Fear of a Black Planet

Chuck D wanted a deep, complex album, and the group set out to fold Dr. Frances Cress Welsing's theory of color confrontation and racism into an album-length recording. The Professor Griff controversy ran alongside: Def Jam's Bill Adler said it partly fueled the writing. The Bomb Squad, credited as Chuck D, Eric Sadler, Keith Shocklee and Hank Shocklee, recorded at three studios from June to October 1989 and finished mixing at Greene St. in February 1990. Their tools included the E-mu SP-1200, an Akai S900 and a Macintosh, and Chuck D said they used about 150, maybe 200 samples. Sadler later said they needed more time and that nobody in the group was talking to one another.

No samples were cleared. Law professors Peter DiCola and Kembrew McLeod estimated that at 2010 clearance rates the group would have lost at least five dollars on every copy sold. Burn Hollywood Burn brought in Big Daddy Kane and Ice Cube, which led to the Bomb Squad producing Ice Cube's AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted. The cover, by NASA illustrator B.E. Johnson, shows the Black planet and Earth eclipsing.

It was released on 10 April 1990, after an earlier plan for October 1989. Singles ran from Fight the Power in July 1989 through Welcome to the Terrordome in January 1990, 911 Is a Joke in April and Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man in October. It debuted at 40 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, peaked at 10 and reached number 4 in the United Kingdom. Critics were warm. Greg Kot wrote in the Chicago Tribune that the group were not just a great rap group but one of the best rock bands on the planet. Pitchfork's Craig Jenkins said its genius trick was coating righteous rage in music that aimed to groove. It was nominated for a Grammy, and the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry in 2004. Rolling Stone ranked it 300 in 2003 and 176 in 2020.