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“The first generation of rockers who grew up in public faced their share of ridicule, a fact that does not escape Chuck D. A keen observer of history who also possesses a sly sense of humor, he raps over a sample of the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" on Man Plans God Laughs, Public Enemy's 13th album. Like the Stones, PE have been around so long and their influence has been so thoroughly absorbed into the culture that it's easy to take them for granted, but where Mick & Keith played arenas, Public Enemy consciously shrugged off the majors and remained fierce insurrectionists, existing just under the radar. By the end of the 2000s, they may not have been regulars in mainstream music publications, but they still had underground hits, such as "Harder Than You Think," which surprisingly became the group's biggest-ever British hit in 2007. PE brings back that track's producer, Gary "G-Wiz" Rinaldo, to produce the entirety of Man Plans God Laughs, and he helps Chuck D create a hard, furious flash of a record that deliberately leans on Public Enemy's history while keeping a steely eye on the present. All the self-allusions -- samples from Nation of Millions, lyrical callbacks, horn stabs straight out of the Bomb Squad -- aren't a way to revive the past but rather to provide a context: this isn't music that came from nowhere, it is tied to history as well as the future.” – All Music

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