911 Is A Joke

Recorded in 1989 during the Fear of a Black Planet sessions at Greene St. Recording in New York, The Music Palace in West Hempstead, and Spectrum City Studios on Long Island. Flavor Flav performed the lead vocal, with The Bomb Squad producing and building the track from a dense collage of samples and scratches. Released by Def Jam in April 1990 as a single from Fear of a Black Planet, it reached number 1 on Billboard's Hot Rap Singles chart and number 15 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. The record turned emergency-service neglect in Black neighborhoods into one of Public Enemy's most direct and accessible political singles. It remains one of Flavor Flav's defining Public Enemy showcases and a lasting protest record about unequal emergency response. Its sample-heavy Bomb Squad construction, Charles Stone III video, and later cover by Duran Duran kept the song visible beyond its original rap audience.