Fear Of A Black Planet

A very good album from Public Enemy, who were on a great run of form at the time. The production was of typically excellent quality throughout and there's plenty of good social commentary. 'Fight the Power' is the most well known song and deservedly so, and works well as an anthemic closer, but there's a lot else to enjoy beforehand. 'Brothers Gonna Work It Out' 'Welcome to the Terrordome' and 'Power to the People' are other highlights.

This is a LANDMARK record in rap... it's a bad-ass record that stands the test of time and it's.... I hate this term, but it is "important" to the development and popularity or rap as it built into the biggest music in the world in the coming years. The record moves FAST. The short songs transition us RIGHT into the thick of it. The lyric "hit it hard like you're suppose" wouldn't be written until "Shut 'Em Down" on the next record, but I'll be damned if that isn't fully Chuck D's intent here.. hit EVERYTHING hard and knock it all over. The Bomb Squad is at the absolute height of it's creativity with the thick, layered production... I saw somewhere that Public Enemy didn't just reflect the world, they CHALLENGED it. (paraphrased from some FB page that I can't relocate...) I'd have to say that this record and the next one are the absolute peak of that confrontation.

Black History Month represent

Hell yeah Flava Flav

I loved this! So foundational.

these beats are absolutely filthy. stank faced the entire time

Ok. A little long

Not my cup of tea usually but pretty darn solid album.

Extremely political and raw. Despite its length, it wasn't exhausting.

I can’t believe I had only heard Fight The Power.

Not exactly my style, but I can appreciate how this was an absolute banger in 1990 and gamechanging. Great messaging too.

Ok

When this came out, I was intimidated by Public Enemy's radicalism, their importance, and the sheer density of the music - the bomb squad's maximalist everything-but-the-kitchen-sink production had put me off - I preferred the cleaner, sparser sound of Tribe or De La Soul. Plus, when you can afford an album every couple of months, something like this was too risky, despite the 10/10 NME rating. So I'd never listened to it end-to-end. But I was missing out - I found this really thrilling. I hadn't appreciated how well made it is: building a collage of such abrasive counterpoint without compromising the clarity of the message takes incredible chops - it's a masterclass in sonic collage. They sample everything: music, noise, radio phone-ins, news, other rappers, their own records - it's like music concréte: Pierre Schaefer, except you don't want to chew your ears off. There's also plenty of plenty of sample-watching fun for the funk trainspotter. To 2026 ears the beats are a bit tinny, and maybe compared to other early 90s hip hop the depth of sound is lacking, but that's unsurprising given that they were working to the limit of the technology at the time - it was all assembled on a single SP-1200. The rhymes are hard and relentless, and there are hooks are catchy but not cheesy. It just keeps on coming, all the way to the blistering "Fight The Power". I often have hip hop as background music, but this rewards, and requires, concentration - thanks to this project I made myself consciously listen, and I'm grateful I did.

This was a big deal at the time, I remember it, especially Fight the Power. But I was very disappointed going back to it. I think it is wildly overrated - people talk about it as a masterpiece of hip hop or modern black music. I don’t see that at all. The production is way too busy and completely overwhelming. Samples were unlimited at the time and they come at you constantly in a horrible mess. There is very little groove that the best hip hop has. It feels a bit like being battered over the head rather than rocking a groove. I don’t find the beats interesting. There is this tinny high hat thing going over the top of everything. I enjoy the vehemence and power of Chuck D. But it leaves me cold. 5/10.

3/5 Political message aside, the instrumental and musical side of the tracks were a little too out there for me.

One of the great hip hip records

Took a minute to warm up for me but in the end, an excellent record. Revolutionary rap about revolutionary politics.

One song good

Yet ANOTHER album sampled by Duran Duran's 'Thank You'. Seriously, I cannot overstate how important that album was to my musical education. As for this album, however, I honestly found it a bit disappointing. While there are a few catchy beats here and there, and I always like when I'm able to recognize samples cleverly spliced into a track, I found the overall product too busy - at times even hectic - and with a runtime over an hour, that just left me feeling exhausted. I gave it a second playthrough later in the day to be sure, and yeah - I think "exhausted" is the strongest feeling I'm taking away from it. And that's a shame. Fewer tracks and less layers would have helped the STILL relevant messages shine through.

Not my vibe, but i can respect the significance.

Can’t get into it. Definitely better than most of today’s rap. They don’t cuss every other word or say degrading things non stop. They do seem to have a message

Innovative. After 36 years, this still sounds new. The messages of Black empowerment still ring true today. I had fun trying to pick out the samples in the backing tracks.

Quite a significant hip hop album but didn’t really connect with me today

If anyone wants to get a proper viewpoint of Black America in the late 80s, early 90s, put this on and hang on. Public Enemy was not playing, and even if it might hurt some feelings, the album rings true (and remains timely).

Spun this a few months ago after listening to Ice Cube. Still enjoy it. The samples are fun. Like the dichotomy between Chuck D and Flava.

Whilst interesting in the variety of samples, interludes and snippets that make the album a very dynamic and energetic experience, it feels a bit too all over the place musically. The lyrics are hard-hitting and timeless. 7/10 [KEEP?]

Very fun and interesting first half with an extremely weaker second half. However Fight the Power is one of the best closing tracks I’ve ever heard ELVIS WAS A HERO TO MOST BUT HE NEVER MEANT SHIT TO ME🗣️🗣️

so boring

3.3 Besides fight the power, i think Chuck D and Co had more to say on the other two albums we have had. but what do I know.

The energy and anger reminds me of the best times of UK Punk and post punk so I can appreciate it. It's not that I would generally put on a hip hop album while I'm around the house but it's a great genre and this album is a stand out for me. Very clever use of samples and I love that about hip hop. I enjoyed listening to this.

'Fear Of A Black Planet' packs a punch and a purpose. My main knock on it is that it is a bit too long and somewhat repetitive. When it brings it though, this album is very good. Top tracks: "Fight the Power," "Welcome to the Terrordome," "Revolutionary Generation," "Fear Of A Black Planet"

fuck yeah. This is the shit. PE in full effect.

--Contract on the World Love Jam...intro --Brothers Gonna Work It Out...GOATed --911 Is a Joke...funky and based af --Incident at 66.6 FM...interlude --Welcome to the Terrordome...love the passion but this is missing a hook or two --Meet the G That Killed Me...skit --Pollywanacraka...head bopper. could use a little more variation --Anti-Nigger Machine...great beat but they may lean into it a bit too hard. blunt shift in the second half. two different tracks shoved together? --Burn Hollywood Burn...coming in hard and fast again. the energy is great but it may offer diminishing returns as the LP goes on. we're not yet halfway through --Power to the People...another head bopper but the energy remains the same. ready for a change of pace --Who Stole the Soul?...we double down on side A. lyrics fire me up but there's not enough sonic variation --Fear of a Black Planet...this keeps the energy but provides more space(?) to each individual instrument/sample/voice. so it's able to separate itself from the cacophony of preceding tracks --Revolutionary Generation...bass stands out to me here. lyrics go hard, as expected --Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man...Flavor Flav is considered a goofball but his flow offers a welcome shift in feel --Reggie Jax...funky bass groove --Leave This Off Your Fuckin' Charts...fun dance break --B Side Wins Again...mostly voice and drums. solid --War at 33⅓...Chuck D unleashed. exhilarating --Final Count of the Collision Between Us and the Damned...interlude --Fight the Power...basic but sometimes basic is necessary

It's hard for me to not feel like they start to all sound the same but I did enjoy this album more than most others

It’s pretty solid, not as big of a hit for me as their other big album. Solid beats and rhythms, a but much for me personally, I’d give it a 3 or 4

not ma cuppa tea

There's definitely some banger tracks on here and Public Enemy is always gonna bring the energy, but this one just doesn't measure up with It Takes a Nation of Millions to me.

So dense and raw. Great music fir the gym and bringing down fascist governments

Not a big fan of the drum machine sample rap stuff I guess. It wasn't bad though.

I miss when hip hop had energy like this. It's not the punch in the face that "Nation of Millions" is, but this is still a bracing listen. Fantastic beats, great samples, Chuck D tearing it up, Flav doing.... whatever Flav does. Wish they condensed it down a bit to be a more concentrated statement, but there's plenty of verve to fill out the hour, mostly.

Rate: 8.5/10.

Arguably the best record of their career and the definitive sample masterpiece of the golden era. While Paul's Boutique followed a horizontal logic (fast cuts amd transitions every few seconds), Fear Of A Black Planet's leading principle is verticality: stacking and layering samples upon samples, creating an impossibly dense texture. It's not an easy listen: hectic, frantic and often times overwhelming because there is just so much going on at the same time. But it speaks to the Bomb Squad's genius arrangements that it always works and always feels cohesive.

- very long album - at first I thought I could get into it as there was a political feel but I simply couldn’t really enjoy it as much as I wanted to

4.1/5

A full on assault of the ears for over an hour. Some of it good. Some of it not so. I did feel there was an overuse of samples and voice snippets however I can see why it's on the list. I think I preferred their previous album but 7/10 is a fair score.

There is very little rap or hip hop that I like, This was tolerable to me.Not anything I would buy on my own though.

There's too much filler stuff for me to really enjoy it as an album. But it's the precursor to a lot of music that I do really enjoy. Some of it's just messy sampling which must have some intention behind it, but I'm not getting it.

Enjoyable and different but it’s probably a once in a while I’ll listen to it

Classic rap/hip hop album.

Perhaps the longest build up to the best track on an album? I guess that’s partly because Fight the Power was already a year old by the time this was released (it was written for the excellent film Do The Right Thing), but I did feel like I was waiting for another track in the same league as PE’s signature tune. There are some good tracks throughout that mix the group’s typical mix of social commentary on the black community and navel gazing on the group’s treatment by the press, with Welcome to the Terrordome and Can’t Do Nuttin’ For Ya, Man! probably the best of them (the latter meeting PE’s quota for one socially conservative track per album). But in all, I’m not sure this quite has the depth in terms of the number of great tracks as the albums that sandwich it. Still, Fight the Power alone gets this 4.

Another strong Public Enemy album, although maybe not quite as good as those immediately before and after it. It feels slightly more chaotic/disjointed than those albums, though the production/beats are excellent throughout. As usual, there’s some slightly suspect ideas and whingeing about negative press mixed in with great/insightful social commentary, and it does lose momentum with a run of fairly middling tracks towards the end. It saves the best for last, however, concluding with the all-timer ‘Fight the Power’. There are quite a few other really strong tracks, but the other standout is ‘Welcome to the Terrordome’.

This album was my introduction to Public Enemy and I didn't start listening to it until 1991 when I was in the 8th grade. This album "Amerikkkas Most Wanted" and "Short Dog's in the House" wore out a Sony Sport Walkman and many AA batteries. This holds up. It is maybe 10 minutes too long, but the song subject matter, production and structure make it close to as perfect 1990 hip hop album as there could be.

Hip-hop for the commute home. Not my favourite I've ever heard but still ticks a lot of boxes and I enjoyed it.

I'm seeing that this is a big social commentary album- super interesting to listen to. I feel like I need to research it based on the album description on Apple Music. I don't feel like this is much of a casual-listening album, though. Burn Hollywood is a greaaat song.

Alright album, but nothing I would consider for a list like this

Not really my genre, but this was impressive, bold, creative, and meaningful.

The fact that so much of what this album has to say is still relevant today, some 36 years later, is both impressive and depressing. The beats are great and Chuck D delivers his lines with a conviction unsurpassed.

Ei ihan mulle

It takes a nation of millions to hold us back is a more powerful album. This one sounds a little tired, maybe the success was starting to wear on them.

vibe

An entertaining, breezy listen. Never boring and not the slot that many hour plus albums on this list seem to be.

pretty good and funky

I like Public Enemy a good deal. Chuck D is always good and pissed off, and Flava Flav adds the right amount of levity. But if I had to make a critique, it’s that every track on this record is just so busy. It’s kind of exhausting. Between the constant sonic assault and the same basic late 80s/early 90s hip hop drum loop on every track, this record can get a little tedious. This record is a bit of a time capsule with a good amount of nostalgia attached, but a little goes kind of long way for me these days. 7.5/10

BAD ASS record. hard as all hell all the way through. lacked a few earworms for me to make it a 5.

Great Songs: Contract on the World Love Jam, 911 Is a Joke, Welcome to the Terror Dome, Fear of a Black Planet, Fight the Power Good Songs: Brothers Gonna Work It Out, Incident at 66.6 FM, Meet The G That Killed Me, Pollywannacraka, Anti-N****r Machine, Burn Hollywood Burn, Power to the People, Who Stole the Soul?, Revolutionary Generation, Leave This Off Your Fu*kin Charts, B Side Wins Again, Final Count of the Collision Between Us and the Damned Mid Songs: Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya, Man!, Reggie Jax, War At 33 1/3 Bad Songs:

Fire.

Denne er fet! Synes den har et mye mer modent lydbilde enn den andre Public Enemy-skiva som tåler å lyttes på med 2026-ører.

911 is wack

A classic from the ‘Scare Mainstream White America’ catalog.

I really like the energy and beats on this record. It keeps its momentum going and occasionally hits you with a clever turn of phrase or idea. Fight the Power, which I first heard as the powerful backbone to Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, is the highlight -- my favorite tracks have a similar feel. It's a little long and not everything hits, but this is definitely one of the better hip-hop records I've heard. Flava Flav's voice kinda bugged me on the other Public Enemy record, but it worked for me here. I liked the reference to Driving Miss Daisy -- the film that won the Oscar in the year Do The Right Thing should have been the runaway favorite (and wasn't even nominated). Burn Hollywood, indeed.

Ice Cube's pocketbook must be very thankful that no one took him literally when he sang Burn Hollywood Burn.

Fun!

6. oktobar 2026. 20.26h fanki, eskperimentalno, i like svakako uvijek cu biti zahvalna za public enemy jer su nam dali Flavor Flav-a koji nam je dao Flavor of Love, jedan od najbitnijih rijalitija 2000ih iz kojeg je, izmedju ostalog, izasla New York so i can't and won't ever really hate best: brothers gonna work it out, fight the power

Neni muj vibe

Found it a little bit dated but that's fairly common for old hip hop albums

solid first listen, don’t think i’d put it on casually but great piece

Good stuff. Highly influential and controversial at the time of release. Lots has been said about this album.

RATING: 8.5/10 HIGHLIGHT: Fight the Power LOWLIGHT: Meet the G That Killed Me

Easy 5. First CD I ever had. Borrowed from the library on my mom's account, no less. Just couldn't return it and played it for years.

Hip-hop is not my thing. I respect the message and the culture related to it. But the sound make me nervous.

Great album front to back. Finishing on fight the power.

More irritating than I remembered it

Not my genre.

Great album

very important record obviously but the sound is dated

As a whole, this was less great than I remembered it. "911 is a Joke" and "Fight the Power" are undeniably all-timers, forever in rotation in our house. I've gotta log this as four stars just for that reason alone. But the rest kind of slid past unremarkably.

Undeniable cultural relevance, album that still Holds up, and flows nicely throughout. Flav only slightly annoying. Very strong album. Belongs on this list.

Flavor Flav usually ruins any song/rap, but for the most part I enjoy Public Enemy.

I understand this isn't an album I was meant to connect with or enjoy, but I genuinely tried.

I expected much better. Out of date and corny.

Complete crap

Cool funky beats. I’m not black nor I live in America

This album is too long. I don’t understand Flava Flav and his whole thing.

Surprise surprise, nineties rap strikes again. I haven't listened to much Public Enemy beyond "Fight The Power", so this was a very welcome introduction to the group. Topical as hell, excellent flows, and even better beats - what more could you ask for? Not sure if I'd listen to the entire album again, but there were certainly a few tracks (especially from the beginning of the album) that I'll be returning to. 3.5/5 rounded up Favorite tracks: Brothers Gonna Work It Out, 911 Is A Joke, Fight The Power

This shizz pretty wicked yo! Now I too fear the black planet!

Fight the power!!!! SPIDER BLOOD SPIDER BLOOD RADIOACTIVE SPIDER BLOOD. Good hippity hop. CLassic. Fight the power!!! That song rocks. Some cool trackz... U can see da influence dis had bro..

Good stuff

Jotennin ollenkaan ei lähtenyt. Räppi on mulle muutenkin koko isona genrekokonaisuutena hankala, eikä tän flow tuntunut yhtään omalta. Muut saman genren edustajat tällä listalla on tuntunut paljon tärkeemmiltä ja toimivimmilta, oikeasti merkityksillisiltä. Lyriikka on vihaista ja kantaaottavaa, mutta nyt on myös myönnettävä, että tosi vähälle jäi ajatuksella kuuntelu niiden osalta.

olin että no ei tää voi olla niiiin paha. kesti ikuisuuden! taapero on löytänyt rumpukoneen! ei silti ollu aivan hirveä. mutta pitkä.

Sinällään ihan hyvä levy, mut vähän turhan pitkä siihen nähen mitä sisältö oli. Joka biisistä tuli semmonen olo että tän vois heittää N.W.A:n Straight Outta Comptonille ja menis ihan täydestä.