LogFAQs > #956831605

63. Public Enemy Fight the Power (1989)
from the albums Do the Right Thing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Fear of a Black Planet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRJKjiCtVco

Key lyrics:
Most of my heroes dont appear on no stamps

Public Enemy represent a significant turning point in the hip hop scene. Though their musical stylings share a similar sound to the hardcore scene that was being taken over by gangster rap, their lyrics took on a wider view of society. Instead of focusing on local matters or personal conflict, Public Enemy tackle the systemic issues that have kept black people down. Though far from the first politically-minded hip hop group, it is Public Enemys specific combination of these themes and hardcore production that has served as a blueprint for so many acts that followed. Their sound is bare rage.

Fight the Power has an additional complexity brought on by its origins as a movie theme song. In this specific case, the song had to be designed for a character to be constantly blaring it on a boom box. The song is built upon an insistent sample, an aggressive noise that marks the entire song as a unified whole. It has an anthemic quality, telling the listener they can and should change things.

But even as an ordinary Public Enemy song, this finds the interplay between Chuck D and Flavor Flav at its height. Just take the opening line, where Flavor Flav starts things off by saying the year, only for Chuck D to join him after the first two syllables and then continue alone through the rest of the line. Though Flavor Flav is frequently used as pure exclamation on a lot of their tracks, the frequent bursts where he reinforces Chuck D on Fight the Power give an unbelievable energy. With an unforgettable sample, explosive delivery, and some killer lyrics, Fight the Power hits just as hard thirty years on.

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My top 100 games (with write-ups): https://foolfantastic.com/top-100-video-games-project/