Recording
Fight the Power
Public Enemy
Independently chosen for2 of our lists. Here is what each of them said.
- Released
- 1989
- Label
- Motown / Def Jam
- On
- Golden Age Hip-Hop and The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred
- ISRC
- USDJ29000034
- Updated
- 2026-08-29
Analysis
10 sections, the first drop at 0:09, 3% of the way in, 23% of it spent climbing.
- Tempo
- 103.4 BPM
- holds throughout
- Dynamic range
- 3.4 dB
- compressed hard — very little between the quiet and the loud
- Length
- 5:18
- measured from the YouTube master
The record, end to end
Click the track to jump · ← → move between sections
- 0:00Aintro0
- 0:19Bbuildbar 9
- 0:36Bliftbar 16
- 1:05Bbreakdownbar 28
- 1:49Bliftbar 48
- 2:37Bbuildbar 68
- 3:33Cpeakbar 92
- 3:53Dbreakdownbar 101
- 4:13Ebreakdownbar 109
- 4:27Dliftbar 115
Drop at 0:09 (bar 4). A drop is a moment, not a stretch — marked on the track above rather than shaded across it.
0:00 · A · intro
opens the record below its own average energy · sung
- Lasts
- 0:19
- Energy
- 63
- Brightness
- 47
- Density
- 22
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
energy and brightness climbing without a break · sung · one of 5 stretches of the same music (B)
- Lasts
- 0:17
- Energy
- 58
- Brightness
- 100
- Density
- 82
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
a short rise that does not resolve — a fill or a transition, not a build · sung · one of 5 stretches of the same music (B)
- Lasts
- 0:29
- Energy
- 86
- Brightness
- 38
- Density
- 37
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning · sung · one of 5 stretches of the same music (B)
- Lasts
- 0:44
- Energy
- 61
- Brightness
- 75
- Density
- 78
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
a short rise that does not resolve — a fill or a transition, not a build · sung · one of 5 stretches of the same music (B)
- Lasts
- 0:48
- Energy
- 81
- Brightness
- 35
- Density
- 32
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
energy and brightness climbing without a break · sung · one of 5 stretches of the same music (B)
- Lasts
- 0:56
- Energy
- 80
- Brightness
- 53
- Density
- 73
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
sits at the top of this record's range · sung
- Lasts
- 0:20
- Energy
- 100
- Brightness
- 28
- Density
- 0
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning · sung · one of 2 stretches of the same music (D)
- Lasts
- 0:20
- Energy
- 38
- Brightness
- 5
- Density
- 48
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning · instrumental
- Lasts
- 0:14
- Energy
- 0
- Brightness
- 74
- Density
- 100
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
a short rise that does not resolve — a fill or a transition, not a build · sung · one of 2 stretches of the same music (D)
- Lasts
- 0:52
- Energy
- 80
- Brightness
- 0
- Density
- 62
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
Brightness and density are scored against this record's own sections, not against music in general — they say how its parts differ from each other, and nothing about how it compares to anything else.
- drums
- the drum kit, separated from the mix
- bass
- the bass part, separated from the mix
- vocals
- the voice, separated from the mix
- other
- everything else — synths, guitars, keys, strings
Separated into parts by a source-separation model, so each lane is the instrument it names.
- intro
- opens the record below its own average energy
- build
- energy and brightness climbing without a break
- lift
- a short rise that does not resolve — a fill or a transition, not a build
- breakdown
- energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning
- peak
- sits at the top of this record's range
Measured from the YouTube master on . Section labels describe how the energy of the recording moves, not its musical form — a machine can see loudness climb and jump, it cannot hear a chorus arrive. Anything we were not confident enough to state is left out rather than shown with a caveat.
Ranked No. 1 in Golden Age Hip-Hop
The Bomb Squad layered dozens of samples into something closer to protest collage than a beat. Still the most confrontational record ever to become a genuine popular hit.
Picked by The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred
The densest production in rap attached to the least negotiable lyric. Thirty-six years on, no record has managed to be this loud and this precise at once.