Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age is the fifth studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released in the United States on August 23, 1994. The album debuted at #14 on the Billboard 200, in the week of September 10, 1994, and at #2 on the Billboard Hip-Hop/R&B Albums chart.

Album information

It was the group's first new studio release since 1991's Apocalypse '91...The Enemy Strikes Black. The album's title is a pun on "Message In Our Music", the name of a 1976 song by The O'Jays.

Despite a lead off hit single "Give It Up" and entering the Billboard 200 at 14, the album quickly fell off the charts, as sales were negatively impacted by both Def Jam Records move from Sony to Polygram during its release and several reviews claiming the album as a whole was not as strong as previous Public Enemy albums.

With the emergence of new groups such as Wu-Tang Clan and new styles such as gangsta rap, which became the genre of choice for many artists after the commercial success of Dr. Dre's The Chronic in 1992, Public Enemy was viewed by many fans and critics as something of a relic of a dying age. Not all the reviews were so negative, however.

Reception

• Spin (8/94, p.84) - Highly Recommended - "Knee deep in the age of gangsta, at the anticlimactic millennial edge of a world already gone wrong, Public Enemy has dropped its latest."

• Entertainment Weekly (8/26 - 9/2, p.112) - "...it takes true guts to dis gansta rap and to challenge the black community to confront its problems..." - Rating: B

• Q (9/94, p.106) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "Fact is, the lay off has just made Public Enemy sound fresh again...because they've regained the wicked combination of sonic disturbance and loose, rabblerousing funk that drove classic jams like 911 is A Joke."

• Alternative Press (9/94, pp.80-81) - "Yeah, we've heard it before but Chuck can make waves even when he's treading water...MESSAGE may be PE's most consistently enjoyable disc."

• Vibe (8/94, p.105) - "...a tour de force of densely constructed music and verbiage. Snippets of Stax-Volt grooves, reggae, soul, and metal bop and weave over gut-punching bass lines and wicked drumming while front man Chuck D lets fly with...pronouncements, warnings, and accusations..."

• Melody Maker (8/20/94, p.35) - Recommended - "This LP isn't just a stunning return to form for Public Enemy, it's perhaps the most powerful horrified answer to what you are doing to black culture yet."

• NME (12/24/94, p.22) - Ranked #20 in NME's list of the `Top 50 Albums Of 1994.'

Track listing

• "Whole Lotta Love Goin on in the Middle of Hell" – 3:13

• "Theatrical Parts" - 0:28

• "Give It Up" – 4:31

• "What Side You On?" – 4:07

• "Bedlam 13:13" – 4:07

• "Stop in the Name..." - 1:21

• "What Kind of Power We Got?" – 5:31

• "So Whatcha Gone Do Now" – 4:41

• "White Heaven/Black Hell" - 1:06

• "Race Against Time" – 3:21

• "They Used to Call It Dope" - 0:30

• "Aintnuttin Buttersong" – 4:23

• "Live and Undrugged, Parts 1 & 2" – 5:55

• "Thin Line Between Law & Rape" – 4:45

• "I Ain't Mad at All" – 3:25

• "Death of a Carjacka" - 2:00

• "I Stand Accused" – 3:57

• "Godd Complexx" – 3:40

• "Hitler Day" – 4:28

• "Harry Allen's Interactive Super Highway Phone Call to Chuck D" - 2:55

• "Livin in a Zoo (remix)" – 3:38

The CD version of the album also includes a song, "Ferocious Soul", hidden in the pregap.