Muse Sick n Hour Mess Age

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 ('music in our message') and of being too old".

Spin (8/94, p. 84) - 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 (8/26 - 9/2, p. 112) - "...it takes true guts to dis gangsta rap and to challenge the black community to confront its problems..." - Rating: B

Q magazine (9/94, p. 106) - 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 (9/94, pp. 80–81) - "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 (8/94, p. 105) - "...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 man Chuck D lets fly with...pronouncements, warnings, and accusations..."

Melody Maker (8/20/94, p. 35) - 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 (12/24/94, p. 22) - 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.

1. "Whole Lotta Love Goin on in the Middle of Hell" – 3:13
2. "Theatrical Parts" - 0:28
3. "Give It Up" – 4:31
4. "What Side You On?" – 4:07
5. "Bedlam 13:13" – 4:07
6. "Stop in the Name..." - 1:21
7. "What Kind of Power We Got?" – 5:31
8. "So Whatcha Gone Do Now" – 4:41
9. "White Heaven/Black Hell" - 1:06
10. "Race Against Time" – 3:21
11. "They Used to Call It Dope" - 0:30
12. "Aintnuttin Buttersong" – 4:23
13. "Live and Undrugged, Parts 1 & 2" – 5:55
14. "Thin Line Between Law & Rape" – 4:45
15. "I Ain't Mad at All" – 3:25
16. "Death of a Carjacka" - 2:00
17. "I Stand Accused" – 3:57
18. "Godd Complexx" – 3:40
19. "Hitler Day" – 4:28
20. "Harry Allen's Interactive Super Highway Phone Call to Chuck D" - 2:55
21. "Livin in a Zoo (remix)" – 3:38

Personnel

Credits adapted from CD Universe.