Fear Of A Black Planet
by Public Enemy

Fear Of A Black Planet by Public Enemy
Year: 1990
Release date: 1990-04-10
Overall rank: 678th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 508 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 10 albums of 1990 (9th)
Award Top albums of the 1990s (116th)
Award Top 1,000 albums of all time (678th)

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Availability

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Public Enemy - FEAR OF A BLACK PLANET (1990) It Takes Nation Cassette Tape Lot
Condition: Good


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Fear of a Black Planet [PA] by Public Enemy (Cassette, Jul-1994, Def Jam (USA))
Condition: Brand New


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Public Enemy Fear of a Black Planet VMP RH049 2LP Vinyl Me Please
Condition: New


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Public Enemy bestography

Fear Of A Black Planet is ranked 2nd best out of 18 albums by Public Enemy on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Public Enemy is It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back which is ranked number 235 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 6,785.

Public Enemy album bestography « Higher ranked (235th)
It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
This album (678th)
Fear Of A Black Planet
Lower ranked (4,174th) »
Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Fear Of A Black Planet track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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#
Track
Rating/Comments
3.
Track pick (860 - 96 votes)
Average Rating: 86 (96 votes)Comments: View 0
20.
Track pick (890 - 130 votes)
Average Rating: 89 (130 votes)Comments: View 1

Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Fear Of A Black Planet rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 678th | 1990s rank: 116th | 1990 rank: 9th

Fear Of A Black Planet collection

Fear Of A Black Planet ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 508 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 508 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
80/100
 
02/01/2026 21:30 sweetness  Ratings distribution  1,12779/100
 
75/100
 
01/15/2026 00:12 This_is_handsome  Ratings distribution  76979/100
 
75/100
 
01/14/2026 16:49 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  9,58570/100
 
75/100
 
01/04/2026 12:56 AledJames  Ratings distribution  1,55669/100
 
100/100
 
11/29/2025 01:59 Kingturtle  Ratings distribution  7,57973/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.0/100, a mean average of 76.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 17.8.

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Fear Of A Black Planet comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 29 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)

Rating:  
90/100
From 07/09/2025 01:00 | #310003
This is another one that only clicked with me on second listen. The strong and mesmerizing beats ground the music, allowing them to go in weird directions with the music, sound collages and rapping and it works. It's really edgy, I want to hear it again.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 12/31/2023 00:20 | #300767
A political hip-hop classic that spoke to its time -- while, sadly remaining timeless.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 06/18/2023 22:29 | #297672
Message on point, repetitive after a while, but makes you feel like you're on a protest. Production is hit or miss, but I prefer this sample heavy than the raw 80s production on their previous.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 02/24/2022 17:56 | #281878
This album does not sound very good.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
45/100
From 02/17/2021 17:29 | #266414
Lyrically awesome. Seems to be a voice to empower black Gen-Xers. Production is quite poor by today's standards though, severely diminishing the quality of the album. Would have loved to hear Fear Of A Black Planet if it was produced by Dre, for example.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -2 votes (0 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
From 11/30/2020 00:25 | #261659
I had to listen to this twice to realize how refreshingly anti-misogynistic it is.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 08/31/2020 11:46 | #257620
Fav. Tracks: Brothers Gonna Work It Out, 911 Is A Joke, Welcome To The Terrordrome, Who Stole The Soul?, Fear Of A Black Planet, Fight The Power.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 07/13/2020 20:01 | #255528
Some of the production choices are a bit iffy, but the messages they purvey are incredibly important, and remain so even today. The personalities on Fear of a Black Planet are strong and attention grabbing.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 05/29/2019 04:29 | #236861
Public Enemy came out swinging again for there third release its full of The Bomb Squad with Chuck D preaching truth and Flav kicking his own style
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 04/15/2019 02:39 | #235009
Like a bomb ass three legged table, if any individual leg were to break the entire structure would keel over. Its remarkable how Terminator X, Chuck, and Flava flav elevate and uplift one another's talents, each accenting the others perfectly
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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