Song Analysis: Fight The Power

Fight the Power “Fight the Power” is one of the most controversial songs from the late 80’s hip hop generation. This song is written and sang by the group called Public Enemy. Public enemy was known to be very influential through their controversial lyrics. Their music is very much pro black power; Although this song is focused more towards the African American community, it can be used to influence any type of social class being affected by social injustice. The civil rights movement from the 1950’s to 1960’s brought lots of victory to the African American community in the United States. Although segregation in ways has still existed since then, major desegregating happened during this time. Despite this, there was still much tension between
the African American community and those with power. Although laws had changed, feelings from a lot of those pro segregation did not change. “In June 1971, President Nixon declared a “war on drugs.” He dramatically increased the size and presence of federal drug control agencies, and pushed through measures such as mandatory sentencing and no-knock warrants” ().
This act primarily affected the African American community due to the idea that it was used to disrupt and validify them on the news daily. This continued to grow and get bigger through-out the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, where it hit its climax of expansion. Many during this time were incarcerated during this time. African Americans were the major community to be affected by this. From 1980 to 1997 the number of people incarcerated went from 50,000 to over 400,000 (). All these factors led up to the division of power that came between the economically poor and high rates of unemployed African Americans and the majority white American higher up working class and business owners. This led to a movie that was very controversial and directed by Spike
Lee. “Do the Right Thing” was the movie that skyrocketed once it was released in the 1980s due to its huge view on how social class and race have a direct effect on how they interact with each other. Even to this day, the movie portrays how police brutality is affected by certain race. The movie is based around a racially diverse group of people living in a lower-class neighborhood in New York. It shows all the different attitudes they have for each other primarily based on each other’s social class and race (). Many believe this film to be about rallying together for the African American community against police brutality and the higher up power affecting them. A very strong message within the movie was its anthem, “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy. This song was not as much a message to the people with the power, but rather a rally cry to primarily the African American community to rise and fight against “the powers that be”. “Fight the powers that be” is one of the biggest lines out of all the lyrics within the song. They say this right before they say the main part of the song “fight the power”. Public Enemy is one of the most influential, controversial groups of the rap genre.
They were started at Adelphi University in Long Island, New York by a rapper with the name Chuck D. He got together two others, Flavor Flav another rapper and Professor Griff who choreographed and managed their backup dancers. They were one of the first groups to begin coming out with protest music. They were also one of the few groups that primarily did only that type of music and ended up being very successful with it. Their very first song recorded was “Public Enemy Number 1”. This song is what got them noticed by Def Jam and soon after signed. They released their first album in 1987, and they mostly made their image out to be like black power groups such as the Black Panthers. During this time Griff made a statement to the Washington Post that stated, “Jews are responsible for the majority of wickedness in the world.” Soon after Griff was fired, and the rest of the group denied any part of the statement, but it still brought controversy to the group as people began to believe them as anti-Jewish. Despite all this, Public Enemy kept on making very popular music including the song “Fight the Power”
(). Despite Chuck D primarily being very controversial with his lyrics, in verse 2 of “Fight the Power”, there is not hardly any controversial lyrics. Within the lyrics, lines 9 through 15 say:
“People, people we are the same
No, we're not the same
Cause we don't know the game
What we need is awareness, we can't get careless
You say what is this?
My beloved let’s get down to business
Mental self-defensive fitness”
It does not seem as if Chuck D was going for a controversial statement in this verse. It appears as if he is telling his audience that they should be aware of and learn to defend themselves from the “power to be”. He is saying how people are all the same but at the same time, we are different on what we believe in and stand up for.
Towards the end of the song there is a very controversial verse where Chuck D raps about Elvis Presley and John Wayne being racist and how they mean nothing to him. As this may be true about John Wayne as he stated in a 1971 interview with “Playboy” magazine, “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people” (). However, Elvis was more pro black rights rather than against them. He described his love for the music that had black roots and it is also well documented that he spent most of his childhood within a black community ().
As time has gone along, “Fight the Power” has also been an influence in not only African American’s lives but also a large group of white youth going through the same struggles to be able to rise as well. Their message was blunt and simple, to fight the abusive powers that be. This includes social injustice that goes on every day in their everyday lives. Also, police brutality to certain races over others and a government that seems to try to keep certain social classes as more of a priority than others. A few of the best lines in the song are in verse 1 where Chuck D is saying to his audience:
“Got to give us what we want
Gotta give us what we need
Our freedom of speech is freedom or death
We got to fight the powers that be”
This is the first main point in which he is telling his audience that it is time to stand up against “the powers that be” and use the freedom of speech that we are protected to use to get rid of the injustice that is being brought upon them. Just these few lines may be some of the most powerful lyrics spoken throughout this whole song holding a lot of influence just within themselves. From this point out until the end of the song, Chuck D is using this song to make a rally cry to all those sick and tired of being socially abused by the people in power. Also, the people that have been mentally and physically brutalized by police or those that abuse the power that is given to them. There were major controversies that came at Public Enemy including Chuck D's pro-Nation of Islam lyrics that brought a lot of attention to them. Also, Accusations of anti-Semitism were also leveled at the group and having to fire Griff because of his comment against Jews (). Despite all this, they were still able to overcome the negatives and influence so many people with just the platform they were given through lyrics.
Throughout the late 80s to present day, “Fight the Power” is a motivational song that has inspired many to not take any more abuse from “the power that be”, but to stand up and rise against them to protect themselves from whatever it may be. Throughout all the late 80s hip hop songs, this one is by far the most influential protest pieces of literature and possibly one of the all-time greatest influential songs.