{"id":61,"date":"2018-12-02T11:47:53","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T16:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-04\/?page_id=61"},"modified":"2018-12-14T09:15:38","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T14:15:38","slug":"critical-response-the-terrordome","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-04\/critical-response-the-terrordome\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical Response: The Terrordome"},"content":{"rendered":"

The build up and release of <\/span>Fear of a Black Planet<\/span><\/i> was met with mixed responses from critics, because of accusations of anti-semitism and black supremacist ideology. An <\/span>Entertainment Weekly<\/span><\/i> review released the same month as the album\u2019s release begins by dismissing uptight claims of anti-semitism, \u201cAs just about the entire Western world must know by now, Public Enemy are those unspeakable anti-Semitic rappers. Or are they?\u201d (Sandow) The writer appears to be on Public Enemy\u2019s side, citing evidence that the group fired Professor Griff, a member of the Bomb Squad, after he said, \u201cJews were the source of all the world\u2019s evil.\u201d \u201cWelcome to the Terrordome\u201d is also mentioned in multiple reviews as having anti-semitic language, noted in particular because it was one of the record\u2019s lead-up singles. Chuck D appears to say that Jews crucified Jesus while also comparing himself to Christ, potentially angering more than one religious group in the process, but this is also the type of language Chuck D felt he had to use in order to get his messages heard. The line in question is also a bit ambiguous, \u201cCrucifixion ain’t no fiction\/ So-called chosen frozen\/ Apology made to whoever pleases\/ Still they got me like Jesus,\u201d (he later claimed that the \u201cso-called chosen\u201d were critics, not Jewish people).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Spin\"
Chuck D shouting to crowds who hold up familiar Public Enemy logos, like the target in the top right corner. In 2014, Chuck D explained the iconic symbol, which many people thought was a state trooper under fire, “the hat is one of the ones that Run-DMC wore. The B-Boy stance and the silhouette was more like the black man on the target\u201d (Rolling Stone). Photo from Frank Owen Spin<\/i> interview.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That <\/span>Entertainment Weekly<\/span><\/i> review goes on to give the record an \u201cA-\u201d review. That is until a post-script made after the review was published saying that Public Enemy sent <\/span>EW<\/span><\/i> a \u201c1970 tract,\u201d which references psychiatrist Frances Welsing, who said whites oppressed blacks, because they were compensating as the inferior race. Public Enemy clearly succeeded in riling up a white reporter who didn\u2019t quite get what they were going for, and Chuck D\u2019s real guiding philosophy on race is more clearly stated in his <\/span>Spin<\/span><\/i> interview with Frank Owen, \u201cThis black and white thing is a belief structure, not a physical reality. There is nobody on this planet who is 100 percent black or 100 percent white\u2026 The only reason that Public Enemy promote Afrocentricity and Back to Black is that we live under a structure that promotes whites.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to the Terrordome\u201d caught headlines for its lyrics, but there may have been more making listeners anxious than just Chuck D\u2019s bars. \u201cTerrordome\u201d starts with a fake-out. Its first three seconds sound like a celebratory big band romp, until it quickly transitions into a beat built on an alarm that falls slightly out of sync with the time signature, getting cut off before it finishes its natural loop. The Bomb Squad employs 16 different samples too, creating a dense, textured beat with breaks just before Chuck D hits the refrain, \u201cwelcome to the terrordome\u201d (WhoSampled). The alarm beat repeats relentlessly, and nearly five and a half minutes of this and so many other disorienting vignettes\u2014half a guitar riff here, incomprehensible female voices and laughs there, Flavor Flav scatting everywhere\u2014creates a chaotic experience for the listener, as much in sound as in lyrical content. The Boston Phoenix\u2019s Tim Riley compared the album to a courtroom where a black judge couldn\u2019t control his angry black constituents, \u201cPublic Enemy’s <\/span>Fear of a Black Planet <\/span><\/i>sounds like: an assault on American \u2018justice,\u2019 and language \u2013 with fear being the operative word.”<\/span><\/p>\n