Fear of a Black Planet is the Grammy Award-nominated third album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released on March 20, 1990 on Def Jam Recordings. This album debuted at #10 on the Billboard 200 (in the week of May 26, 1990), and was the group's first highest-charting selling rap album, the album was #1 on the Billboard Hip hop/R&B Albums chart as well.

Background

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).

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 Planets 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".

Reception and influence

It was ranked 21 in Spins "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005". Pitchfork Media named it the 17th best album of the 1990s. In 1998, the album was selected as one of The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. 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. In 2003, the album was ranked number 300 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
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."
Entertainment Weekly – "...most powerful rap group." – Rating: A
Q magazine (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 magazine (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."

Track listing

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

• "Contract on the World Love Jam" – 1:44

• "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" – 5:07

• "911 Is a Joke" (William Drayton, Sadler, Shocklee) – 3:17

• "Incident at 66.6 FM" – 1:37

• "Welcome to the Terrordome" – 5:25

• "Meet the G That Killed Me" – 0:44

• "Pollywanacraka" – 3:52

• "Anti-Nigger Machine" – 3:17

• "Burn Hollywood Burn" (featuring Ice Cube And Big Daddy Kane) (Antonio Hardy, O'Shea Jackson, Ridenhour, Sadler, Shocklee) – 2:47

• "Power to the People" – 3:50

• "Who Stole the Soul?" – 3:49

• "Fear of a Black Planet" – 3:45

• "Revolutionary Generation" – 5:43

• "Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man" – 2:46

• "Reggie Jax" – 1:35

• "Leave This Off Your Fu*kin Charts" (Norman Rogers) – 2:31

• "B Side Wins Again" – 3:45

• "War at 33 1/3" – 2:07

• "Final Count of the Collision Between Us and the Damned" – 0:48

• "Fight the Power" (Ridenhour, Sadler, Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee) – 4:42

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"

"Power to the People"

"Who Stole the Soul?"

"Fear of a Black Planet"

"Revolutionary Generation"

"Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya Man"

"Leave This Off Your Fuckin' Charts"

"B Side Wins Again"

"Fight the Power"

In popular culture

• Punk rock group The Vandals named their third album Fear of a Punk Planet. It was released at the same year as Fear of a Black Planet.

• For a time in Comedy Central, commercials for Reno 911 were shown with the cast rapping the refrain of "911 is a Joke".

• The main theme song in the Spike Lee movie Do The Right Thing was "Fight The Power".

• Nerdcore rapper MC Hawking's fictional discography includes an album called Fear of a Black Hole.

• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode "It Had to Be You" (Season 1, Episode 19), featured character Carlton singing an extract from "911 is a Joke".

• Progressive rock band Porcupine Tree named their 2007 album Fear Of A Blank Planet in reference to this album.

• Alternative band Duran Duran covered "911 is a Joke" on their album Thank You.

• The song "Burn Hollywood Burn" is featured in the video game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland.

• There is an episode of Futurama entitled "Fear of a Bot Planet", in reference to the album.

• The title of the flim Fear of a Black Hat is a reference to the album and was made as a mockumentary to the rap/hip-hop scene of the early 1990s.

• In the television series "Life Goes On" episode "Corky Rebels (Season 1,Episode 16)," Corky Thatcher dances and lip-syncs to the song "Fight the Power," as a climactic act of rebellion against his parents while the family auditions for the community talent show.

Billboard music charts

Album

Singles

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