Throwback Review: Fear of a Black Planet- Public Enemy

From time to time I will be doin a series of throwback CD reviews of CD's 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...

Fear Of A Black Planet
Public Enemy
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 KRS- ONE, 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.
This is one of those put it on and throw the remote to the other side of the room. No fast-forward or album filler tracks here. From the first siren to the last bass drop, nuthin but classic hip-hop! A must have for any serious hip-hop collection!