Hear Chuck D’s awaking 14-track effort ‘Radio Armageddon’, from the legend’s ‘Chuck D Presents Enemy Radio’ series
The GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement award recipient has something real and heavy to say, as the living legend did in 1985.
From Snoop Dogg’s surprise album ‘Iz It a Crime?’ to Xzibit and Ice Cube’s collaboration track ‘For the Love’ featuring Lorine Chia, our elite rapping forefathers are making gracious comebacks in the effervescent market. To my pleasant surprise, I woke up to an email in my inbox from Chuck D’s record label, Def Jam, about his masterly executed new musical effort aptly called ‘Chuck D Presents Enemy Radio: Radio Armageddon’.
How does it sound? It reveres a time in Hip-Hop (The Golden Era) when lyrics were delivered clearly and passionately as if their lives depended on it. Fully crammed with juicy sampled audio from live shows, classic movies, deejay scratching, sirens as heard on the streets of New York City and scattered vintage radio snippets, and more, the Public Enemy founder’s resonant carries in stereo and feels like your father or intelligent and experienced big brother peels back the curtains on.
Described as “a seismic broadcast of truth, rhythm and resistance, uniting Hip-Hop’s pioneers and new gens alike in a militant soundtrack for the times”, it is something that I hope he continues to do by releasing more ‘Radio Armaggedon’ episodes and that he introduces younger people to artists/wordsmiths they’ve never heard of from the eighties, nineties, and further out. I’m excited!
To the Hip-Hop heads out there, Chuck D’s ‘Radio Armageddon’ is also officially available on compact disc and vinyl. For the ones who listen to music on streaming services, take your dose of in-your-face truth below. It’s said to be fourteen tracks with soul-stirring, hard-to-hear messages for the times, targeting the younger generations and Black people in particular. (See: ‘Black Don’t Dead’ with DJ Too Tuff and ‘New Gens’ with Daddy-O)
About the project, Chuck D shares, “Radio Armageddon is not just an album, it’s a frequency. This project is a broadcast of resistance, revolution and rhythm. I’m proud to have these warriors alongside me on the dial.”
According to the press release, the album was produced and mixed by C-Doc for DefBeat Posse Productions, ID! and co-produced and deconstructed by DJ MROK for Philly Wicked Productions with vocal engineering and additional production by JP Hesser at Castaway 7 Studios, Ventura, California.
