A few months after surprise releasing their “State of the Union (STFU)” single that was produced by DJ Premier, Public Enemy has finally announced their new album, What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down, their first album for Def Jam in more than 20 years.
“Cultural Institutions are important. Being an integral part of one is an honor bestowed and to uphold,” Chuck D said in a statement. “Public Enemy songs are forever sonic prints in the sands of time. And it’s time – it’s necessary – to bring the noise again from a place called home. Def Jam. Fight The Power 2020.”
Flavor Flav added, “Def Jam is like the house we grew up in. It’s cool to be home.”
Sharing the album art on Twitter, Chuck D also said, “Time is intensifying and folks are Tight. In this moment a Album release is NOT asking anyone’s support of IT( that’s up to you) but projecting a important question. ‘What You Gonna Do When The GRID Goes Down? Exposing a final game possibly played before election. Ask yourselves.”
Aside from the new LP announcement, they’ve also released a studio version of “Fight the Power: Remix 2020,” which opened the 2020 BET Awards in June. The track features Nas, Rapsody, Black Thought, YG, Jahi and Questlove.
“You got to fight for the world that you want to see that you gotta fight for the world. You gotta be it,” Chuck told SPIN in June. “You want to be able to live life but you want it to be equal for a lot of people to enjoy it. The entire world has a lot to go around for everyone and the fact that it doesn’t, it means that there’s always some kind of fuckery at the top. I was talking about things like this with Premier last year and it was a no-brainer. I told him, ‘You pick the track and I’ll nail it.’”
Listen to “Fight the Power: Remix 2020″ below.
What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down is out on Sept. 25.
