Seminal hip-hop group Public Enemy will make their new, unfortunately-titled album, How You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Have Sold Their Soul, available, um, for sale, on personal home pages and profiles, as well as independent online stores. No word on whether those sites will themselves be soulless. CMJ reports the band will utilize online “music broker” Musicane, which apparently lets fans participate in distributing digital material, receiving a commission for their trouble. A quick perusal of the Musicane website shows material by Jason Mraz and Henry Rollins; the latter, for instance, offers a six-part spoken word album, “Eric the Pilot,” for $4.99, and the opportunity to “resell this product and make 10%.”
Public Enemy’s new album has received mixed reviews at best; remember, all their ground-breaking work came between 1987 and 1991, a brief but overwhelmingly intense blast of brilliance and creativity that seemed both inextricably linked to its historical moment and too good to last. By their 1994 album, Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age, they’d already ceased to be relevant, musically or politically. But how hilarious was the Comedy Central roast of Flavor Flav this weekend? I love roasts.
