Happy 35th Anniversary to Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet

Today is the 35th Anniversary of Public Enemy's, Fear of a Black Planet.  

This is one of PE's best albums, a sonic tour-de-force from The Bomb Squad and one of RtBE's personal favorites. 

Public Enemy were the first rap artists RtBE truly fell in love with. While Run DMC and The Beastie Boy's were our entry points, and in our cassette collection first, Public Enemy was where the fascination truly took root. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Fear of a Black Planet and then Apocalypse 91...The Enemy Strikes Black were all listened to intensively and studied. 

Having already discussed our love for the sometimes overlooked Apocalypse 91...The Enemy Strikes Black where I said this regarding the group:

Part of it was that they were fellow Long Islander's but the larger part is the music. The outfits insane beats, Chucks fierce style/message and Flav's breaking up the heaviness with some levity.  

Their first album I missed in '87, but went back and found it later while It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Fear of A Black Planet I was into instantly when they were released and are stone cold classics. 

There is no denying that their peak as a band lined up with my formative mind and while I will probably discuss It Takes a Nation... at another time, today is the celebration of the amazing Fear of a Black Planet.

I distinctly remember spending hours playing Nintendo and listening to Chuck and Flav get after it around these noisy beats, flipping the tape and going through it again. The power, the aggression, the political things I would have to look up to understand what they meant, all sunk into my brain at a crucial age.    

This is a complicated record during a complicated time in the group's history. After firing Professor Griff for antisemitic statements, Chuck D and Flava Flav were definitely being scrutinized. Chuck mentioned he wanted to make an album:

thematically focused work and to condense Dr. Frances Cress Welsing's theory of "Color Confrontation and Racism (White Supremacy)" into an album-length recording. According to Chuck D, this involved "telling people, well, color's an issue created and concocted to take advantage of people of various characteristics with the benefit of a few"

He also stated with supreme confidence:

"We understood the magnitude of what an album was, so we set out to make something that not only epitomized the standard of an album, but would stand the test of time by being diverse with sounds and textures, and also being able to home in on the aspect of peaks and valleys".

Shockingly, all involved succeeded. 

From the opening introduction the group is locked in and wailing. The Bomb Squad mixes cement hard beats with ripping metal guitars, samples, Terminator X vinyl scratches and funky breaks that all support Chuck and Flav. Lyrically they tackle all topics AIDS, race relations, history, Hollywood portrayals, and broken social systems around music that you can get down to and also makes you think. A soaring success that feels as vital today, 35 years later.  

Racial animosity, police brutality, white supremacy, re-writing history, these songs feel ripped from 2025 headlines as Public Enemy drive forward with bumping numbers like "911's A Joke", "Power To The People", "Whole Stole The Soul?". The group is angry, pushing boundaries, controversial and incendiary; punk rock hip-hop. 

It is political pop tied to hip hop and rock with connections to James Brown's politically charged 60's songs (that they sampled), with amazing tracks like "Welcome To The Terrordome" exploding out of speakers, while "Fight The Power" is anthemic. On the flip side, they weren't above humor with Flavor Flav's "Can't Do Nuttin For Ya Man" and even Chuck's vocal switch up as he plays the deep voiced love guru for the mixed raced mayhem of "Polywanacracker" 

The other two things that really stand out listening to the album 35 years later are: 

1. How creative it is. The album uses layers upon layers of samples, loops, sound bites and more to create their 'wall of noise' behind Chuck's anger. Quick, grab any hip hop song released in 2025 and see if it is a quarter as creative with the song structure and style, a tenth as creative?  Hard to do. 
2.  How dance floor friendly it is. Hip hop was still in an early evolutionary phase at this point and it needed to be played in the clubs, and while Fear of a Black Planet is avant-garde in it's sonic structure...it still moves asses!  

Terminator X and The Bomb Squad made sure that this was, at it's core, dance music. This is politically charged, challenging intellectually, but still popular dance music that sold to all races and people could get down to it. Just check out the run on the second half of the album that starts with Terminator X's "Leave This Off Your F*ckin' Charts" (Interlude) then "B Side Wins Again" (Remix) and "War at 33⅓", this music grooves hard. 

So on the 35th Anniversary of it's release into the world, play Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet loud!  Here are a few tracks to get you started: