Spike Lee is one of the greatest movie directors of all-time. As Ruby said, it was revolutionary and it hasn't aged well. At that brief point in history, the whole Fight the Power type of high-energy, action-packed, tension-filled atmosphere expressed by Public Enemy has not really carried over to the 21st century. It is also brilliant, on the other hand, that it captured the spirit of that brief epoch in which race relations was such a hot and controversial issue.