Fear of A Black Planet - Singles

Singles

The lead single "Fight the Power" features revolutionary rhetoric by Chuck D and was used by director Spike Lee as a leitmotif in his acclaimed 1989 film Do the Right Thing, a film about racial tension in a Brooklyn neighborhood. Lee approached the group in 1988 after the release of It Takes a Nation with the proposition of making a song for his movie. Chuck D wrote most of the song trying to adapt The Isley Brothers' "Fight the Power" to a modernist perspective. The song's third verse contains disparaging lyrics about popular American icons Elvis Presley and John Wayne, as Chuck D rhymes "Elvis was a hero to most / But he never meant shit to me' / Straight up, racist the sucker was / Simple and plain", with Flavor Flav following, "Muthafuck him and John Wayne!". The lyrics were shocking and offensive to many listeners upon the single's release. Chuck D's lyrics express the identification of Presley with racism—either personally or symbolically—and the largely held notion among Blacks that Presley, whose musical and visual performances owed much to African-American sources, unfairly achieved the cultural acknowledgment and commercial success largely denied his black peers in rock and roll. The line regarding John Wayne refers to his controversial personal views, including racist remarks made in his 1971 interview for Playboy. "Fight the Power" has since become the group's best-known song and has been named one of the best songs of all time by numerous publications.

The controversial single "Welcome to the Terrordome" references the murder of Yusef Hawkins and the 1989 riots in Virginia Beach, and it has Chuck D criticizing Jewish leaders who protested Public Enemy in response to Professor Griff's anti-Semitic remarks. He addresses the controversy as being in the center of political turmoil, with criticisms of the media and references to the Crucifixion of Jesus: "Crucifixion ain't no fiction / So called chosen frozen / Apology made to who ever pleases / Still they got me like Jesus". He is also critical of Blacks and those who "blame somebody else when you destroy yourself": "Every brother ain't a brother / 'cause a Black hand squeezed on Malcolm X the man / the shootin of Huey Newton / from the hand of Nig who pulled the trigger". His lyricism features dizzying raps and internal rhyme: "Lazer, anastasia, maze ya / Ways to blaze your brain and train ya Sad to say I got sold down the river / Still some quiver when I deliver / Never to say I never knew or had a clue / Word was heard, plus hard on the boulevard / Lies, scandalizin', basin' / Traits of hate who's celebratin' wit Satan?". Its dense production incorporates numerous samples, including several James Brown tracks and the guitar line from The Temptations' "Psychedelic Shack". Several other samples are heard amid Chuck D's rapping, such as the line "come on, you can get it-get it-get it" from Instant Funk's "I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl)". Allmusic's John Bush cites the track as "the production peak of the Bomb Squad and one of Chuck D.'s best rapping performances ever one of their tracks were more musically incendiary".

The third single "911 Is a Joke" features Flavor Flav as the lead MC. He was given the idea by Chuck D to write the song. As Flav recalled, "I went and got high and wrote the record. I went and got ripped, I went and got out of my mind, and I started speaking all kinds of crazy shit 'cos usually back in the days when I used to smoke, it used to broaden my ideas and everything". Its humorous and satirical subject matter is reflected in its music video, which featured a severely injured Flav being mistreated by a remiss, overdue ambulence staff. Another Flavor Flav-solo track, fifth single "Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man", has lyrics advocating African-American self-reliance and denouncing welfare dependence. It also reflects on Flav's experiences with acquaintances from poor neighborhoods. He said of his inspiration for the song, "I was in my Corvette riding from Long Island going to The Bronx. I was slipping. I was roasting. I mean I was smoked-out crazy. And everybody kept asking me for stuff and yet nobody wanted to give me stuff. So then if anybody ever asked me for something I would be like, 'Yo, I can't do nothing for ya man.' Next thing you know I started to vibe on it: 'I can't do nothing for ya man,' um ahh um um ahh. So I went and told that to Chuck. Chuck was like, 'Record that shit man'". Writing of both tracks, music critic Tom Moon comments that Flav "affects a tone of gimme-a-break sarcasm that is crucial to both tracks, and is welcome respite from Chuck D.'s assault". "Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man" was featured in the 1990 comedy film House Party.