C/D Public Enemy's "He Got Game"

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I mean the song more than the album/soundtrack of the same name...but I'm interested to hear what people think about both.

Chuck and Flava' dropping science over a Stephen Stills sample. What's the verdict?

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Thursday, 21 August 2003 19:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmm, the track in question's pretty iffy, though scores high on the ironyometer considering Chuck's occasional Puffy disses, considering its all very mid 90s Bad Boy. The album's pretty good in places- 'Resurrection' in particular, I would say its their best post- plot loss album. Isn't it also the only one after FOABL to have the Bomb Squad on board, or did I imagine that?

― Myron Kosloff, Thursday, 21 August 2003 19:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think the song is Bay Boy-esque AT ALL. I completely loved it when it came out, although I haven't listened to it in quite a while. But it does more with its source material than trot it out there for recognition impact (although that's definitely part of it). I see it as their big move into elder-statesmanship. It's quiet, sad, resigned, elgaic. It's almost an admission of irrelevance. Breaks my heart.

I liked the album too, although a lot of the lyrics are just about the movie, which is annoying, and the KRS-Chuck collab didn't really gel enough. But "Shake Your Booty" is a great lost party jam, and the bile elsewhere on the album is convincing if not exactly great. None of it has the grace of the single, though. Nobody will agree with me on this, but it might actually be my favorite PE single (I really like "Give It Up" too).

― Tom Breihan (Tom Breihan), Thursday, 21 August 2003 19:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I love it too and agree about the brilliance of "Shake your booty" which is the bizness.

― Keith Watson (kmw), Thursday, 21 August 2003 19:34 (twenty-two years ago)

What about Flava's inspirational send up at the end?

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Thursday, 21 August 2003 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

this song is crap. the absolute nadir of PE's career. it's about BASKETBALL, for god's sake.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Friday, 22 August 2003 02:16 (twenty-two years ago)

"Mr Tamborine Man" is about a guy who plays a tamborine.

― plebian plebs (plebian), Friday, 22 August 2003 08:59 (twenty-two years ago)

maybe i should use little smirkie faces around the parts of sentences that aren't serious. still, not a good song.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Friday, 22 August 2003 09:34 (twenty-two years ago)

The thing that annoyed me about the title track was that the sample seemed a really obvious loop. Didn't someone use it before? I was sure they had.

The album's good, though I have'nt listened to it for ages. I'm sure it's way behind the times production-wise, but I don't really know or care about that stuff. Shake Your Booty is fun and I think Politics of the Sneaker Pimps was my other favourite.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 22 August 2003 09:58 (twenty-two years ago)

It's a great single, a great loop and a great album, partly because PE has gone soft on its anti-pop. The warmth of the sample pushes them beyond the rock v hard place of "Muse Sick etc" (in the same way that the single from that album did), but by HGG, Chuck's analysis has started to mature (some of the claims are still radical, but Chuck's playing with metaphors and puns, so it is the similarities between scholarships and slave ships that we concentrate on). Most of the time he really burrows into basketball and its meaning for African American advancement. And it goes wider - not only is "most of the time folks don't even own themselves/ paying mental rents to corporate presidents" basically true, it is true for all of us.

― plebian plebs (plebian), Friday, 22 August 2003 21:39 (twenty-two years ago)

N. - you're probably thinking of Oui 3's "For What It's Worth" (or it may have been written "4 What It's Worth" in the Prince style).

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 23 August 2003 00:13 (twenty-two years ago)

i like the song
for what its worth (ahem) i think the nadir is that song about george bush,the "son of a bad man" thing
it is literally one of the worst things i've ever heard

― robin (robin), Saturday, 23 August 2003 02:19 (twenty-two years ago)

haha, funny you should bring up the newer stuff because I actually enjoy "Son of a Bush." Flava's "He's the son of baaaaad man" chorus is pretty damn hokey but I love me some good old angry Chuck. ("China ain't never gonna give that damn plane back!") and those sirens and the bass spikes work for me.

Public Enemy Note: There is this great PE unreleased track out there floating around on the web called "Psycho of Greed." They were unable to include in on Revolverlution -- or whatever it was going to be on -- because they couldn't afford to license the "Tomorrow Never Knows" Beatles sample they used. Cool song.

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Saturday, 23 August 2003 07:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I like "Son of a Bush". But I'm very much in the market for Bush insults.

― plebian plebs (plebian), Saturday, 23 August 2003 07:51 (twenty-two years ago)

just downloaded 'psycho of greed' - wonder if they're listening to lots of 60s stuff these past few years - "do you wanna go our way" is basically loops from an animated egg song.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Saturday, 23 August 2003 09:09 (twenty-two years ago)

six years pass...

This is almost a great album.

― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 02:54 (sixteen years ago)

it has not aged well imo

― Screeching Weerasethakul (Pillbox), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 03:19 (sixteen years ago)

It has aged wonderfully.

― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 03:31 (sixteen years ago)

i'm with soto

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 05:21 (sixteen years ago)

It's not terrible, just boring. he exploitation of black men at the hands of the professional sports industry is certainly a PE-worthy topic, but not a suitable album-length one. And the songs.. I would spin it right now if I had it on hand, but I don't. So maybe there more deep cuts than I remember.. Current impressions of the title track leave me thinking that it is a great (if obvious) sample in need of a much better track to support it than they put together.

Srsly, I love the first 3 albums A WHOLE LOT & the worst-album-title thread got me curious to revisit Muse Sick, but I think this would still be a hard sell. BTW, Whiney, still v interested in yr guided tour to latter-day PE mix if u ever put it together.

― Screeching Weerasethakul (Pillbox), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 06:24 (sixteen years ago)

six months pass...

"Politics of the Sneaker Pimps" -- take that, o doubters of sports metaphor efficacy.

― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 August 2010 02:13 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

lol I keep reviving this every time I play it.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 26 March 2012 01:00 (thirteen years ago)

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