“Night Of The Living Baseheads” by Public Enemy

Public Enemy borrowed the title from Night of the Living Dead and aimed it at crack cocaine: "Night of the Living Baseheads", from 1988's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, paints the drug's users as zombies and tallies what the crack epidemic was doing to African-Americans. The album's third single, on Def Jam, it reached 62 on the US R&B/hip-hop singles chart.

Chuck D and Hank Shocklee produced it and wrote it with Eric Sadler, cramming in 20 samples, more than any other track on the record, including a snatch of Chuck's own shout from the top of "Bring the Noise". A speech by Nation of Islam spokesman Khalid Muhammad about what was taken from Black people brought here opens it, and the chorus is about how far a person will sink, not a dance step.

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