LISTEN: Public Enemy release surprise new album

The 13-track album features guest appearances from the likes of Ice-T, PMD of EPMD and Easy Mo Bee. Longtime collaborator David "CDOC" Snyder produced the record, with help from Public Enemy's Professor Griff and DJ Lord.

"Nothing Is Quick In The Desert is a saying I use when the average person looks at the record industry," Chuck D said in a statement. "It looks dead like a desert. But there's plenty of life in the desert when one is educated on what they see and hear. There, a cactus absorbs and stores water deep in its root, taken from the air itself and certain creatures thrive in that dry heat whereas the average cannot. It pays to be above average (or well below it) in the desert for survival. The music industry is similar in that analogy. It's still in motion, it just needs redefinition."

The album comes after Chuck D and Public Enemy's DJ Lord co-founded the supergroup Prophets of Rage in 2016 with members of Cypress Hill, Audioslave and Rage Against the Machine. The association with Tom Morello may have proved important for the band's new direction, with this album taking a distinctly more rock-oriented approach.

Listen to the album in full here: