Public Enemy’s Chuck D has spoken about the reworking of their iconic track Fight the Power in response to the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the US and beyond this year. The original song, immortalised in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, has been updated for the new album What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?, released on 25 September.
Chuck D said the idea to rework the track came from outside the group, including Questlove of the Roots, one of several guest rappers on the new version. ‘Of course the protests are where that energy came from and that energy actually spoke truth to power,’ he said via Zoom from an undisclosed location. ‘Young people are growing up with their parents telling them this is what it meant to them.’
The album features a roll call of rap contemporaries from the late 80s and early 90s, including Run DMC, Ice T and the Beastie Boys. It ends with a soliloquy by ‘powerful, influential, unapologetic’ black woman Ms Ariel – a conscious decision by Chuck to honour black women’s often overlooked contribution to the movement for racial justice.
Throughout the interview, Chuck D refused to utter Donald Trump’s name, describing him as a ‘half-baked celebrity real estate hypocrite from New York City’ and a ‘running joke’. He said the album’s title was a warning about being prepared for threats such as Covid or the US president, adding: ‘In the United States, it was like – be ready for government tricks on the way to selection or election.’
Reflecting on progress since Public Enemy’s early days, Chuck D said Black Lives Matter ‘has made a difference – but you know, it’s a marathon, not the 60-metre dash. To work on systemic racism and all those other ills, man, it is a long hike and you got to continually go at it.’
