View source for There's a Poison Goin' On

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox album
| name       = There's a POISON Goin' On...
| type       = Studio
| artist     = [[Public Enemy (group)|Public Enemy]]
| cover      = Pepoison.jpg
| alt        =
| released   = July 20, 1999
| recorded   = 1998–1999
| venue      =
| studio     =
| genre      = 
*[[Political hip hop]]<ref name="allmusic.com">{{Cite web | url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/theres-a-poison-goin-on-mw0000035495 | title=There's a Poison Goin' On.... - Public Enemy &#124; Songs, Reviews, Credits| website=[[AllMusic]]}}</ref> 
*[[hardcore hip hop]]<ref name="allmusic.com"/>
| length     = 51:45
| label      = Play It Again Sam, Atomic Pop
| producer   = Tom E. Hawk, [[Flavor Flav]]
| prev_title = [[He Got Game (soundtrack)|He Got Game]]
| prev_year  = 1998
| next_title = [[Revolverlution]]
| next_year  = 2002
| misc       = {{Singles
 | name        = There's a Poison Goin' On<ref name="GRD">Strong (2004), p. 1227.</ref>
 | type        = studio
 | single1     = Do You Wanna Go Our Way???
 | single1date = September 1999
}}
}}

'''''There's a Poison Goin' On''''' is the seventh [[studio album]] by American [[hip hop music|hip hop]] group [[Public Enemy]], released July 20, 1999, on Atomic Pop Records in the United States. Its title is adapted from the title of [[Sly & the Family Stone]]'s album ''[[There's a Riot Goin' On]]'' (1971). The album was originally made available via internet on May 18, 1999, via the now defunct Atomic Pop website.

==Critical reception==
{{Music ratings
|rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
|rev1score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}<ref name="Erlewine">Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r424898/review|pure_url=yes}} "There's a Poison Goin' On - Public Enemy"]. [[Allmusic]]. Retrieved 2010-01-16.</ref>
|rev2 = ''[[Alternative Press (music magazine)|Alternative Press]]''
|rev2Score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref name="AP"/>
|rev3 = ''[[The Austin Chronicle]]''
|rev3score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}<ref name="Gray">Gray, Christopher (1999-07-09). [http://www.austinchronicle.com/music/1999-07-09/522333/ "Record Reviews (Public Enemy: ''There's a Poison Goin' On...'' (Atomic Pop))"]. ''[[The Austin Chronicle]]''. Retrieved 2010-01-16.</ref>
|rev4 = ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''
|rev4score = {{Rating|3|4}}<ref name="Baker">Baker, Soren (1999-06-19). [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jun-19-ca-47959-story.html "Once More, Band Shows No Mercy Against the Bad Guys"]. ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''. Retrieved 2010-01-16.</ref>
|rev5 = ''[[Muzik]]''
|rev5Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name="Muzik"/>
|rev6 = ''[[NME]]''
|rev6score = 4/10<ref name="NME">Columnist. "[https://www.nme.com/reviews/1189 Album Reviews - There's A Poison Goin On...]". ''[[NME]]'': June 8, 1999.</ref>
|rev7 = ''[[Rolling Stone]]''
|rev7score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}<ref name="Kot">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/publicenemy/albums/album/278982/review/6209570/theres_a_poison_goin_on|title=Public Enemy: There's A Poison Goin' On : Music Reviews|last=Kot|first=Greg|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=1999-08-05|accessdate=2012-06-14|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071002111141/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/publicenemy/albums/album/278982/review/6209570/theres_a_poison_goin_on|archivedate=2007-10-02|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|rev8 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
|rev8Score = {{Rating|2.5|5}}<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=t9eocwUfoSoC&pg=PA661 RS Album Guide review]</ref>
| rev9 = ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]''
| rev9score = 5/10<ref>{{cite web |last1=Weisbard |first1=Eric |title=Spin REVIEWS |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nQRXCTo-FtUC&pg=PA149|website=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]] |accessdate=13 February 2023 |date=1 August 1999}}</ref>
|rev10 = ''[[USA Today]]''
|rev10score = {{Rating|3|4}}<ref name="Jones">Jones, Steve. "[https://archive.today/20130131181259/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/access/43492138.html?dids=43492138:43492138&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jul+27,+1999&author=Edna+Gundersen,+Steve+Jones+and+David+Patrick+Stearns&pub=USA+TODAY&desc=Hot+Boys,+Philip+Glass+wage+war+on+2+fronts+Robyn+Hitchcock+sounds+crafty+'Cheese+Alarm'&pqatl=google Public Enemy, ''There's a Poison Goin' On'']". ''[[USA Today]]'': 10.D. July 27, 1999.</ref>
}}<!-- Automatically generated by DASHBot-->

In a positive review, ''[[Alternative Press (music magazine)|Alternative Press]]'' said ''There's a Poison Goin' On'' worked "best as an eyes-closed, headphones on high-volume experience. It takes extremely seriously the idea that hip hop should be consciousness-altering music",<ref name="AP">{{cite journal|journal=[[Alternative Press (music magazine)|Alternative Press]]|page=119|date=November 1999|title=none}}</ref> while [[Greg Kot]] wrote in ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', "there is some jigginess on this record....the emphasis is on sparser, more spacious mixes- less claustrophobic and dizzying...but still gripping."<ref name="Kot"/> ''[[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]]'' deemed the album a comeback for Public Enemy and the group's most abrasive work since ''[[Fear of a Black Planet]]'' (1990).<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]]|location=London|title=none|page=55|date=August 1999}}</ref> ''[[Muzik]]'' found the music not only abrasive but also "defiant" and "provocative ... vintage PE, all the more welcome at a time when there had seemed to be no one left who was prepared to make rational, thoughtful, incisive hip-hop."<ref name="Muzik">{{cite journal|journal=[[Muzik]]|location=London|title=none|page=84|date=August 1999}}</ref> [[Robert Christgau]] was less enthusiastic in his consumer guide for ''[[The Village Voice]]'', offering the one-line quip, "hating playas is fine, hating play amn't".<ref>{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|date=November 2, 1999|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/music/hit-it-now-hold-it-6420407|title=Hit It, How Hold It|newspaper=[[The Village Voice]]|location=New York|accessdate=March 11, 2016}}</ref> He cited "41:19" and "What What" as highlights and gave the album a one-star honorable mention, which indicated "a worthy effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well like".<ref name="CG">{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|pages=xvi, 256|year=2000|title=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]]|isbn=0312245602|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/christgausconsum00chri_0}}</ref>

==Controversy==
In June 1999, the [[Anti-Defamation League]] (ADL) claimed that "Swindler's Lust" was "offensive", "outrageous", and "suggestive of age-old [[anti-Semitic]] themes and rhetoric". The organization sent a letter to Atomic Pop saying there were "classic anti-Semitic code words" and accusations toward "Jews for the plight of financially underprivileged Blacks" on the song, which was titled as a word play on the title of the 1993 [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]] film ''[[Schindler’s List]]''. The record label responded in a letter stating the song had "no anti-Semitic references".<ref>*[http://www.villagevoice.com/music/profits-of-rage-6421304] at [[Village Voice]] July 13, 1999/''Profits of Rage''</ref>

==Track listing==
# "Dark Side of the Wall: 2000" – 1:36
# "Do You Wanna Go Our Way???" – 3:56
# "LSD" – 3:30
# "Here I Go" – 3:05
# "41:19" – 3:57
# "Crash" – 3:48
# "Crayola" – 3:30
# "First the Sheep, Next the Shepherd?" – 3:17
# "World Tour Sessions" – 4:27
# "Last Mass of the Caballeros" – 3:56
# "I" – 4:30
# "What What" – 5:02
# "Kevorkian" – 2:37
# "Swindlers Lust" – 5:23

;Bonus tracks
The album was reissued in 2004 via Koch with bonus tracks.
# "Do You Wanna Go Our Way??? (Nextmen UK Mixx)" – 4:18
# "Here I Go (Commissioned Mixx DJ Johnny Juice Vacation in Vietnam Florida Mix)" – 3:20
# "World Tour Sessions (G Wiz Black Planet Tour Mix)" – 3:35
# "I (Eye for an Eye Mixx)" – 5:43
# "Kill em Live" – 3:25

==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}

== References ==
* {{cite book|last=Strong|first=Martin Charles|date=October 21, 2004|title=The Great Rock Discography|publisher=[[Canongate Books|Canongate U.S.]]|edition=7th|isbn=1841956155}}

==External links==
* ''[http://www.discogs.com/Public-Enemy-Theres-A-Poison-Goin-On/master/30317 There's a Poison Goin' On]'' at [[Discogs]]
* [https://ew.com/article/1999/05/14/public-enemy-makes-friends-online/ Public Enemy Makes Friends Online] at ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]''

{{Public Enemy}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:There's A Poison Goin' On}}
[[Category:1999 albums]]
[[Category:Public Enemy (band) albums]]