One Last Wish

Fight the Power

Jason

15 Mar 2021 — 9 min read

Believe the Hype: Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet

While Living Colour was my first true experience with overtly political lyrics, the next logical step, given my love for hip hop, had to be Public Enemy. My first PE purchase (and the focus of this issue) was the cassette version of Fear of a Black Planet – released in April of 1990.

Public Enemy was formed in 1985 by Chuck D and Flavor Flav. Fear of a Black Planet was Public Enemy’s third studio album — a followup to 1988’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and 1987’s debut Yo! Bum Rush the Show. The album is certified platinum by the RIAA and both “Fight the Power” and “911 is a Joke” both reached #1 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Singles chart.

My first exposure to Public Enemy was music videos off the It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back album via MTV’s Yo! MTV Raps. Songs like “Bring the Noise”, “Don’t Believe the Hype” and “Rebel Without a Pause” certainly sold me on Public Enemy – they were the real deal.

In addition to MTV and their first two releases, Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee had a big impact on me – not only as the debut of “Fight the Power”, but the overall message and power of the Lee’s work. It’s still one of my favorite movies to this day.

The absolute peak of my Public Enemy experience was at the 1994 University at Buffalo Fall Fest during my freshman year of college. There you would have seen eighteen year old me, up front for PE, getting a high five from Flavor Flav after he came to life out of a casket on stage early in their set. It was an otherworldly experience I will never forget.

Now that we have a little backstory, let’s dig in to my focused listen:

1. Contract on the World Love Jam

PE was no stranger to criticism, so what better way than to open your third album with samples of that criticism. Face it head on.

From Genius.com:

“A lot of the samples on ‘Contract’ came from me taping radio stations, taking bites of interviews and commercials. Sometimes I might go through the dial, just sampling at random, keeping it on a cassette, listen to the cassette, and say, ‘Well, being that I’m the lyric writer, how should I arrange these fragments so they’ll add up to a kind of a song?’ That’s how ‘Contract’ came along.

2. Brothers Gonna Work it Out

The first full song kicks off Fear with PE’s classic sound – driving bass, borderline caucaphonic noise, and that classic hip hop beat. Chuck D’s lyrics don’t hold back either:

History shouldn’t be a mystery  
Our stories real history  
Not ***his*** story

and:

In 1995, you’ll twist to this  
As you raise your fist to the music  
United we stand, yes divided we fall  
Together we can stand tall  
Brothers that try to work it out  
They get mad, revolt, revise, realize  
They’re super bad  
Small chance a smart brother’s  
Gonna be a victim of his own circumstance  
Sabotaged, shell-shocked, rocked and ruled  
Day in the life of a fool

At almost 14 and questioning everything I’d been taught, Public Enemy could get you hyped and teach at the same time. It’s exactly what I needed at that age… and still enjoy today.

3. 911 is a Joke

Probably one of PE’s most recognizable songs (and video) – this was Flavor Flav at the top of his game. Only he could deliver this message:

4. Incident at 66.6 FM

Chuck D on this track:

“Incident At 66.6 FM’ was actually a live radio interview that I did at WNBC in New York before a show we did with Run-DMC at Nassau Coliseum. Those people you hear in the record actually called the station.

5. Welcome to the Terrordome

This song was Chuck D’s response to the Professor Griff anti-semitism controversy and the media focus.

Never be a brother like, “Me go solo”  
Laser, anesthesia, maze ya  
Ways to blaze your brain and train ya  
The way I’m livin’, forgiven, what I’m givin’ up  
X on the flex, hit me now  
I don’t know about later  
As for now, I know how to avoid the paranoid  
Man, I’ve had it up to here  
Yeah, I wear got ’em going in fear  
Rhetoric said and read just a bit ago  
Not quitting, though signed the hard rhymer

Musically the song is a banger, with samples from James Brown, The Temptations, Kool & the Gang, and The Jackson 5. So damn good. Chuck D is in attack mode lyrically the whole damn song too. It’s a treat.

6. Meet the G That Killed Me

From Genius:

Dabbling a little in the homophobic territory of early ‘90s rap on this controversial skit, Public Enemy speaks on the then recent subject of AIDS in the black community.

7. Pollywannacraka

8. Anti-N***** Machine

Chuck D’s commentary on how the police system, government, and laws work to censor Black Americans – whether it’s literally censoring music, voting, or the taking of one’s life at the hands of the police. Still very relevant 30+ years later, as we watch George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and sadly many others… as well as Republican controlled states rush to make voting more difficult after the 2020 election.

9. Burn Hollywood Burn

A criticim of Hollywood and the treatment (and stereotypes) of Blacks in media:

Hollywood or would they not  
Make us all look bad like I know they had  
But some things I’ll never forget, yeah  
So step and fetch this shit  
For all the years we looked like clowns  
The joke is over — smell the smoke from all around

And an interesting annotation from Genius.com taught me something new:

Stepin Fetchit (the name is a variation of the phrase “step and fetch it”) was the stage name of the black film actor Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry. He played the “laziest man in the world” in dozens of movies in the 1920’s and 30’s.

10. Power to the People

This feels like a song that was made to take the listener out of Side A. Not necessarily a throw away song, but not one I’d target to listen to on an album this good.

11. Who Stole the Soul?

PE jumps back into side two head first. The song focuses on the continued attack on Black people’s soul – their creativity, home, family and livelihood. All while having to experience holidays and other symbols of America that have some relation to slavery and the plight of Black Americans over the generations. That in itself has to be soul killing.

We choose to use their ways  
And holidays notice some of them are heller days  
Invented by those that never repented  
For the sins within that killed my kin

The song features samples of The Beatles, James Brown, and the Magic Disco Machine.

12. Fear of a Black Planet

The title track – another song that is still relevant today, with the increasing popularity of white nationalism and white supremicist ideas/policy.

13. Revolutionary Generation

This song deals with America and the black community’s poor treatment of women.

Cause I’m tired of America dissin’ my sisters  
(For example, like they dissed Tawana)  
And they try to say that she’s a liar  
My people don’t believe it, but even now they’re getting higher

Another historical tidbit from Genius:

Tawana Bawley is an African-American woman who accused 6 white men including police officers of raping her. The judgement and racial stereotypes that ensued from the media and, ahem, whitey caused people to think she lying.

14. Can’t Do Nuttin’ for Ya Man!

Another Flavor Flav jam. Love it – he was certainly on his A game this record.

Runnin’ for your life, by the knife  
Runnin’ from your wife, yikes!  
You should’ve stuck with home  
Off your mind to blow your dome  
It was you that chose your doom  
You built the maze you can’t get through  
I tried to help you all I can  
Now I can’t do nuttin’ for you man

15. Reggie Jax

A freestyle from Chuck D – very Run DMC in flow – with some references to previous songs and recycled themes/phrases.

I’m here to live for the love of my people  
Kickin’ it all about rebuildin’ so all the children  
Avoid the self-destruction  
So long I’m gonna do y’all a favor  
Cause I got the flavor yea yeah

16. Leave This Off Your Fu*ckin Charts

17. B Side Wins Again

Musically, a driving bass line and PE’s patented style help make this one of the better tracks on Fear. Featuring samples from Kool & the Gang and the Commodores. Lyrically, the song pulls no punches:

And the suckers on the right get cynical  
Cause the record’s to the left and political  
And you search the stores  
Attack the racks with your claws  
For the rebels without a pause

18. War at 33 1/3

This song aim to challenge the status quo and the history taught by schools and the media – whether it’s portraying Black people as the enemy in the media or simply not given them credit for playing a major part in building the country:

Can I live my life without ’em treatin’  
Every brother like me like I’m holdin’  
A knife alright time to smack Uncle Sam  
Who don’t give a damn, look at the flag  
My blood’s a flood  
Without credit  
Black and close to the edit  
I fed it, you read it, just remember who said it

There are a lot of theories as to why the song is titled the way it is – one is a reference to the speed of the song, which is way faster than most PE songs.

19. Final Count of the Collision Between Us and the Damned

20. Fight the Power

One of PE’s best and well known songs. Chuck D on what inspired it:

I wanted to have sorta like the same theme as the original ‘Fight the Power” by the Isley Brothers and fill it in with some kind of modernist views of what our surroundings were at that particular time.

The lyrics definitely hit hard:

As the rhythm’s designed to bounce  
What counts is that the rhyme’s  
Designed to fill your mind  
Now that you’ve realized the pride’s arrived  
We got to pump the stuff to make ya tough  
From the heart  
It’s a start, a work of art  
To revolutionize make a change nothing’s strange  
People, people we are the same  
No we’re not the same  
‘Cause we don’t know the game  
What we need is awareness, we can’t get careless  
You say what is this?  
My beloved let’s get down to business  
Mental self defensive fitness

The music is anthemic, featuring samples from James Brown, Bob Marley, Rick James, Sly and the Family Stone, Trouble Funk, Afrika Bambaataa, and many more. The classic PE sound.

Then there’s the video. I definitely remember watching that on Yo! MTV Raps:

Listening to these songs and prepping for this issue, I couldn’t believe how good this album was – even 30+ years later. This was Public Enemy at it’s creative peak. It Takes a Nation of Millions may be their breakthrough and an important album on it’s own, but the confidence PE exudes on Fear is just palpable.

One of my favorite things about Public Enemy and music in general is it’s ability to teach and experience empathy – whether it’s political in nature, a culture you may not have much exposure to, heartache, or immense joy. Listening to and experiencing someone else’s feelings is one of the most crucial life skills in my opinion. I imagine as this project ages, that will become even more clear with each new issue.

In terms of this album specifically, I know it set the stage for who I am in terms of my beliefs and interests. It’s certainly what helped open me up to punk/hardcore music, reading books by folks like James Baldwin, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, and having an interest in politics/social justice in general. I know I will be forever grateful to Chuck D, Flavor Flav, and Public Enemy.