Album Obsessions: Fear of a Black Planet

If He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper was the gateway drug, Fear of a Black Planet was my graduation to the hard stuff.  The combination of Chuck D’s intensity and Flavor Flav’s insanity really appealed to me and I still maintain that this is the best rap album ever produced.  I bought the cassette tape while on vacation in Kingston, Ontario (which has no relevance to the piece but helps me meet my minimum word count quota) and I’m sure I have listened to the tape front to back hundreds of times.

I think that I was fascinated with the lyrics because the place that they came from was so foreign to me.  Public Enemy introduced me to a world much bigger than the little suburb I grew up in and really made me look closely at issues related to race and socioeconomic status (not that I knew that word then; heck, I hardly understand it now). Plus the Bomb Squad was at the top of their game, putting together great beats, hooks and samples.  Then I watched Do The Right Thing, which elevated the album to legendary status in my mind.

I still find myself randomly busting into Welcome to the Terrordome and I still remember a surprising percentage of the lyrics.  I do not, however, still believe that 911 Is a Joke.