Fear of A Black Planet - Background

Background

In 1988, Public Enemy released their second album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back to critical recognition and sufficient sales. It fulfilled their creative ambitions to create what they considered to be a hip hop-equivalent to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On (1971), an album noted for its social commentary. Its dense musical textures, provided by the group's production team The Bomb Squad, exemplified a new production aesthetic in hip hop at the time. The controversial, politically charged lyrics by the group's lead MC Chuck D, whose braggadocio raps contained references to political figures such as Assata Shakur and Nelson Mandela, as well as endorsements of Nation of Islam-leader Louis Farrakhan, intensified the group's affiliation with black nationalism and Farrakhan.

It Takes a Nation's success helped raise hip hop's profile as both art and sociopolitical statement, amid media criticism of the genre. It helped give hip hop a critical credibility and standing in the popular music community after it had been largely dismissed as a fad since its introduction at the turn of the 1980s. The album was the runaway choice as the best album of 1988 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop, a poll of the leading music critics in the United States. Public Enemy also expanded their live shows and performing dynamic. With the album's content and the group's rage-filled showmanship in concert, Public Enemy became at the vanguard of a movement in hip hop that reflected a new black consciousness and sociopolitical dynamics that were taking shape in America at the time.

In May 1989, Chuck D, Bomb Squad producer Hank Shocklee, and publicist Bill Stepheny were negotiating with several labels for a production deal from a major record company, their goal since starting Public Enemy in the early 1980s. As they were in negotiations, group member Professor Griff made anti-Semitic remarks in an interview for The Washington Times, in which he said that Jews were the cause of "the majority of the wickedness" in the world. Public Enemy received media scrutiny and criticism from religious organizations and liberal rock critics, which added to charges against the group's politics being racist, homophobic, and misogynistic. Amid controversy, Chuck D was given an ultimatum by Schocklee and Stepheny to dismiss Griff from the group or the production deal would fall through. He fired Griff in June, but he later rejoined and has since denied holding anti-Semitic views and apologized for the remarks. Several people who had worked with Public Enemy expressed concern about Chuck D's leadership abilities and role as a social spokesman. Def Jam director of publicity Bill Adler later said that the controversy "partly fueled the writing of ".