine-hip-hop\/id6746479131?l=fr-CA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>App Store<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An album revealed in secret, without much promotion, by the mythical collective Public Enemy.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":5747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[679,55,59,670,678,606,1128,1639,330],"class_list":["post-5743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","tag-actualites","tag-entertainment","tag-featured","tag-hip-hop","tag-journal","tag-magazine-hip-hop","tag-media","tag-public-enemy","tag-rap"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5743"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5764,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5743\/revisions\/5764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}