Greatest Misses

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Pressured by label execs to release a greatest hits package, the most acclaimed group in hip-hop history instead released what leader Chuck D calls “an anti-concept record”: a collection of unreleased track, remixe, and one live throwdown. A chapter-closing addendum to a legendary run of three platinum-selling album, <i>Greatest Misses</i> gives life to a half-dozen underheralded songs that were never exactly hits to begin with. Most of the new music consists of sparse, deeply funky productions featuring the fingerprints of newest Bomb Squad member Gary “G-Wiz” Rinaldo, the rhythmic technician who helped evolve Public Enemy’s sound from sample-soaked pandemonium to a sturdy din of wails and hum. The lead single, “Hazy Shade of Criminal,” lopes along like a funk bomb equipped with air-raid sirens and square wheel, while the Flavor Flav solo song “Gett Off My Back” is a giddy anti-drug rap that’s part Parliament, part new jack swing. And “Air Hoodlum,” which predates Public Enemy’s work on Spike Lee’s basketball drama <i>He Got Game</i>, is a tale of how the sports industry chews up and spits out talented Black youth. .

via Apple Music

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