On April 10, 1990, Public Enemy dropped it's third album to a waiting crowd, eager to hear what the self proclaimed "Spokesman" had come up with in their third effort.
Do The Right Thing, Spike Lee's film which offered up a tale of misunderstanding and a community on the brink had played the summer before giving Chuck D a chance to introduce the sound for his new album. Fight the Power, above served as the punch for the film designed to express the way the characters felt.
And like so many in Chuck D's audience people I felt an instant connection with the music.. and a for a lot of young kids around the country, it was the feeling of being rebellious made comfortable in the safety of our own skins.
In Sept. 1988 issue of Spin Magazine, Chuck D had referred to Rap music as "Black America's CNN", arguing that getting the story out about what was happening in the African American community in America was difficult and that through rap they were able to communicate to listeners their experience.
Public Enemy's music, like so many in the early phases of rap appealed not just to the African American community but to young white men nationwide who felt the natural alienation that I think all young men feel, and found some of their rebellious hopes in the music that Chuck D put into the marketplace.
I will openly admit, as a young high school student, there was something about Chuck D's message that I found myself nodding my head and saying "I get this". I feel as though many young people around the country had the same reaction. Listening to the music, banging our head, walking I and so many others thought we were sharing an experience with ChuckD.
Except, of course, we weren't. The foolish nature of being young allowed us to walk around and listen, memorize lyrics, nod our head.. but while we could listen and understand the words we couldn't really understand the experience.
The fact that 9-11 Is a Joke would never play on radio stations in our community didn't mean something about it didn't speak to us. Black CNN? More like dance moves and commentary on Flavor Flav's giant clock. 9-11 Is a Joke? Ok, cool concept. The message though - of course the audience who bought the tapes and listened could understand - that was Chuck D's point, wasn't it?
It's weak to speak and blame somebody else
When you destroy yourself
First nothing's worse than a mother's pain
Of a son slain in Bensonhurst
Can't wait for the state to decide the fate
So this jam I dedicate
Places with racist faces
Just an example of one of many cases
The Greek weekend speech I speak
From a lesson learned in Virginia (Beach)
26 years after Yusef Hawkins it seems so long ago. In 1990, kids walked around at night, listening to Chuck and thinking: things will change.
People wanted to relate.
But they couldn't relate.
Not for lack of effort.
Not for lack of interest.
The experiences were simply too different. Walking at night, listening to Chuck rant, I often returned to an earlier album:
Some people fear me when I talk this way
Some come near me, some run away
Some people take heed to every word I say
Some wanna build a posse, some stay away
Some people think that we plan to fail
Wonder why we go under or we go to jail
Some ask us why we act the way we act
Without lookin' how long they kept us back
I walked more miles around a small Kansas town listening to Public Enemy in my youth than I can remember.
Carl Rowen wrote an editorial that summer about what was happening in New York that acted as the impetus for the album:
https://news.google.com/...
This raises a question of how far and deep the writ of racism is to run before President Bush, the nation's governors and mayors and civic and business leaders realize that they must raise their voices against it. We have been treated over the weekend with a surfeit of how Bush can play tennis, golf, horseshoes, attend two churches, jog a couple of miles, go boating and fish unsuccessfully in one day. We didn't hear about a George Bush taking the time to deplore the lynching in Bensonhurst, or to raise his voice against he resurgent tide of violent racism in America.
In some respects, the United States had better leadership in racial matters a half a century ago than what passes for leadership today.
When a black GI named Isaac Woodard got his eyes punched out by cops' bily clubs as he was returning home from World War II, President Harry Truman became personally outraged. In 1948, in the face of political peril, he demanded and got a federal anti-lynch law, a Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, a law making it a rime to violate the civil rights of any American citizen.. and more."
It's been more than 25 years since Yusef Hawkins.
On April 10, 2015 the response turned twenty five years old.
On April 12, 2015, a man in Baltimore lost his life in the back of a police vehicle.
There is a lot of work to be done to improve the lives of all in America. One of the questions we should be pondering is: with decades of notice the tragedy may be that Fear of a Black Planet could resonate as strongly to day with youth as 'truth' as it did in 1990.