Channel ZERO, Jul 2, 2020 #Remastered #PublicEnemy #FightThePower
[...]
Official Music Video for Fight The Power performed by Public
Enemy.
“Fight the Power” served as the theme for Spike Lee’s Do the
Right Thing and is featured on Public Enemy’s 1990 album Fear of a Black
Planet.
-snip-
statistics as of September 24, 2025
total # of views -
total # of comments -
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series on Public Enemy's 1989 hit Hip Hop record "Fight The Power".
This post showcases the official 2020 video of Public Enemy's "Fight The Power".
This post also presents a small number of comments from that video's discussion thread.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/11/public-enemy-fight-power-information.html for the 2016 pancocojams post that I have designated as Part I of this two part series. The post is entitled "Public Enemy - "Fight The Power" (information, lyrics, & video)".
The content of this post is presented for historical and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Public Enemy and thanks to all those who are associated with this YouTube video. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THIS VIDEO'S DISCUSSION THREAD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmo3HFa2vjg&list=RDmmo3HFa2vjg&start_radio=1
Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.
2020 and 2021
1. @youngtone00, 2020
"That's my generation right there. My generation wasn't ready
for this message but the seed was planted."
**
Reply
2. @shawngates9577, 2020
"This is how BLM started"
-snip-
"BLM"= "Black Lives Matter"
Reply
3. @Indygenous, 2020
"
Reply
4. @ibcalm24, 2020
"@Indygenous remember you are here because of us building upon others work. Did all your inspiration come from your own being. The road you travel someone else has already traveled. All the best to you on your journey as you make a path for others coming behind you."
5. @kayodephillips5435, 2020
"Amen"
**
Reply
6. @newbrookland, 2020
"I'm an aging white man who was lucky enough to grow up with
Hip-hop. PE is timeless, because the message is."
Reply
"The most important song in hip-hop history in my opinion"
**
Reply
8. @jonasbernal6642, 2020
"They were definitely more ready than my generation🤣"
**
Reply
9. @guymccloud6731, 2020
"Speak for yourself my man.
We were more than ready. The
power saw where this movement was going and shut it down with the quicks."
**
Reply
10. @deniscamdzic9601, 2020
"This right here is one of the reasons why the record labels
and music industry pushed gangsta rap to the forefront. They couldn't allow the
trend to keep moving in this direction, but we have to bring it back. Fight the
powers that be!"
**
Reply
11. @Indygenous, 2020
"And what did yall generation do? Nothing"
**
Reply
12. @GStrongRAW, 2021
"@Indygenous False. My generation broadened the platform
for this generation to take advantage of, when it comes to media. That
entrepreneurial/independent spirit, in Hip Hop, started with my generation. My
generation also fought U.S. congress for "freedom of speech" when the
V.P. of the United States called to ban Hip Hop."
**
Reply
13. @kalinwang1, 2021
"What are you talking about? Our generation is the generation
that brought about all these innovations and changes! This song is proof of
that. what had the current generation done? The current generation just ignores
all the benefits that they have today. There was a black president for crying
out loud from our generation!"
**
Reply
14. @WhoIsCheChe, 2020
"We were, but then the dominant music industry flooded the
market by the early 90's with our modern day minstrel shows called gangsta rap
while crushing the self-empowering roots of rap music's origins and its
positively evolving hip house artists. Both blacks, WASPs and other ethnic
groups bought it in droves, what better way to enthusiastically scream the most
racist, sexist, misogynistic mindsets at the top of your lungs by insisting
"I'm just singing along to the gangsta rap n*word!"
**
Reply
15. @deniscamdzic9601, 2020
"This right here is one of the reasons why the record labels
and music industry pushed gangsta rap to the forefront. They couldn't allow the
trend to keep moving in this direction, but we have to bring it back. Fight the
powers that be!"
**
Reply
16. @MYDAILYHABIT-Publishing, 2020
"I remember when the change came in, no disrespect to Gangsta
rap ( which had already exsisted in forms ) but the industry latched on hard
and messages like PE, X Clan, and many others got drowned out quick."
**
Reply
17. @afrosoul_soul, 2021
"You said a mouthful"
**
Reply
18. @dubrc8577, 2021
"@zb7858 well maybe but I that's not how I remember it
back then. Young people/kids loved it but it got limited airplay because adults
and politicians were terrified of the lyrics.
Many songs were banned and deemed as inciting violence..blah blah blah.
What did we get to replace it? Songs about drinking and f--kin*..smh
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.
**
Reply
19. @jameswayland2339, 2021
"Most of the executives in the major labels also held stock
in the profit prison system also."
**
Reply
20. @conniestevenson226, 2021
"@dubrc8577 they dont want people thinking, or rising up.
They want them drugged up and hypnotized to do as they are told"
**
Reply
21. @mr.w.l.wilson2465, 2021
"ABSOLUTELY!!! No one wants to hear the Real Message the
streets & the community needs to hear!"
Reply
22. @jrno93, 2021
"
**
Reply
23. @patrickphillips7225, 2021
"You got that right."
**
Reply
24. @jesuswilljudge7296, 2021
"Nwa and ice cube screwed up hip hop"
**
Reply
25. @anthonyclark9441, 2021
"Gamgsta Rap rose up due to how hard they tried to keep it
from doing so. The more they tried to keep people from hearing it, the more
they wanted to. The moment the 'Burbs got a hold of it, it was over. The FBI
trying so hard to ban NWA is what really did it. This kind of Music was still
being consumed, but as the times changed, the Street/Reality/Gangsta Rap came
and took over."
**
Reply
26. @KtotheG, 2021
"You guys are resisting the very message that is present in
this song... "our freedom of speech is freedom or death." Chuck D. and Ice Cube are friends. Hip hop is about freedom of expression."
**
Reply
27. @KtotheG, 2021
"@Scout555 But you want to control the message, too, by
trying to limit what rappers can say.
That's really what Chuck D was talking about here."
**
Reply
28. @michaeld2547, 2021
"Spot on. And porno rap like 2 Live Crew. Suddenly it was OK
for young women to be like strippers in music videos without getting banned. As
ever, if you want to control the masses, distract the masses with sweet
foolishness."
**
Reply
29. @Scout555, 2021
"@KtotheG Not really what he was trying to say. I was
specifically talking abour how the content was utilized by those in power to
minimize the empowerment message of PE. Anybody can rap anything but McDonalds
gonna be paying clown rapper major coin and offer more airtime. Chuck D was
saying - say what you want to say but dont be some establishment corporation’s shadow weapon."
**
Reply
30. @Scout555, 2021
"@mallman9374 I think they were referring to rap that was
not on the same powerful empowerment message as PE , but rap that glorified the
thug life. In the end it was true, it allowed that generation of rappers to
destroy one another, it made disrespecting the soul a commodity. It was all
about the hype that PE warned about."
**
Reply
31. @mallman9374, 2021
"@Scout555 Thank you much for your reply.
I became alarmed when my link to the original Public Enemy link (which had over 15 million views) disappeared when Trump was president. Perhaps just a quirk of YouTube mechanics, of which I have no clue. Whereas, Deep Purple's - Child in Time (with 107 million views) remains intact (which was the real anthem of Vietnam vets, not Purple Haze, although I do think the latter is better music). As does Ram Jam's Black Betty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_2D8Eo15wE with 209 million views. This song was marginal back in my day. It wasn't very popular on Kentucky's rock radio stations that I listened to, at least, although I do remember it being played. My only hope is that is now fascinating for it's overt racism and the drugged out lead singer.
So it made me wonder if YouTube's politics were involved. It could just be it reflects the nation's musical preferences as a whole.
To which, all I can say is "If it's music, we can use it", stealing from Cameo's Word Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZjAantupsA which was politically brilliant - Geordie as a stand in for white cops, which wouldn't have been tolerated being shown as oppressive back then, and an appeal to make common cause with "pretty ladies" who had their own reasons for being unhappy. Back then, a man asked me why a woman who looked like me would choose to become an engineer. He meant it as a serious question.
But I'm smelling a rat. No way was Black Betty more popular back in those days than https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnS0GaiIewM (Finding somebody to love is really more important for your mental health than being loved.)
Perhaps it just reflects current preferences, but it makes me very afraid, and I'm not black, just a very old music lover.
Or perhaps Black Betty's current popularity is just fascination with their drugged out insanity. I can hope.
2025
32. @chanelpreston4194
"1989-2025 and nothing has changed. We STILL need this
classic, now more then ever"
33. @MultidimensionalBeats
"
**
Reply
34. @vicentburton2140
"Right ON ❤"
**
Reply
35. @FindtherealRachel
"I hear ya ❤️❤️❤️"
**
Reply
36. @tahaalizadeh1462
"Respect,✊✊🏾"
**
37. @9.NayDaGreat
"2025 and this iconic classic is more relevant today than it
was when it was made !"
38. @LinquaVaqize-jm4uc
"Song so real fight the power"
**
39. @At.mos.fEarProduktionz
"The good ole days when hip hop was positive and it meant something."
****
This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.
Visitor comments are welcome.
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