4/10/15

Public Enemy's Fear Of A Black Planet on WBAU
March 26, 1990

Today's date marks the 25th anniversary of the commercial release of Public Enemy's classic third album Fear Of A Black Planet. What you might not realize is that the album debuted, albeit to a much smaller audience, weeks earlier on Long Island college radio. (Public Enemy is of course in many ways a product of this scene, as Chuck D worked at Adelphi's WBAU alongside members of the Bomb Squad and actually met Flavor Flav [then known as MC DJ Flavor] in the studio there.) According to DJ WildMan Steve, Fear Of A Black Planet was played by DJ Jeff Foss on Hofstra University's 88.7 WRHU on Saturday, March 24, 1990 before its 90.3 WBAU debut on Monday, March 26.

Thanks to Long Island hip-hop icons Oxygen (aka Ox the Architect) and DJ WildMan Steve, the Internet now has a recording of this second local debut. To complement this long-lost radio set, we're posting it alongside the original Fear Of A Black Planet artwork by NASA illustrator B.E. Johnson.



2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow this is amazing I actually have a recording of the WRHU broadcast that I just unearthed the other day. That was an amazing night.

$bin♦ said...

Wow, that's awesome! If you'd be interested in sharing that, please let me know. I can help digitize and upload it for you.

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