"Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" | ||||
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Single by Public Enemy | ||||
from the album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back | ||||
A-side | "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" | |||
B-side | "B-Side Wins Again" | |||
Released | January 6, 1989 | |||
Recorded | 1988 | |||
Genre | Hip hop, political hip hop | |||
Length | 6:01 (single) 6:23 (album) "B-Side Wins Again": 3:49 | |||
Label | Def Jam | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | The Bomb Squad | |||
Public Enemy singles chronology | ||||
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"Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" is a song on the American hip hop group Public Enemy's 1988 album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. It was released as a single in 1989.[1] The song tells the story of a conscientious objector who makes a prison escape. It is built on a high-pitched piano sample from Isaac Hayes' "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic", from 1969's Hot Buttered Soul.