Most of My Heroes Still Don't Appear on No Stamp is the eleventh studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released on July 13, 2012, by Slam Jamz. It was sold exclusively at the iTunes Store before its release to other retailers. It was released on CD on November 6. The album is the first of two albums that Public Enemy released in 2012, which Chuck D described as "fraternal twins",Chuck D on Public Enemy's Two New Albums: 'They Will Talk to Each Other' | Music News | Rolling Stone along with The Evil Empire of Everything, which was released on October 1, 2012.Public Enemy's Two New Albums Will 'Talk to Each Other,' Says Chuck D - The Juice | Billboard The album features guest vocals from Brother Ali, Bumpy Knuckles, Cormega, and DMC. The title track "Most of My Heroes Still..." was produced and co-written by Z-Trip.

Upon its release, Most of My Heroes Still Don't Appear on No Stamp received positive reviews from music critics, who complimented its production and found its political lyrics relevant to contemporary times.

The name of the album comes from the line "most of my heroes don't appear on no stamp", from "Fight the Power".

Critical reception

Most of My Heroes Still Don't Appear on No Stamp received generally positive reviews from music critics. Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it four out of five stars and commended Public Enemy for "remain[ing] true to the sounds and sensibilities they laid out back in the late '80s", writing that "the music remains vital and vibrant, possibly because, despite some progress, things still haven't changed all that much and, in some respects, have gotten worse...and as long as Public Enemy's heroes remain consigned to the margins, they'll still make music as dynamic as this." Ray Rahman of Entertainment Weekly complimented its production, particularly the "newer, weirder, and welcome musical elements" on certain tracks, and called the album "pretty damn great."

Consequence of Sound's Matt Melis gave the album three stars and felt that "a few cuts [are] completely out of left field", writing that "most of this record falls into tried-and-true PE formulas, but there's no dust or rust to be found on the album's top tracks." MSN Music's Robert Christgau gave it an "A−", indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction. Anyone open to its aesthetic will enjoy more than half its tracks." Christgau found it "pretty damn good" and felt that "preacher Chuck needs William Drayton's nuttiness no matter how corrupt it's become, in part because its corruption is a corrective to all of Chuck's conceptualizing." He criticized that, although the album's "young beatmakers echo the old Bomb Squad whomp, the preacher has lost some boom vocally, and like his cadences, the politics are old-school", but "the times justify those old politics more than ever."

Track listing

Personnel Credits adapted from Allmusic.

Jamod Allah - Vocals B. Dixon - Composer Harry Belafonte - Inspiration Brother Ali - Featured Artist Brother Mike - Unknown Contributor Role Bumpy Knuckles - Featured Artist Triniti Coclough - Producer, Vocal Producer, Vocal Recording Cormega - Featured Artist Chuck D - Group Member, Liner Notes Davy DMX - Bass Eva Rose Demeno - Vocals Brent Dixon - Producer DJ C-Double - Scratching DJ Johnny 'Juice' Rosado - Producer DJ Lord - Composer, Group Member, Scratching DJ Pain 1 - Producer, Scratching Dj Rob Swift - Scratching DMC - Featured Artist Spent Dnero - Engineer, Mixing William Drayton - Executive Producer The Enemyboard Vetz - Vocals Flavor Flav - Group Member Kelvin Fonville - Cover Design Freddy Fox - Composer, Mixing, Producer Gary G-Wiz - Executive Producer, Producer, Vocal Producer, Vocal Recording Piero F. Giunti - Photography Micheal Gregoire - Package Design Tim Hans - Photography James Bomb - Producer, Spoken Word, Unknown Contributor Role DJ Johnny Juice - Scratching Large Professor - Featured Artist, Producer Peter Levin - Claves, Fender Rhodes, Organ Paul Logus - Mastering

Lord Grunge - Vocals Lord Kel - Vocals Fran Lover - Scratching Donald Malloy - Musician Jason McClain - Guitar, Mixing Jason McLain - Mixing Mr. Payback - Instrumentation, Producer Chris "Spanky" Moss - Producer Buddah Munroe - Mixing A. Newman - Composer Pop Diesel S1W - Unknown Contributor Role Professor Griff - Arranger, Group Member, Producer Public Enemy - Primary Artist G. Rinaldo - Composer Paul Robeson - Inspiration Johnny Juice Rosado - Arranger, Editing, Engineer, Mixing, Producer, Vocal Producer, Vocal Recording Clint Sands - Engineer, Mixing Clint "Mister Payback" Sands - Producer Z. Sciacca - Composer Sam Sever - Arranger, Composer, Mixing, Original Recording Producer, Producer, Scratching, Sounds Amani K. Smith - Engineer, Mixing Spook 1 - Vocals T-Bone Motta - Drums Ras Truly - Engineer, Mixing Gebre Waddell - Tracking Anthony Ware - Musician Daniel Ware - Musician Jonathon Ware - Musician David Wong - Photography Khari Wynn - Guitar Z-Trip - Featured Artist, Producer, Scratching

References

External links