"Fight the power" as standard-bearer of a protest song

"Fight The Power"

The lyrics

start of lyrics 1989 the number another summer (get down)

Sound of the funky drummer

Music hittin' your heart cause I know you got sould

(Brothers and sisters, hey)

Listen if you're missin' y'all

Swingin' while I'm singin'

Givin' whatcha gettin'

Knowin' what I know

While the Black bands sweatin'

And the rhythm rhymes rollin'

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

Lemme hear you say

Fight the power

[Chorus]

As the rhythm designed to bounce

What counts is that the rhymes

Designed to fill your mind

Now that you've realized the prides arrived

We got to pump the stuff to make us tough

from the heart

It's a start, a work of art

To revolutionize make a change nothin's strange

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 lets get down to business

Mental self defensive fitness

(Yo) bum rush the show

You gotta go for what you know

Make everybody see, in order to fight the powers that be

Lemme hear you say...

Fight the Power

[Chorus]

Elvis was a hero to most

But he never meant shit to me you see

Straight up racist that sucker was

Simple and plain

Mother fuck him and John Wayne

Cause I'm Black and I'm proud

I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped

Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps

Sample a look back you look and find

Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check

Don't worry be happy

Was a number one jam

Damn if I say it you can slap me right here

(Get it) lets get this party started right

Right on, c'mon

What we got to say

Power to the people no delay

To make everybody see

In order to fight the powers that be

(Fight the Power) end of lyrics

“Fight the power” or the idea of protest

“Fight the Power” is a song by American hip hop group calls Public Enemy, released as a single in June 1989 on Motown Records. It was composed for the film director’s request Spike Lee who sought a musical theme for his 1989 film Do the Right thing.

As a single “Fight Power” reached number one on Hot Rap Singles. It was named the best single of 1989 by the Village Voice in one of their critic (most well-known) song. But why is this song a protest against discrimination ?

           

First of all, the song’s lyrics are calling the black population to fight the “power that be”. Its lyrics are addressed to African-Amercian population as a fraternity message (“the brothers and sisters” who are “swingin’ while I’m singin”) because at this period the white culture was the one reserved for the white people and the black one for the African-American… In 1989, the desegragation wasn’t far away… especially for the culture and the hobbies which has to be linked with the education in the American society. Indeed, the desegragation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegration was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Brown versus Board of Eduction (1954) but also after the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Atc, particularly desegragation of the school systems. Racial integration of society was a closely related goal. But the segregation ended in 1967 when the US Supreme Court declared unconstitutionnal the law which forbade the mixt union between people of different colours (called sentenced « Loving versus Virginia"). So the protest song was released 22 years old after the end of segregation but nevertheless the American society was always marked by its unglorious past...

Image : The New York Times, June 13, 1967 (the article)

There was a kind of fracture between white and black people in the society even if today it has not completely disapeared, as the recent events of Ferguson showed to us, however it improved with the time thanks to political initiatives and spirit evolution which allowed Barack Obama to become the first black President of the United States of America.

Barack Obama in 2008

In his form, “Fight the power” incorporates various samples and allusions to African-American culture including civil rights exhortations, black church services: "'People, people we are the same' / No, we're not the same / 'Cause we don't know the game". Indeed, there are many allusions to African-American music, quoted by Chuck D, the music leader which opens the single with his roaring “1989, in his lyrics including "sound of the funky drummer" (James Brown and Clyde Stubblefield), "I know you got soul" (Bobby Byrd and Eric B. & Rakim), "freedom or death" (Stetsasonic), "people, people" (Brown's "Funky President"), and "I'm black and I'm proud" (Brown's "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud").

Chuck D

Then, Chuck D goes further by appealing to the power institutions and the politics leaders (“give us what we want/ Gotta give us what we need”). He also calls on his own African-American community to responsibility  ("What we need is awareness / We can't get careless [...] Let's get down to business / Mental self-defensive fitness”) and makes an allusion to Martin Luther King and his vision of the “beloved community”. Let me remember the Luther King’s quote dealing with this amazing and innovative idea “Our goal it to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitive change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives”.

Beyond the protest song… Some elements to enlight us on the final scope of the song

The song’s third verse contains ungracious lyrics about famous American icons Elvis Presley and John Wayne as Chuck D raps : “Elvis was a hero to most / But he never meant shit to me / Straight up racist, the sucker was / Simple and plain", with Flavor Flav following, "Muthafuck him and John Wayne!’’ The words used were disturbing and aggressive to many listeners upon the single's release. Chuck D found his inspiration after hearing an artist called Clarence “Blowfly” Reid’s (“Blowfly Rapp”, 1980) in which Reid denounced racist insults against him and the boxer Muhammad Ali. The third verse expresses the racism of Presley however Chuck D will clarified later his lyrics content dealing with Presley… In an interview with Newsday for the 25th anniversary of Elvis’ death, Chuck D acknowledged that Presley admired black music culture and especially performers. He is also precised that his lyrics goal was to target the white culture which raised Elvis Presley as the “King” without recognize the black artists that came before his success. Finally, the allusion to John Wayne is a reference to his controversial personality and especially his racist remarks made in his interview for Playboy (1971) in which Wayne declared "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.". Chuck D also explained why he said :"Cause I'm black and I'm proud / I'm ready and hyped, plus I'm amped / Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps / Sample a look back you look and find / Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check".

In conclusion, this song exceeds his own dimension as it is extremely well build and it becomes a standard bearer of protest song and more than this it appears if we are looking back as a sympathic project which became a “masterpiece” and it developed a movement of protest as the pictures are illustrated.

        

« Fight the power » The Simpsons

  

A symbol of his succes is showing there with the slogan « Keep calm and fight the power »

Finally, it allows the African-American people to express themselves, to say “no” and developed their own vision of a state structure with more equalities, rights and respect. However it stays complex and the community aspect has to be nuanced. Nevertheless, it has become Public Enemy’s best-known song and has been considered as one of the greatest songs of all time by critics. In 2001, the song was ranked number 288 in the "Songs of the Century" list compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Fabien Toux and Louis Voyer