Source: YouTube “Fight The Power (Full Version) – Public Enemy”

Public Enemy was formed in 1982 by New York rappers Chuck D and Flavor Flav. They’re known for being one of the most influential artists of the Golden Age of Rap. Their radical, pro-black lyrics — reflecting the ideologies of Louis Farrakhan and the Black Panthers — and abrasive and experimental music production, created by their producers the Bomb Squad, earned them a spot as one of the most prominent and controversial rappers of all time (Erlewine).

Their song “Fight the Power” was made for the film “Do the Right Thing,” directed by Spike Lee. The film is about racial tensions between Black and Italian-Americans in a neighborhood in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn, New York City (Obenson). “Fight the Power” is the film’s music theme, it plays during the main title sequence and at different points throughout the film.

The music video, also directed by Lee, is a simulation of a protest, shot in the streets of Brooklyn, called “The Young People’s March on Brooklyn to End Racial Violence.”

A crowd of hundreds of young Black men, women, and children with banners and pickets are shown marching through a Brooklyn neighborhood. The signs have the names of the members of Public Enemy — including S1W, their background paramilitary dance group who are also shown marching — and different cities with large Black populations like Montgomery, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. They are also carrying pictures of historical Black figures like MLK, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Jesse Jackson, and Angela Davis. Other signs have sayings like “Fight the Power,” “Remember Selma,” and the name of PE’s first album “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.” The signs show us that this protest is for the Black Community, the figures who inspired the event, and the people who are leading it.

Instead of just showing clips of the protest, the murmurs of the crowd and chanting is heard alongside the music, emphasizing the power of their joint voices. People are shown with their arms around each other, sitting on each other’s shoulders, and holding up banners together. The shots are quick changing, showing images of the crowd from all angles — some are super close-ups of people’s faces — making the viewer feel the intensity and urgency of the protest. The crowd is all Black, so it is clear who PE is addressing, who they are empowering to unite, who they believe will be the ones to make a change.

Throughout all of this PE is shown walking in front of the crowd and standing on a stage, backed by S1W in their Black Panther-inspired clothing, raising their fists and spewing their empowering lyrics. The crowd is shown following their ministrations, pumping their fists along to the beat and chanting “fight the power” along with Chuck D and Flavor Flav, making the words more powerful than they would be if it were just said by the two rappers. PE are the leaders, but their message is amplified by their followers.

This simulated protest is an envisionment of what PE wants to see from the Black community. They created an environment in which Black people came together to make their voices be heard.