Public Enemy: Fear Of A Black Planet (Vinyl LP)

The meteoric rise in profile delivered by the huge success of their second album, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, placed Public Enemy under the microscope. Chuck D’s lyrics were analyzed more closely. Flavor Flav was now a major pop personality, his visage and clock-carrying style providing a balance and “acceptable” image for a group that often presented lyrics that were highly challenging to the status quo – be that for white or black audiences. Professor Griff, the group’s Minister Of Information, faced particularly intense scrutiny, and comments he made in an interview in the spring of 1989 resulted in a media feeding frenzy which led to him being fired from the group – temporarily at least – and a brief disbandment of Public Enemy. When they reconvened to record their third album, Fear Of A Black Planet, Griff was notably absent.

Anyone could see that Public Enemy, and notably its main man, Chuck D, were under pressure as they entered the studio that summer. This pressure, however, resulted in one of the edgiest, hardest, and fiercest records in the hip-hop canon.

Packed with Public Enemy classics and somehow even louder and rougher than its predecessor, Fear Of A Black Planet, released on April 10, 1990, pulls no punches. As ever, the group were not only concerned with the present and the future of black people, they were steeped in black history and culture. That can be seen on the most superficial level: their samples are a lesson in hard funk and their song titles show PE know music: “Brothers Gonna Work It Out,” a title drawn from a 1973 Willie Hutch classic; “Fight The Power,” from an Isley Brothers song; “Power To The People,” perhaps partially inspired by Joe Savage’s “All Power To The People” (a song probably released in aid of the Black Panthers, in 1968), or Joe Henderson’s 1969 album of the same title.

1. Contract On The World Love Jam (Instrumental)
2. Brothers Gonna Work It Out
3. 911 Is A Joke
4. Incident At 66.6 Fm (Instrumental)
5. Welcome To The Terrordome
6. Meet The G That Killed Me
7. Pollywanacraka
8. Anti-Nigger Machine
9. Burn Hollywood Burn
10. Power To The People
11. Who Stole The Soul?
12. Fear Of A Black Planet
13. Revolutionary Generation
14. Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya Man
15. Reggie Jax
16. Leave This Off Your Fu*kin Charts (Instrumental)
17. B Side Wins Again
18. War At 33 ⅓
19. Final Count Of The Collision Between Us And The Damned (Instrumental)
20. Fight The Power