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Home , Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Keith Shocklee, Terminator X, The Bomb Squad

JULY/AUGUST 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM BEHIND THE CLASSICS WRITTEN BY: , ERIC “VIETNAM” SADLER, HANK SHOCKLEE, RECORDED AT: GREENE STREET RECORDING, CITY, 1989 PRODUCED BY: VOCALS: CHUCK D, BACKING TRACK: THE BOMB SQUAD FROM THE ALBUM: (1990) David Corio

Agent Attitude, , Flavor Flav, Chuck D

“Fight the Power”

IN 1988, UP-AND-COMING DIRECTOR movie theme. He wrote lyrics that called upon Rod Hui mixed the song, and the group sent Spike Lee was planning his third feature fi lm. blacks to stand up for themselves against the results to Spike Lee for his approval. In , racial tensions come racism: “Our freedom of speech is freedom or All involved were nervous that Lee would to a boil on a hot summer day in Brooklyn’s death/We’ve got to fi ght the powers that be.” reject the song, a feeling that grew when they Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Lee After returning to the U.S., Chuck entered the didn’t hear from him. It wasn’t until the fi rst wanted a potent hip-hop anthem to serve studio with fellow Public Enemy rapper Flavor screenings were held of Do the Right Thing as the theme song. “I wanted it to be defi ant, Flav and the group’s in-house production that they discovered that he had indeed used I wanted it to be angry, I wanted it to be very crew, the Bomb Squad—made up of Hank the song—prominently and frequently. The rhythmic,” Lee later recalled. “I thought right Shocklee, Keith Shocklee and Eric “Vietnam” song stirred controversy for its provocative away of Public Enemy.” The rap group had Sadler as well as Chuck himself. The group lines denouncing American icons Elvis Presley just released its landmark second album, created a backing track in its usual fashion, and John Wayne as racists. Chuck had no It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us layering a dizzying number of samples and particular beef with Presley; he was inspired Back, a blend of dense, aggressive music beats into a thick, somewhat dissonant bed of by poet Clarence “Blowfl y” Reid’s “Blowfl y’s and strident topical-minded lyrics. The group music. There are dozens of samples running Rapp,” in which a Klansman insults Muhammad was preparing to go on tour with Run-DMC, through “Fight the Power”—almost all of them Ali. “It was something that stuck in me,” Chuck but carved out time for a meeting with Lee sliced, sped up, slowed down or distorted said, “so when I wrote the third verse of ‘Fight at an Indian restaurant in Manhattan. The beyond recognition. (, Uriah the Power,’ I reversed the charges.” director proposed that the group collaborate Heep, Bob Marley and the Dramatics are just “Fight the Power” topped the rap singles with composer Terence Blanchard to rework a few of the artists whose music is sampled chart in the summer of 1989 and is today seen the African-American spiritual “Lift Every in the song.) The group collectively came up as one of hip-hop’s pinnacle achievements. Voice and Sing.” His ideas were immediately with ideas for sounds, Keith Shocklee came The Bomb Squad production team dissolved rejected—Public Enemy insisted upon doing up with the primary beat and Sadler took care over the years, but Public Enemy continues to its own thing. of most of the programming, working on an spread its message through music. “We’ve While fl ying over Italy on the Run-DMC E-mu SP-1200 drum machine and sampler. always been for peace—and if not peace, fi ght tour, frontman Chuck D hit upon the idea of (“We put loops on top of loops on top of the power,” Chuck said recently. “You’ve got borrowing the title and combative spirit of loops,” Chuck said.) Chuck laid down his main to fi ght the powers that be that keep you from the Isley Brothers’ 1975 hit “Fight the Power vocal—punctuated by interjections from Flav— going forward.” (Pt. 1 & 2)” as a jumping-off point for the using a Neumann 87 microphone. Engineer –Chris Neal

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