Public Enemy, Beastie Boys’ Mike D, and Ad-Rock along with Run-DMC get animated in the new video for “Public Enemy Number Won,” which also features archival concert posters, footage, and more. It’s the latest single from their widely acclaimed new album What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down?, which also marked the iconic group’s historic return to Def Jam Recordings.
“The song is an homage to ‘Public Enemy No. 1 and that moment in time,” explains Chuck D. “The Beastie Boys and Run-DMC were playing it all the time and Rick Rubin kept coming at us to sign with Def Jam. So it’s my way of bringing it all back together again.” Consequence of Sound celebrates how “the group brings back the glory days of Def Jam Records,” while NME describes the song as “The record’s most overt callback to hip-hop’s golden age… (an) oral history of their early years at Def Jam.”
