Black Music Month: Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet

"They say the brothers causing trouble, hate to bust their bubble, cause we rumble, from our lower level, to condition your condition"

Three albums in and Public Enemy had already labeled themselves as terrorist, because they were terrorizing the powers that be. The contrast between an angry socially conscious Chuck D and an over the top Flavor Flav created a great contrast for the content they were bringing. It seemed as if Chuck D was so fed up at the world that he was ready to snap on the next person who looked at him wrong or start his only private military force. Meanwhile it seemed like Flav had grown so tired of the world he just went crazy one day so he didn't have to deal with it.

The beats on this album are just ridiculous, they're full of over the top sound effects and fast paced drums. When I There's also a real DJ mixing these tracks because there's a ton of scratching throughout the album. There's only five tracks on the album that don't feature samples and the other tracks all feature between three and seven-teen. It's an album that makes you feel like Terminator X was just scratching while Chuck D and Flavor Flav rapped. There's also barely any real hooks or bridges on the tracks, instead you usually get Chuck or Flav just yelling for you to get up and move. It's definitely an album that was created to perform, not listen to calmly in your apartment.

The album opens with "Contract on the World Love Jam," there's not actually any rapping on the track but it does show why Public Enemy is an enemy to the public. The voices on the track are actually news clips of views on Public Enemy and none of them are positive. Questions about the dangers of being Afrocentric, claims of controversial lyrics, and being labeled foreign terrorist. It's followed by the song "Brother's Gonna Work It Out." In this Chuck D urges for unity of all black people in order to work towards improving our condition. He also lets all of the critics know that Public Enemy will keep raising hell and making people uncomfortable, because that's the only way things will change.

People forget Flavor Flav is more than Chuck D's hypeman sometimes. The track "911 is a Joke," is a solo Flav track that has gone on to become legendary, for the wrong reason. Flav discusses how 911 is a joke, wreckless and racist. The group had been known to target police lyrically but this one targets the paramedics as well as emergency rooms. "If your life is on the line then you're dead today, latecomers with the late coming stretcher, that's a body bag in disguise," points out the fact that paramedics respond slower to black neighborhoods. Depending on your issue something that could be quickly taken care of could lead to death. Getting help quickly could be the difference between living and dying from a heart attack. A late stretcher might as well be a body bag because you're already dead. Then Flav takes aim at the doctors in emergency rooms with "the doctors huddle up and call a flea flicker, reason why I say that cause they flick you off like fleas, they be laughing at you while you're crawling on your knees." The reason there are so many deaths in Chicago isn't because of the number of shootings. There's actually a large number of hospitals in Chicago like UCMC, in black neighborhoods, that don't treat gunshot wounds. That causes a lot of people to simply bleed out because the paramedics are late and then have to drive long distances for actual treatment.

"Incident at 66.6 FM," is an interlude but shows something disturbing. Chuck D was doing an interview at a radio station when the phone lines were opened. Instead of hearing fans excited for the show that night he received racist tirade after tirade. The DJ was actually Alan Colmes, who later went on to work at Fox News, which explains why he let it continue for so long. The interlude features some clips from that incident such as one man calling to ask "why do you even pay homage to these people by putting these monkeys on?" Finally a caller lets Colmes know that Chuck was representing the rage that black people, especially the youth, felt at the time. Colmes cut this caller off because they stated white liberals were a problem because they think they're helping when they aren't. Colmes tried to say he supported PE but the caller started bringing up things he said in the past only for Colmes to end the call. That was the only caller he hung up on.

The track "Anti-Nigger Machine," covers a lot of ground. Chuck opens up by addressing the politicians that wanted to censor not only chuck, but all of rap music. He makes fun of the fact that to a lot of them "it's nothing worse than a verse, to hear some nigger curse." He goes on to explain that he didn't always curse but he's so fed up with America that he has to. He finishes that verse by pointing out nobody wants to listen if he isn't mad "Once they never gave a fuck about what I said, now they listen and they want my head," and once they listen they get upset because it's too late to have a civil discussion. He goes on to address the police bluntly "instead of peace the police just wanna wreck and flex on the kid." Police are supposed to be the peacekeepers, but as we've seen time and time again, when black people are involved police often agitate the situation, making it much worse. Instead of keeping calm they prefer to flex their power and rushing into a scene with a combat roll and no information.

Big Daddy Kane and Ice Cube are the only features for the album, and both actors although Kane has been less successful, they're both featured on the track "Burn Hollywood Burn." The tackles Hollywood, not only films but the news media as well. Chuck D mentions the fact that blacks are greatly overrepresented in crime stories and are more likely to be shown than white criminals. When specifically addressing films he states "Make us all look bad like I know they had, but some things I'll never forget, so step and fetch this shit." The last part is a reference to Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andre Perry, better known as Stepin Fetch, the world's laziest man. Perry was a black actor who portrayed a lazy, illiterate, tap dancing slave or servant in over 50 films. Outside of a films like "Hearts of Dixie," with an all black cast, he could not get serious roles. In reality Perry was a highly literate graduate who managed to operate a circus while acting. The success of the character led to a ton of copies like Sleep N' Eat. Chuck D can never forget feeling disgusted about things like this.

Ice Cube goes on to state "Let's check out a flick that exploits the color, roaming through Hollywood late at night, red and blue lights what a common sight." Cube is addressing the fact that black people are starring in these movies and still being harassed by police. Cube was in the midst of filming "Boyz N' Da Hood," at the time so it's not hard to imagine him being harassed while leaving the set. The funny thing is Chuck D randomly saw Ice Cube in the hallway and asked him to do the track. Chuck didn't think Cube's verse would fit because he was just out of NWA and his lyrics were more violent than Public Enemies. He ends his verse with "don't fight the power, kill the mother fuckers," but the word kill is covered by a gunshot. It's a more violent take on PE's vow to fight the power. Cube simply wants them dead so the world can move on without the struggle of a long fight. Ice Cube can't forget the treatment that they receive is always less than their white peers.

With Chuck disgusted by the portrayal of blacks, Cube angry at the treatment they receive Big Daddy Kane steps in with the solution. First he states "Many intelligent Black men seemed to look uncivilized, when on the screen like, I guess I figure you to play some jigaboo, on the plantation, what else can a nigga do, and Black women in this profession, as for playing a lawyer, out of the question, for what they play Aunt Jemima is the perfect term." showing that no matter how smart or good an actor is they're forced to play these lesser roles. His solution is simple, "let's make our own movies like Spike Lee, cause the roles being offered don't strike me." For the record, Spike Lee had just wrote, directed, starred in and produced "Do The Right Thing," a black movie that brought in 37 million at the box office. An incredible feat at the time, especially considering it was a black film.


"Fear of a Black Planet," is the title track and it's hilarious, yet sadly true. The fear is that through interracial relationships black people would take over the planet. It also pokes fun at the fact that multiracial people are instantly considered black because of the one drop rule still being stuck in people's mind. Chuck promosies white men "I don't want your wife, so stop screaming it's not the end of your life." One of the funniest parts comes from Chuck saying "I've been wondering why people living in fear of my shade," only for Flav to respond with "it's the high top fade." Public Enemy discussed racism at length on the album but this track is pointing out that racism is just silly and based on stupid fears like black people taking over the world and killing all the white people. He points out "you might not be amused, but did you know white comes from black," referencing the Fertile Crescent in Northern Africa where mankind was born.

The track "Revolutionary Generation," isn't about a new generation taking up the fight. It's about the new generation treating women better. Chuck states "it takes a man to take a stand, but understand it takes a woman to make a stronger man." No matter how much protesting they do our black women are overlooked and not credited for their work. It takes an angry man to finally bring attention to the issue. However, we're stupid to think it's possible to do any of this without women backing us and standing on the front lines. In fact some women fight harder than most men. He goes on to state how the idea of mistreating women isn't a black thing, it's an American thing that needs to be thrown away, "they disrespected mama and treated her like dirt, America took her, reshaped her, raped her, nope, it never made the paper, eat us, mated us, made us attack our woman in black."

The album closes with the classic "Fight The Power." The first two verses urge black people to open their eyes to the issues surrounding them. Chuck urges us to fight the powers the be, because we're in a place where speaking out can mean bleeding out. The third verse takes aim at some people who are part of the power even if you don't think about it right away. First there's the classic bars "Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me you see, straight up racist that sucker was, simple and plain, mother fuck him and John Wayne." We may not consider them part of the power but when we take in the fact that Elvis used black music to rise to fame only to promote the war on drugs, which we all know was a war on black people. Then there's John Wayne who stated he believes in white supremacist because black people are irresponsible. They may not seem like part of the power but they were huge stars with a lot of star power who helped build support for racist policies and even white supremacy. He goes on to urge people to be proud of being black no matter what anyone else says.

If this was just a Chuck D album you would finish it stuck somewhere between depressed and completely pissed off. Flavor Flav is over looked but he's a necessity. Flav is a reminder that sometimes we need to laugh about how bad things are so we don't just start killing people. Flav is hilarious but he doesn't take away from the seriousness of the issues discussed. Flav is the embodiment of laughing to keep from crying. The constant samples provide the album with a loud and gritty feel that perfectly translates from the gritty feel of the album. Sometimes Chuck D sounds like he's about to lead a radical sect of the Nation of Islam but sometimes it's important that it gets heard. If you want to know what black people think about racism, it's this album. We think racism is so stupid it's funny at times, yet most of the time it wears us down and leaves us mad. But maybe that's a good thing, because nobody cares when you march or do a sit in anymore, they only care when you break a window. So maybe we should be mad.

Feel free to follow along with our Black Music Month Series

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
Follow @OriginalKingD