Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age is the fifth studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released on August 23, 1994, by Def Jam Recordings. Its title is a stylization of the phrase "music and our message". The album debuted at number 14 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 56,000 copies in its first week. The album's first single "Give It Up" peaked at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1994, and was the group's only American top 40 hit in their career. Upon its release, Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age received generally mixed to positive reviews from most music critics, amid controversy among critics and fans over Public Enemy's relevance in hip hop at the time.
Reception
Commercial performance
Due to a change of the album's release date, negative reviews from publications such as Rolling Stone and The Source were published a month prior to the album's first sales week. In spite of this, Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age fared better with its first week sales of 56,000 copies than most of Public Enemy's previous albums. The album quickly fell off the charts, as sales were negatively impacted by Def Jam's move from Sony Music to PolyGram during its release.
Critical response
According to music journalist Neil Strauss, music critics initially accused Public Enemy of "being out of touch, of launching a weak attack against the trend toward gangster rap, of writing second-rate rhymes, of producing the album poorly, of using a bad pun for the title and of being too old". Spin - 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 - "... it takes true guts to dis gangsta rap and to challenge the black community to confront its problems ..." - Rating: B Q magazine - 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 - "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 - "... 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 manChuck D lets fly with ... pronouncements, warnings, and accusations ..." Melody Maker - 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 - Ranked #20 in NME's list of the 'Top 50 Albums Of 1994.'
Track listing
All songs were written or co-written by members of Public Enemy, except "Godd Complexx", which was written by Jalal Mansur Nuriddin a/k/a Alafia Pudim.
"Whole Lotta Love Goin on in the Middle of Hell" – 3:13
