Public Enemy Team With Paris In Hopes Of Rebirth

Groundbreaking political rap crew Public Enemy will unleash Rebirth Of A Nation in collaboration with rapper, producer and activist Paris on March 7.

The album, which will be released via Paris' Guerrilla Funk label, is being billed as a Public Enemy featuring Paris release and shouldn't be mistaken for PE's official follow-up to last year's New Whirl Order. Group leader Chuck D considers it an experiment of sorts, a "special project" that shouldn't be viewed as part of the pioneering group's catalogue.

"I look at this album as a work [un]to itself," D told Rollingstone.com. "I don't mix it with anything else that I do."

Paris created the music and wrote "98 per cent" of the lyrics for the collaboration, which has been in the works since Paris contributed a song to PE's 2002 album, Revolverlution. In addition to contributions from PE members Professor Griff and reality television celebrity Flavor Flav, Rebirth also features appearances from N.W.A.'s MC Ren, Dead Prez, Conscious Daughters, Sister Souljah and Kam. The first single is the Curtis Mayfield-inspired "Can't Hold Us Back."

Rebirth was originally supposed to have been released last August, a few months before New Whirl Order was released on D's Slam Jamz label. But retailers and distributors objected to having two discs released so closely to each other, so it was held back.

The next official PE album, How You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who've Sold Their Soul, will be released on Slam Jamz on August 8. Bomb Squad member Gary G-Wiz will help out with production on the effort.

Here's the track list for Rebirth Of A Nation:
"Raw Shit" (featuring MC Ren)
"Hard Rhymin'" (featuring Sister Souljah)
"Rise""Can't Hold Us Back" (featuring Dead Prez and Kam)
"Hard Truth Soldiers" (featuring Dead Prez, MC Ren and The Conscious Daughters)
"Hannibal Lecture"
"Rebirth Of A Nation" (featuring Professor Griff)
"Pump The Music, Pump The Sound"
"Make It Hardcore"
"They Call Me Flavor"
"Plastic Nation"
"Coinsequences"
"Invisible Man"
"Hell No, We Ain't Alright" (Paris Remix)
"Watch The Door"
"Field Nigga Boogie" (XLRBR Remix featuring Immortal Technique)