How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?
by Public Enemy
Metascore
71

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. RapReviews.com
    90
    This is the most satisfying P.E. album in over fifteen years, both a throwback to their glory years and a hopeful sign of more great years to come.
  2. AllMusic
    80
    It's hard to call an album this spirited and alive irrelevant.
  3. Boston Globe
    80
    The results are surprisingly encouraging. Flavor Flav, having been turned by VH1 into even more of a caricature (if possible) than he already was, reminds PE fans that he is still a competent and efficient hypeman, and Chuck D sounds angrier and rawer than he has in years.
  5. Pitchfork
    71
    Aside from a few ungainly, obvious missteps--trying to play the Scott Storch melodic game on 'Amerikan Gangster,' wasting the KRS run-in on a track that sounds like a D12 refuse pile ('Sex, Drugs & Violence')--the album is finely sequenced.
  6. Amazon.com
    70
    Another Public Enemy album is always good news for hip-hop fans, and How You Sell... carries the torch.
  7. Blender
    70
    The gruff, authoritative Chuck and irrepressible second-banana-turned-VH1-ladykilla Flavor Flav know that uplifting kids corroded by gangsta rap means offering something emotionally fierce and reasonably current.
  8. Rolling Stone
    70
    Chuck has nothing to prove and plenty to say. Flavor Flav is the funniest rapper ever to bamboozle VH1. And their young guitar-bass-drums 'baNNed' slams their conscious points down.
  9. Alternative Press
    70
    Public Enemy remain fiercely independent and definately revitalized. [Nov 2007, p.176]
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  10. Mojo
    60
    Just a quick read of the titles on this 12th album shows Chuck has lost none of his sloganeering, rebal-rousing wit. [Oct 2007, p.106]
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  11. New Musical Express (NME)
    60
    When you constantly remind the world how great you were, it rather detracts from the good stuff you're still capable of.
  12. Q Magazine
    60
    Those familiar with their late-'80s classics will be glad to hear them back on form, though it's hard to see this winning over many new fans. [Nov 2007, p.144]
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  13. The Wire
    60
    Lyrically Public Enemy's new album packs no surprises. [Oct 2007, p.75]
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  14. Tiny Mix Tapes
    60
    Although one of PE’s three focal points, Terminator X, is gone, Chuck D and Flavor-mother-fucking-Flav still have vitality pumping through their veins, enough to elevate a two-decades-old rap institution above the level most hip-hoppers reach once they hit middle-age.

User Reviews

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User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 13 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 13
  3. Negative: 1 out of 13
  1. emceefan
    Aug 1, 2012
    10
    A great album topped off with instant **** classic Harder Than You Think and good songs such as Black Is Back, you will not hear somethingA great album topped off with instant **** classic Harder Than You Think and good songs such as Black Is Back, you will not hear something this good on the radio, because radio mostly plays mainstream **** that ain't **** compared to the legendary Chuck D and Public Enemy… Full Review »
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