| "Fight the Power" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Public Enemy | ||||
| from the album Fear of a Black Planet and Do the Right Thing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | ||||
| B-side | "Fight the Power (Flavor Flav Meets Spike Lee)" | |||
| Released | July 4, 1989[1] | |||
| Recorded | 1989 | |||
| Genre | Political hip hop | |||
| Length | 5:23 (original, Do the Right Thing soundtrack version) 6:45 (extended version) 4:42 (Fear of a Black Planet album version) (without Branford Marsalis) | |||
| Label | Motown | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | The Bomb Squad | |||
| Public Enemy singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Fight the Power" on YouTube | ||||
"Fight the Power" is a song by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released as a single in the summer of 1989 on Motown Records. It was conceived at the request of film director Spike Lee, who sought a musical theme for his 1989 film Do the Right Thing. First issued on the film's 1989 soundtrack, the extended version was featured on Public Enemy's third studio album Fear of a Black Planet (1990).
"Fight the Power" incorporates various samples and allusions to African-American culture, including civil rights exhortations, black church services, and the music of James Brown. Spike Lee also directed a music video in Brooklyn featuring a political rally of "a thousand" black youth, with appearances by Lee and the Public Enemy members (Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Terminator X), uniformed Fruit of Islam men, and signs of historic black figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.[2][3]
As a single, "Fight the Power" reached number one on Hot Rap Singles and number 20 on the Hot R&B Singles. It was named the best single of 1989 by The Village Voice in their Pazz & Jop critics' poll. It has become Public Enemy's best-known song and has received accolades as one of the greatest songs of all time by critics and publications. In 2001, the song was ranked number 288 in the "Songs of the Century" list compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2021, the song was ranked number two in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
- ^ "In the Summer of 1989 "Fight the Power" Saved Public Enemy & Almost Sank 'Do the Right Thing'". Okayplayer. July 11, 2019. Archived from the original on December 3, 2019. Retrieved November 29, 2019.
- ^ Neal, Mark Anthony (June 22, 2009). "The Music in Spike's Message". The Root. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
- ^ "Public Enemy: A New Era of the Black Power Movement – Honors Student Advisory Committee". Retrieved May 3, 2024.