Public Enemy have released their first single in five years—a protest song written and recorded with a collective of student collaborators. Listen to “March Madness” below.
Immediate proceeds from the track—released in honor of Juneteenth—will benefit the Black Music Action Coalition Human Rights Fund and the anti–gun violence nonprofit Everytown, according to a press release. The student contributors, from Harvard, Berklee, and Howard, include lyricists Anthony Bell, Ollie Marinaccio, Rhiannon Rae Ellis, and Dee-1; Sydney DeLeonardis and Ciaran de Chaud; and producer Nigel Sanjai Sanders.
Flavor Flav said of the track, “It’s horrible what’s going on right now around the world and especially here. I hate it. But I got a voice and a platform and we are still fighting the power and for positive change all these years later.”
Chuck D added, “Gun violence is not normal behavior, but it’s been going on for so long that it’s normalized. We need to treat it like the sickness and the epidemic that it is.”
Public Enemy are currently on tour. Their last album was 2020’s What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down.