Fear of a Black Planet

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Fear of a Black Planet
Fear of a Black Planet cover
Studio album by Public Enemy
Released March 20, 1990
Recorded Summer/Fall 1989 at Greene Street Recording in New York City; The Music Palace, West Hempstead and Spectrum City Studios in Long Island
Genre Political hip hop, East Coast hip hop, Hardcore hip hop
Length 63:21
Label Def Jam/Columbia Records
CK-45413
Producer The Bomb Squad
Professional reviews
Public Enemy chronology
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
(1988)		 Fear of a Black Planet
(1990)		 Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black
(1991)

Fear of a Black Planet is the third full-length album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released on March 20, 1990 on Def Jam Recordings.

Contents

[edit] Album information

The album's musical qualities were overshadowed by a controversy surrounding alleged anti-Semitic remarks by group member Professor Griff. After the controversy had been forgotten, however, the album's critical reception was generally very positive, with many commentators ranking it equal to or better than the previous album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988).[weasel word sentence] In particular, critics were favorable to The Bomb Squad's innovative and diverse production and Chuck D's songwriting. The Encyclopedia of Popular Music credits Fear of a Black Planet's atmosphere to the "bunker mentality" of "clashes with the press", and specifically cites "Fight the Power", which "bites harder than just about any other track in rap's history" (p. 1864).

[edit] Reception and influence

It was ranked 21 in Spin's "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005". In 1998, the album was selected as one of The Source Magazine's 100 Best Rap Albums.[1] In 2003, the album was ranked number 300 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2004, Fear of a Black Planet was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Professional reviews:

  • Rolling Stone (5/17/90) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "Public Enemy has never aimed for anything less than a comprehensive view of contemporary black America...Fear of a Black Planet complements this ambition with stunning maturity and sophistication."
  • Q (2/91) - 4 Stars - Excellent - Recommended by Q as one of the five best rap albums of 1990 and ranked as one of the Fifty Best Albums of 1990. - "...scalding attack on white supremacy." Q (9/95, p.132) - 5 Stars - "...achieved the near impossible by being every bit as good as its predecessor. The music was Public Enemy's now-familiar scream but was augmented with a percussive tinge that reflected the ever greater Afrocentricity."
  • Melody Maker (7/22/95, p.35) - Bloody Essential - "...slower, denser...funky. And it was a masterpiece....It's beyond perfect, built like a platinum beehive and stuffed with cordite--The Bomb Squad's last hands-on job for PE before they took on the task of...Ice Cube."
  • NME (7/15/95, p.47) - 10 (out of 10) - "...where do you go once you've made the greatest hip-hop album ever? Unbelievably, you consolidate that with an equally splendid follow-up....This time the sounds were softened slightly with flashes of `real' instrumentation but the content remained as astonishingly tough and intelligent as before."

[edit] Track listing

All tracks were written by Carl Ridenhour, Eric Sadler and Hank Shocklee, except where noted.

  1. "Contract on the World Love Jam" – 1:44
  2. "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" – 5:07
  3. "911 Is a Joke" (William Drayton, Sadler, Shocklee) – 3:17
  4. "Incident at 66.6 FM" – 1:37
  5. "Welcome to the Terrordome" – 5:25
  6. "Meet the G That Killed Me" – 0:44
  7. "Pollywanacraka" – 3:52
  8. "Anti-Nigger Machine" – 3:17
  9. "Burn Hollywood Burn"(Featuring Ice Cube And Big Daddy Kane) (Antonio Hardy, O'Shea Jackson, Ridenhour, Sadler, Shocklee) – 2:47
  10. "Power to the People" – 3:50
  11. "Who Stole the Soul?" – 3:49
  12. "Fear of a Black Planet" – 3:45
  13. "Revolutionary Generation" – 5:43
  14. "Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man" – 2:46
  15. "Reggie Jax" – 1:35
  16. "Leave This Off Your Fu*kin Charts" (Norman Rodgers) – 2:31
  17. "B Side Wins Again" – 3:45
  18. "War at 33.3" – 2:07
  19. "Final Count of the Collision Between Us and the Damned" – 0:48
  20. "Fight the Power" (Ridenhour, Sadler, Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee) – 4:42

[edit] Billboard music charts

[edit] Album

Year Chart Position
1990 Billboard 200 10
1990 Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums 3

[edit] Singles

Year Single Chart Position
1989 "Fight the Power" Hot Rap Singles 1
1990 "911 Is a Joke" Hot Rap Singles 1
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 15
Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 26
Hot 100 (Sales) 34*
"Brothers Gonna Work it Out" Hot Rap Singles 22
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 20
Hot Dance Music/Club Play 31
Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 36
"Welcome to the Terrordome" Hot Rap Singles 3
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 15
Hot Dance Music/Club Play 49
Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 8
1991 "Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man" Hot Rap Singles 11
* First Sales Only Hot 100 single

[edit] Personnel

  • Chuck D – rapper
  • Flavor Flav – rapper
  • Professor Griff – rapper
  • Big Daddy Kane – rapper
  • Ice Cube – rapper
  • Chris Champion – assistant engineer
  • Paul Eulin – engineer, mixing
  • Rod Hui – engineer, mixing
  • Steve Loeb – engineer
  • Branford Marsalis – saxophone
  • Carl Ryder – arranger, director, producer, sequencing
  • Nick Sansano – engineer, mixing
  • Keith Shocklee – arranger, director, producer, sequencing
  • Paul Shabazz – programming
  • Christopher Shaw – engineer, mixing
  • Hank Shocklee – arranger, director, producer, sequencing
  • Howie Weinberg – mastering
  • Kirk Yano – engineer
  • Eric "Vietnam" Sadler – arranger, director, programming, producer, sequencing
  • Mike Bona – engineer, mixing
  • Norman Rogers – scratching
  • Jules Allen – photography
  • Dave Patillo – assistant engineer
  • Dan Wood – engineer, mixing
  • Tom Conway – assistant engineer

[edit] Partial list of samples

The following lists some of the songs and sounds sampled on Fear of a Black Planet.

"Contract on the World Love Jam" (instrumental)
"Brothers Gonna Work It Out"
"911 Is a Joke"
"Welcome to the Terrordome"
"Pollywanacraka"
"Anti-Nigger Machine"
"Burn Hollywood Burn"
  • "Hot Wheels (The Chase)" by Badder Than Evil
  • "Give It Up or Turnit A Loose (Remix)" by James Brown
"Power to the People"
  • "Gimme Some More" by The JB's
  • "Turn Me Loose" by Sly & the Family Stone
"Who Stole the Soul?"
"Fear of a Black Planet"
  • "Holy Gost" by The Bar-Kays
  • "Flyte Time" by The Blackbyrds
  • "Spirit of the Boogie" by Kool and the Gang
  • "Different Strokes" by Syl Johnson
  • "Underdog" by Sly & the Family Stone
"Revolutionary Generation"
"Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya Man"
  • "Hot Pants... I'm Coming, I'm Coming, I'm Coming" by Bobby Byrd
  • "If You Don't Get It Right, Back Up and Try It Again, Party" by The JB's
"Leave This Off Your Fuckin' Charts"
"B Side Wins Again"
"Fight the Power"

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ 100 Best Rap Albums. The Source #100 (January, 1998). Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
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