Public Enemy What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?

When The Grid Goes Down is at its best when PE’s vision is generous and expansive, when they create a vision of their own history that echoes into our own moment. Rather than a retread, “Fight the Power 2020” is an inspiring version of organic culture: the same bedrock James Brown beat that stirred millions back in 1989, with new verses from Nas, Black Thought of the Roots, Jahi from the group PE 2.0, Trump-slaying Compton rapper YG, and socially-conscious North Carolina MC Rapsody, who beautifully updates the song’s street-march bullhorn power with lines like “You love Black Panther but not Fred Hampton” and, as her voice rises to meet the moment, “Fight for Breonna Taylor and the pain of her mother.” When Chuck comes in to rap his “Elvis was a hero to most” verse from the original, your hair stands on end a little. PE’s battle-armored sonic attack feels alive as well, connecting the miasmic hard-rock-funk of Funkadelic and Rage Against the Machine (“Beat Them All”) to the rolling brownout drone assault of Run the Jewels, whom Chuck name-checks here along with a record store full of other contemporaries, peers, and inheritors.