Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet

PE's third album is dense, heavy, and urgent as a bullet. Fear of a Black Planet single-handedly added half a dozen phrases to the language, and not just from Chuck D.'s troop-rallying bellow--Flavor Flav's "911 Is a Joke" is as catchy an indictment of urban policy as anyone has ever come up with. The Bomb Squad's music is complicated, challenging, terse, and totally funky, and Chuck matches it with one impassioned pronouncement after another: on Hollywood's racism, on miscegenation, on "real history / Not his story." The album ends with "Fight the Power," the group's ultimate statement of purpose, from its pounding, atonal sound collage to its furious politics. Put Black Planet on, and it's always a long, hot summer. --Douglas Wolk Amazon.com essential recording

Rap that rocks, and rocks hard

Like the last record, only even denser, angrier, and possibly better. In the span of just over an hour, they barrage you with swirling samples, funky bass, dance beats, and grade-A turntable work. A lot of the credit goes to the Bomb Squad, whose production makes this thing rock harder than most nominal "rock" record. They also make great use of sampling - for instance, check the raging adrenaline rush of the classic "Welcome to the Terrordome," which samples the Temptations' "Psychedelic Shack," "Pollywanacraka," which contains snatches of AWB's hit "Schoolboy Crush" and some innovative vocal samples, the funky "Anti-N***** Machine," which begins with a chaotic slew of samples, and the several sound-collage tracks spread across the album, which give this disc a lot of depth and make the whole concoction seem even more frightening and chaotic. But make no mistake - the real star here is Chuck D, who overflows with righteous fury, intelligence, charisma, and even a bit of humor as he protests racism and poverty. His rhymes and delivery make several of these songs, and just about every song is fantastic: the inflammatory classic "Brothers Gonna Work It Out," the invigorating Old-School Rap Who's-Who track "Burn Hollywood Burn," with guest appearances by Ice Cube and Big Daddy Kane, the frenzied, claustrophobic "Power to the People," Flavor's hilarious features "911 is a Joke" and "Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya Man!," and "Who Stole the Soul?," with a classic "hype man" performance from Flavor. The lyrics are often quite insightful, such as the pro-interracial marriage title track (with munchkin voices!), and Chuck constantly forces us to look at the gritty, ugly truths about life without seeming self-righteous. As if this weren't enough, a lot of these songs also make for socially conscience dance tracks, such as the feminist funk "Revolutionary Generation." The record slows down a bit near the end, offering a perhaps overly concentrated dose of pseudo-instrumentals ("Leave This off Your F***in' Charts," "Final Count at the Collision Between Us and the Damned") that don't have much to offer in comparison to their similar predecessors, and a couple of genuinely mediocre tunes ("Reggie Jax," "B-Side Wins Again," where Flavor's ranting gets a bit out-of-hand, "War at 33,"). But the rest of the record is remarkable, and it closes with yet another justly famous song, "Fight the Power," with Branford Marsalis adding to the cacophonic stew on saxophone. This record rocks hard. It's not nominally a rock album, but it still kicks at least as much [...] as the best of most rock groups. One of the most important, best albums in rap history. Many of these songs have passed into rap legend, namely "Brothers Gonna Work it Out," "911 is a Joke," "Welcome to the Terrordome," "Burn Hollywood Burn," and "Fight the Power." If you can find this album - it took me over a year to, and when I finally ran across it, I almost passed it over. My reaction was somewhere along the lines of, "Oh hey, they have Fear of a Black Planet. Wait a minute... Fear of a Black Planet?!? AWESOME!!!" Anyway, this record easily lives up to its infallible reputation, and definitely stands as a rap classic.
By the way, I'd like to say a few words to those who consider PE "racist." In the liner notes, they thank Sinead O'Connor, Jello Biafra, and Rick Rubin. All three of them are white. They also speak in favor of interracial marriages on the title track, and sample Van Halen. They have a lot of hatred for racist whites (and so do I), but not all white people. There's a difference. August 12, 2008

Unique

This was my second PE album, I only knew 2 tracks from the cd. I bought this cd just because of the name op PE, and what a buy!

The Public Enemy style is unique. Chuck D with his raw voice and Flav with his more higher voice and light sense of humour, those two make a unique combination. Terminator X also makes the tracks immortal by mixing the beats with great samples and sort of solos in the chorus(like the drums in "Revolutionary Generation"). What also makes them unique is the "odd" tracks they make like the song "Pollywanacraka". A nice beat with a voice that actually seems to speak, but still telling the story in style.

This cd contains also a pair of awesome pieces of rap history tracks like Fight the Power, Power to the People, Fear of a Black Planet and Welcome to the Terrordome. The tracks on this album are "hanging together", which makes the cd immortal, it contains no weaknesses and is just a piece of music history!

Even if you don't know the music of PE too well(I only had It Takes a Nation to Hold Us Back), you should buy this one...there's no reason to listen to the samples first to see if it's worth buying, because you can buy this album blind!

This is by far the best CD I bought in 2008, should have done it way earlier... May 11, 2008

Easy listening for the Black Intellectual...

Without a doubt, THE BEST Rap record made in the nearly 30 year history of the genre. Few rap albums have come close to this gem, let alone touched the lyrical content & the raw abstract production of the Bomb squad. PE was damn serious & the genius of Flava Flav gave the message a perfect balance. PE was doing for rap in the late 80s & early 90s what Stevie Wonder did for Soul Music in the seventies. After "It takes a nation" exploded on the scene, they took it to the next level with 'Fear'.

There was a pivotal moment in rap music in the early 90s where the music was moving toward consciousness or gangster ignorance. Artist like KRS-One, X-Clan, Queen Latifah and other artists were 'kicking the science' & there was a pride in our culture growing in the music. Unfortunately, by the time PE released their 4th classic 'Apocalypse', popular taste had shifted almost completely to ganster rap, hence the state of rap today.

PE's Fear of a Black Planet is a testament to what rap music could have evolved into if the consciousness movement in rap would have been more popular than that ganster Bull-ish. A Classic.

. April 7, 2008

Timeless Classic From Public Enemy!

What more can be said 18 years later from when this "Fear Of A Black Planet" album that hasn't been said already? This has been a vital part of hip-hop and music history in general with hall of fame songs like "Welcome To The Terrordome", "911 Is A Joke", "Burn Hollywood Burn", "B Side Wins Again", and "Fight The Power" which displayed Public Enemy at its peak conceptually and artistically, this is something that's gonna be remembered from many generations to come, one love, real music forever! February 3, 2008

Five freakin' stars.

Now this is how it's done. This album still gets constant rotation in my CD player. A classic album by talented guys who actually had SOMETHING TO SAY. A true classic.

Too bad NWA's style of gangsta nonsense had to win out in terms of mainstream influence, because hip hop could have become the new intelligent protest standard of music. Too bad indeed. But, for a short time, there was Public Enemy and their ilk. Get it. January 14, 2008

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