'Fight the Power' hit America like the garbage can through the plate glass window in Spike Lee's incendiary classic, 'Do The Right Thing,' the film on whose soundtrack the song first appeared. Lee's film and Public Enemy's music share a spirit of opposition guided by a sense of artistry. Lee's vivid cinematic palate approximates P.E.'s multivocal soundscape; both are unrelenting in their sensory attack.

"My job," Chuck D once said, "is to write shocking lyrics that will wake people up." 'Fight the Power' shows him at his peak, his commanding baritone preaching lyrics precisely with Flava Flav's high-pitched punctuations pushing him on. This is sample-driven production at its best, with the Bomb Squad laying down a complex melange of synthesizer, guitar, bass and vocals taken from songs by Sly Stone, James Brown, Parliament and The Jacksons. And yet somehow these disparate sources mesh in a track that not only grooves but moves. The revolution in 'Fight the Power' is not simply in its audacious message, but in its musical means.

'Fight the Power' is at once defiantly black and yet universal in its appeal to the human impulse to rebel. Undeniably, it is among the handful of essential recordings in the history of hip-hop music, alongside their certified classic LPs, 1988's 'It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back' and 1989's 'Fear of a Black Planet' (on which another mix of 'Fight the Power' also appears). In the years since, Public Enemy has diminished in profile but not importance. Chuck D, in particular, remains relevant as a social commentator and innovator in music technology. In the final estimation, Public Enemy were rebels with a cause who brought their message, and hip-hop itself, to the mainstream like never before.

About the Author

Adam Bradley is a freelance writer living in New England.