The 500 - #302 - Fear Of A Black Planet - Public Enemy

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

---

Album: # 302

Album Title: Fear Of A Black Planet

Artist: Public Enemy

Genre: Hip-Hop, East Coast Hip-Hop, Political Rap

Recorded: Two Studios, near Long Island, New York

Released: April, 1990

My age at release: 24

How familiar was I with it before this week: A little

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, 176 (Moving up 126 spots)

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Fight The Power

In the eighties, in the almost exclusively white suburbs of London, Ontario, exposure to hip-hop music for most came from only two sources -- music television and contemporary film soundtracks. (Canada's equivalent to MTV, Music Television, is a station called MuchMusic.)

Weekly, MuchMusic aired a segment entitled RapCity, hosted by the only black Video Jockey (VJ) on the station, Michael Williams. Williams would present videos from Canadian and American hip-hop artists during his one-hour program and provide commentary and biographical information during the breaks. I wasn't an ardent fan of the genre, but I listened and learned a few things.

Williams (right) beside musician Corey Hart (middle) 
and J.D. Roberts - better known to American audiences
as a CNN and FOX News correspondent.

Contemporary hip-hop was also prevalent in the soundtracks to popular films. In a time before streaming networks and downloadable content, movie theatres were packed and my girlfriend (now wife) and I went weekly. In the summer of 1989, we saw Do The Right Thing, Spike Lee's groundbreaking and critically lauded film that focuses on racial tensions in the Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Sty) neighbourhood of Brooklyn during one incredibly hot summer day.

The opening credit sequence features the stunning Rosie Perez performing an aggressive, athletic and sexy dance as the song Fight The Power by this week's artist Public Enemy, plays in the background.

Rosie Perez in a screen capture from the opening credits to
Do The Right Thing

Public Enemy are an American hip-hop and political action collective formed in Long Island, New York, in 1985. The group has gone through many line-up changes through their career, with founders Chuck D (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour) and Flavor Flav (William Jonathan Drayton Jr.) being the only consistent members.

Flavor Flav (left) and Chuck D (early 90s)

Released in 1990, Fear Of A Black Planet is the third studio record and the first of two on The 500 list. Their second record, 1988's It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back is positioned at #48 on the 2012 list. (It moved up to #15 on the revised 2020 list.)

It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back album cover

On the accompanying episode of The 500 Podcast, guest, comedian and actor Tony Rock, who was raised in Bed-Sty said:

"Growing up, we didn't learn a lot in school about our race. Chuck D was 'Professor' Chuck D of African studies to us...he was the black newspaper for us...he told us about so many black people we had never heard about and Public Enemy wasn't just a band, it was a movement." 

Comedian Tony Rock

Meanwhile, 900 km away in London, Ontario, I was also "getting the news" from films like Do The Right Thing and the undeniably powerful lyrics of Public Enemy. When I first heard Chuck D deliver the line, "I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped / Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps", I began to appreciate better that safe, middle-class suburban reality I lived was markedly different from the world being experienced by those living in an inner-city. This was further amplified when the video for 911 Is A Joke began to find airtime on RapCity and the regular MuchMusic rotation. I mentally wrestled with the idea that the emergency service institutions that I trusted unquestioningly to keep me safe might not offer that same level of protection in a lower income neighbourhood.

It would be disingenuous to suggest that a handful of films and some socially-charged lyrics led to a great awakening in me. However, those experiences did put me on a road toward greater empathy for the quality of life of others. It informed my professional development as an educator of children from diverse backgrounds. London is no longer "almost exclusively white" and, throughout my career, I have worked to embrace a culturally responsive pedagogy to maximize the learning environment of every student.

Culturally responsive pedagogy is a student-centred approach to teaching in which the cultural strengths of students are identified and nurtured to promote achievement and a sense of well-being.

Listening to this record in its entirety, and learning more about the meaning behind the lyrics (particularly the song Welcome To The Terrordome and the horrific murder of 16-year-old Yusef Hawkins) reminded me again that appreciating the experiences of others before making judgments is paramount in the role of any educator.

Newspaper headline following the
racially motivated murder of 16 year old
Yusuf Hawkins in 1989.