Which group recorded the 1989 song 'Fight the Power'?

The group that recorded the 1989 song “Fight the Power” was Public Enemy. The track was created for Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing and became one of the most recognizable protest songs in hip-hop history. It was led by rapper Chuck D, with Flavor Flav and DJ Terminator X among the group’s key members.

Lee asked Public Enemy to make a forceful musical theme for his film about racial tension in a Brooklyn neighborhood. Chuck D wrote much of the song while the group was touring, while the Bomb Squad built its dense, sample-heavy production. The recording drew on funk, soul, civil-rights rhetoric, and earlier music, including the Isley Brothers’ 1975 song with the same title.

The song first appeared on the Do the Right Thing soundtrack in 1989 and was later included on Public Enemy’s 1990 album Fear of a Black Planet. Its video, directed by Spike Lee, presented a large political rally in Brooklyn. A common mix-up is the earlier Isley Brothers song: it inspired the hip-hop track, but Public Enemy recorded the 1989 version.