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From time to time I will be doin a series of throwback CD reviews of CDs I find relevant and think need to be recovered and kept alive as well as introduced to a whole new audience that may be too young to remember. Here is the latest in my series of throwback CD reviews, enjoy...
Public Enemy
Fear Of A Black Planet
Def Jam
March 1990
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 and Master Of The Universe voice, but Flavor Flav shines on “911 Is a Joke” which is as catchy an indictment of urban policy as anyone has ever come up with.
In essence, along with KRSONE, P.E provided dynamic, socially relevant hip-hop which transcended cliche and hype, this album’s concepts remains innovative and classic today. The production has stood the test of time, as well as any other album from that era.
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.”
“Fear…” is one of the best rap albums ever made, and at a time when sampling was affordable. It allowed Terminator X and the Bomb Squad to produce the most radical apocalyptic hip-hop assault on the ears. “Brothers Gonna Work it Out” swirls with immediacy, as does “Power to the People” and “War at 33 1/3.” This album is so much more chaotic and dense “It Takes a Nation of Millions,” the beats are huge, and Chuck D is full of fury. The album ends with “Fight the Power,” the ultimate statement of purpose, from its pounding, atonal sound collage to its furious politics. Put “Fear..” on, and it’s always a long, hot summer. When hip-hop needed credence and a cornerstone for a new decade, “Fear…” provided just that, and P.E delivered the funk. This controversial release in my opinion is perhaps P.E.’s greatest hour.
- A. J. Woodson
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