Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos
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"Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" is a song by the American political rap group Public Enemy from their 1988 sophomore album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. The song is built on a high-pitched piano sample from the Isaac Hayes song "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic."
The vocals are done mostly by lead Public Enemy rapper Chuck D, with sidekick Flavor Flav appearing in between verses, seemingly speaking to Chuck over the phone. Flavor went to another room and did actually call the studio to achieve this effect.
[edit] Lyrical Storyline
The lyrics deal with a fictional story surrounding the Vietnam war. Chuck has been drafted ("I got a letter from the government, the other day / I opened and read it, it said they were suckers / they wanted me for their army or whatever"); however, he refuses to become part of the army ("I said 'never!'"). The main idea behind this is that the war is unnecessary, with a hint of pure indignation towards the treatment of Black people by American society ("here's a land that never gave a damn about a brother like me"). This serves to both criticize war, racism and the prison system ("4 of us packed in a cell like slaves").
Chuck is then taken to prison, which he attempts to escape from. "Black Steel" is a reference to a gun, which he needs to escape. By the end of the second verse, Chuck has taken a gun from a CO (corrections officer) who was "fallin' asleep".
With gun in hand, Chuck and the other prisoners escape "to the ghetto - no sell out". Chuck then comments on how there are 6 CO's who he "ought to put their head out". He does not, at first, but after a female tries to escape she is shot, ("Got a woman CO to call me a 'copter / She tried to get away, and I popped her"), presumably dead ("I had 6 COs, now it's 5 to go").
The final verse ends with Chuck and the rest of the prisoners on their final escape. They are confronted with shots and there is a state of chaos. Chuck makes a comment about prison and racism ("This is what I mean—an anti-nigger machine"), which later became the basis for another Public Enemy song, "Anti-Nigger Machine". Finally, the S1Ws come to the rescue. The song ends with the line "53 brothers on the run, and we are gone" indicating a successful prison escape. (However, in the video for the song, this line accompanies the image of Chuck D being hung by the triumphant warden of the prison.)
[edit] Beat
The song features a more melodic beat in comparison to other songs from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back but still remains highly chaotic. Aside from the aftermentioned Hayes sample, the song samples "Little Green Apples" by The Escorts and "Living for the City" by Stevie Wonder. The lyrics are a prime example, not only of story-telling in rap, but of using a story to express political views, mainly about the prison system, war, and racism.
[edit] Covers
This song has been covered by the Brazilian metal band Sepultura, British trip-hop artist Tricky, jazz group the Jazzgangsters, and finally it was performed live by Rage Against the Machine with vocals by Chuck D.
