Black Steel In The Hour of Chaos

"Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" is a song by the American hip hop group Public Enemy from their second album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. The song is built on a high-pitched piano sample from the Isaac Hayes song "Hyperbolicsyllabicseequedalymystic" from the album Hot Buttered Soul and tells the story of prison escape.

The vocals are done mostly by lead Public Enemy rapper Chuck D, with sidekick Flavor Flav appearing in between verses, seemingly speaking to Chuck over the phone. Flavor went to another room and did actually call the studio to achieve this effect.

The lyrics deal with a fictional story surrounding the Vietnam war. Chuck has been drafted ("I got a letter from the government, the other day / I opened and read it, it said they were suckers / they wanted me for their army or whatever"); however, he refuses to become part of the army ("I said 'never!'"). The main idea behind this is that the war is wrong, with a hint of pure indignation towards the treatment of Black people by American society ("here's a land that never gave a damn about a brother like me"). This serves to both criticize war, racism and the prison system ("Four of us packed in a cell like slaves").

Chuck is then taken to prison, from which he attempts to escape. "Black Steel" is a reference to a gun, which he needs to escape. By the end of the second verse, Chuck has taken a gun from a C.O. (corrections officer) who was "fallin' asleep."

With gun in hand, Chuck and the other prisoners escape "to the ghetto - no sell out." Chuck then comments on how there are 6 C.O.s who he "ought to put their head out." He does not, at first, but after a female tries to thwart the escape she is shot, ("Got a woman C.O. to call me a 'copter / She tried to get away, and I popped her"), presumably dead ("I had 6 C.O.s, now it's 5 to go").

The final verse ends with Chuck and the rest of the prisoners on their final escape. They are confronted with shots and there is a state of chaos. Chuck makes a comment about prison and racism ("This is what I mean—an anti-nigger machine"), which later became the basis for another Public Enemy song, "Anti-Nigger Machine" (featured on the 1990 album, Fear of a Black Planet). Finally, the S1Ws come to the rescue. The song ends with the line "53 brothers on the run, and we are gone" indicating a successful prison escape. (However, in the video for the song, this line accompanies the image of Chuck D being hanged by the triumphant warden of the prison.)

The song features a slower, more melodic beat in comparison to other songs from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back but still remains highly chaotic. Aside from the aftermentioned Hayes sample, the song samples "Little Green Apples" by The Escorts and "Living for the City" by Stevie Wonder.

* This song has been covered by the Brazilian metal band Sepultura.
* It has been performed live on separate occasions with Chuck D on vocals by Asian Dub Foundation and Rage Against the Machine.
* Tricky covered the song, changing its name to "Black Steel", on his debut album Maxinquaye released in 1995. The stripped down rap sound of the original (which includes samples of Isaac Hayes & Stevie Wonder) is replaced by pounding drums & guitars. Martina Topley Bird sings the lyrics instead of rapping. [1]
* The same Isaac Hayes sample is used by The Game in the Just Blaze produced song "Remedy" on the album Doctor's Advocate. Chuck D's line "they got me in a cell" from "Black Steel" is also scratched in the hook.
* The beginning of the song is sampled heavily in the song "Make Some Noise" by "Dougal & Gammer". - en-wikipedia