Just ahead of the video, the group announced it would be dropping What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down—their first full-length album in more than 20 years. The single, which features verses from Nas, Rapsody, Black Thought, YG, Jahi, and Questlove, opened the 2020 BET Awards in June, though it was originally heard in Spike Lee’s equally timeless masterpiece, Do the Right Thing.
“Cultural Institutions are important. Being an integral part of one is an honor bestowed and to uphold,” Chuck D said in a statement, per Hypebeast. “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.”
Public Enemy signed with Def Jam in 1987 and released their debut studio album Yo! Bum Rush the Show the same year. Their most recent record, until now, was 1998’s He Got Game. They’re one of the few hip-hop groups to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.