Harder Than You Think
| "Harder Than You Think" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Public Enemy | ||||
| from the album How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul? | ||||
| Released | August 13, 2007 (vinyl) August 18, 2012 (digital download) | |||
| Genre | Hip hop | |||
| Length | 4:10 (album version) 3:10 (UK radio edit) | |||
| Label | SLAMjamz Records | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Gary G-Wiz | |||
| Public Enemy singles chronology | ||||
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"Harder Than You Think" is the first single from American hip-hop group Public Enemy'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 gained popularity during late summer 2007, and became Public Enemy's highest-charting single on the UK Singles Chart in August 2012. It borrows from Shirley Bassey's 1972 track "Jezahel", a cover of the song "Jesahel" by the Italian prog rock band Delirium. On November 25, 2023 the authors of "Jesahel" (Ivano Fossati and Oscar Prudente) and Universal Music Group sued Public Enemy for plagiarism, as Fossati and Prudente are not credited for the use of "Jesahel" in "Harder Than You Think".
The song is also known in the UK for its use as Channel 4's theme for their coverage of the Paralympic Games since the 2012 Summer Paralympics, as well as the theme tune for talk and sketch comedy show The Last Leg, which was initially created to cover the Paralympics.