Fear of a Black Planet by Public Enemy

Fear of a Black Planet, Public Enemy's third album, hit the street on April 10, 1990, through Def Jam and Columbia, and it's a denser, knottier beast than even It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. The Bomb Squad produced it and pushed their sample-stacking method further: collages of shifting beats, news-style sound bites and oddball loops, all built in the brief window before sample clearance put a price on every borrowed second.

Chuck D wanted something deep and complex, and he got it, going after racism built into the system, white supremacy and the people who hold the real power while calling for organization and self-empowerment in black communities, with Flavor Flav riding shotgun and Terminator X on the turntables. Part of the songwriting was shaped by the controversy over member Professor Griff's antisemitic public comments and his subsequent dismissal from the group. "Fight the Power" and "911 Is a Joke" are the calling cards. It sold two million copies in the US, and in 2004 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.