"Harder Than You Think" is the first single from

Public Enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe ...

's 20th anniversary album '' How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?'' released in 2007. It was produced by Gary G-Wiz. The song attained popularity during late summer 2007, and became Public Enemy's highest-charting single on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in August 2012. The track borrows from Shirley Bassey's 1972 track "Jezahel", a cover of the song "Jesahel" by the Italian prog rock band Delirium.

Music video

The music video was directed by David C. Snyder, and was uploaded unofficially onto

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on August 3, 2007. Following the use of "Harder Than You Think" to soundtrack the UK's

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

coverage of the Summer 2012 Paralympics, a music video including clips from the Channel 4 trailer for the Summer 2012 Paralympics was produced by HWIC Filmworks (founded by John Delserone and David C. Snyder, who directed the original video). A version of the video was also produced for the Dehasse Radio Edit, a dance version of the track remixed for the 2012 re-emergence of the track in the UK charts.

Use in media

The song was featured in

Eric Koston Eric Koston (born April 29, 1975) is an American professional skateboarder and company owner. He has been featured in the '' Tony Hawk's'' video game series and the Electronic Arts (EA) video games ''Skate 2'' and ''Skate 3''. Koston co-owns bot ...

's segment in the 2007 skateboarding video "

Fully Flared ''Fully Flared'' is a street skateboarding video by the Lakai footwear company, featuring video parts from its team riders. The film is directed by Ty Evans, Spike Jonze, and Cory Weincheque. In 2007, it won "Best Video of the Year" at the Tran ...

". The song and its beat were used by

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for the

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. The song is also featured on the soundtrack of the video game ''

Skate 2 ''Skate 2'' is a skateboarding video game developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released worldwide in January 2009 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 after the spin-off title ''Skate It''. It is the sequel to 2007's ...

''. The song was later featured heavily in a Fall K-Mart ad as of September 2011. It is also one of the lead songs in the commercials for

's broadcasting of the

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. The song featured prominently towards the end of the BBC Four 2011 documentary "Public Enemy: Prophets Of Rage" which was screened as the fourth episode of the channel's "Black Music Legends Of The 1980s" series. It also appeared in the trailer for the 2012 film '' Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap'' and was also the only track to feature on its soundtrack album which did not appear in the actual film. The song is also featured at the opening of the 2012 film ''

End of Watch ''End of Watch'' is a 2012 American action thriller film written and directed by David Ayer. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña as Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala, two Los Angeles Police Department officers who work in South Central Los An ...

''. In 2021 it's been used in the NBA commercial about Martin Luther King, Jr Day called "We Must Learn". It is also featured in The Redeem Team documentary film released by Netflix in 2022.

Paralympics

In the United Kingdom, it was used as the soundtrack in both the 90-second long trailer and as the theme tune to

's coverage of the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Gam ...

. The song subsequently experienced a surge in sales, peaking at number 4 and thereby becoming Public Enemy's first Top 10 single in the UK and their highest-charting single ever in the nation. A review for ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' said of its re-release in the UK: "Following its prominent use in Channel 4's Paralympics coverage, great lost 2007 single 'Harder Than You Think' had a sales surge that carried it into the UK Top Five, giving the band their biggest hit to date. It'd be a thrilling piece of work in any era, Chuck delivering a typically apocalyptic call to arms over a backing track which uses a horn sample from Shirley Bassey's 'Jezahel', but to hear it blasting from the radio in the second decade of this century is beyond beautiful." The song also serves as the theme tune to the British TV show ''

The Last Leg ''The Last Leg'' (known during its first series as ''The Last Leg with Adam Hills'' and in Australia as ''Adam Hills: The Last Leg'') is a British comedy and late-night television talk/sketch show that originally ran alongside the 2012 Summer Pa ...

'', which was originally a show that ran alongside the 2012 Paralympics, but later spun off as an independent show. The song was also used as the theme tune to Channel 4's coverage of the

2014 Winter Paralympics The 2014 Winter Paralympics (russian: Зимние Паралимпийские игры 2014, Zimniye Paralimpiyskiye igry 2014), the 11th Paralympic Winter Games, and also more generally known as the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, were a ...

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; the

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, fro ...

in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the

2018 Winter Paralympics ) , nations = 49 , athletes = 569 , events = 80 in 6 sports , opening = 9 March , closing = 18 March , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Eun-jung Seo Soon-seok , stadium = Pyeongchang Olymp ...

in Pyeongchang, South Korea and the 2020 Summer Paralympics in

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Track listing

;12" vinyl *Side A #"Harder Than You Think" (Clean Mix) #"Harder Than You Think" (Instrumental) *Side B #"Amerikan Gangster" (Dirty Mix) #"Amerikan Gangster" (Clean Mix) #"Amerikan Gangster" (Instrumental) ;2012 digital download #"Harder Than You Think" (UK Radio Edit) - 3:10 ;Other versions #"Harder Than You Think" (Album Version) - 4:10 #"Harder Than You Think" (Remix) - 4:38 #Harder Than You Think (Dehasse Radio Edit) - 3:18 #Harder Than You Think (Dehasse Club Mix) - 5:59

Chart performance

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

"Harder Than You Think" video

Channel 4 90 second trailer for Summer 2012 Paralympics using "Harder Than You Think"

"Harder Than You Think" video released following its use for the Paralympics

"We Must Learn" video for 2021 NBA MLK Day celebration
{{authority control 2007 singles Public Enemy (band) songs 2012 singles Songs written by Chuck D Songs written by Flavor Flav Songs written by Gary G-Wiz 2007 songs Sports television theme songs