Public Enemy was the first rap group to catch my attention. That was thanks to their prominent role in Spike Lee’s classic 1989 film Do the Right Thing.
If you’ve seen the film, you no doubt remember the vibrant opening credits sequence, in which newcomer Rosie Perez danced solo to Public Enemy’s ‘Fight the Power’ against a colorfully lit stage backdrop of a city street. This song burst into my brain the same way the movie did.
Public Enemy was a fascinating template for the mix of politics and showmanship that exists in the best rap music. You had Chuck D, the learned and angry prophet, railing about injustice while his hype man, Flavor Flav, danced around like a halfwit court jester, shouting “Booyyeeee” and wearing clocks the size of dinner plates around his neck.
I remember reading a quote that Public Enemy’s 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back was the sound pouring out of every inner city car window that summer and, listening to the record, it did feel like more than just music. It was a statement, a manifesto, a promise that voices long silenced were finally being heard.
I was surprised to see that the band is still together, having released an album in 2007 and with plans to release another this year. They have certainly been overshadowed since the early 90s but they remain rap’s greatest pioneers in both sound and spirit.
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hittin’ your heart cause I know you got sould
(Brothers and sisters, hey)
Listen if you’re missin’ y’all
Swingin’ while I’m singin’
Givin’ whatcha gettin’
Knowin’ what I know
While the Black bands sweatin’
And the rhythm rhymes rollin’
Got to give us what we want
Gotta give us what we need
Our freedom of speech is freedom or death
We got to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say
Fight the power
Chorus
As the rhythm designed to bounce
What counts is that the rhymes
Designed to fill your mind
Now that you’ve realized the prides arrived
We got to pump the stuff to make us tough
from the heart
It’s a start, a work of art
To revolutionize make a change nothin’s strange
People, people we are the same
No we’re not the same
Cause we don’t know the game
What we need is awareness, we can’t get careless
You say what is this?
My beloved lets get down to business
Mental self defensive fitness
(Yo) bum rush the show
You gotta go for what you know
Make everybody see, in order to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say…
Fight the Power
Chorus
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother fuck him and John Wayne
Cause I’m Black and I’m proud
I’m ready and hyped plus I’m amped
Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps
Sample a look back you look and find
Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check
Don’t worry be happy
Was a number one jam
Damn if I say it you can slap me right here
(Get it) lets get this party started right
Right on, c’mon
What we got to say
Power to the people no delay
To make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be
Meet Me In Montauk 
On a recent trip to NY, I went to MOMA where they had a special exhibit featuring the cultural/artistic impact of modern music. In the middle of the room was a huge TV screen showing various videos and all around the room were listening stations where you could hear song samples and read about why the song or artist was significant in the history and evolution of modern music. Prominently displayed on the big screen was today’s song from Public Enemy.
As you indicated, the impact and relevance of this song from a musical historical perspective is clear. I’m sure its inclusion in Lee’s film greatly contributed to its indelible status, though I think it would have resonated and remained a musical milestone even without that.
Now having heaped all that praise on it, I’m not sure this is a song I really care for all that much, but I certainly do appreciate it and love how it was used in Do The Right Thing.
I don’t think I can separate how I feel about this song from how I feel about this film; the two are so incredibly linked for me, as I imagine they are for most of the people who didn’t live in the inner city, or listen to rap music, but did want to see a critically acclaimed film that was garnering all sorts of great reviews. Both this song and this film gave me a glimpse into a world in which I was (and still am) a foreigner. Would the song alone have done it? Possibly. Would i have given it the chance? Probably not. So… I thank Spike Lee, as I thank many of the filmmakers who have introduced me to music I would otherwise never know, for incorporating it so powerfully into his film.