Radio Raheem is a character in the film Do the Right Thing, portrayed by the late Bill Nunn. He is a towering young black man who always carries around a huge boom box blasting only Public Enemy's "Fight the Power."
He is first shown when he starts loudly playing "Fight the Power" from his boom box near Punchy, Cee, Ahmad and Ella. He gets respected by them, and says "peace, y'all." He then waves at Senor Love Daddy in his radio station.
He is then seen when the neighbourhood are playing with the water from the fire hydrant. Punchy and Cee hold the water so Radio Raheem can pass through.
When Radio Raheem stands with his boom box by the Puerto Ricans, which drowns the music from the Puerto Ricans' boom box, they all get angry. Stevie puts his boom box to full volume, but Raheem puts his volume to the max, to which Stevie gives up and lets him win.
When Radio Raheem meets with Mookie, he sees his "love" and "hate" four-fingered ring which is worn on either hand. He explains in one scene to symbolize the struggle between the two forces. After this, Radio Raheem heads to Sal's Pizzeria, while putting his boom box volume at full blast. When inside, he asks Sal for two slices over the loud music. Sal gets really annoyed at Radio Raheem and shouts at him to put the music off. Radio Raheem eventually does put it off, and Sal serves him. Raheem tells him to put extra cheese on the pizza, which Sal replies how it is 2 dollars for the extra cheese.
When Radio Raheem is at the Korean grocery store when his boom box batteries run out, he gets annoyed at Sonny and Kim for not understanding him. They get annoyed back when he tells them to count the batteries again.
At nightfall, Buggin' Out and Smiley meets with Radio Raheem. They tell each other about how annoyed they are with Sal and plan to boycott his pizzeria. When they enter the pizzeria, they have a big argument with Sal, who ends up smashing Raheem's boom box with his baseball bat. The room gets silent for a moment, Radio Raheem then walks up in silence, he picks up the destroyed radio, then he explodes in pure rage by throwing the radio away, After this, he picks Sal up and throws him over the counter, then he puts Sal in a violent chokehold, almost strangling him to death. When the police arrive, Officer Gary Long chokes Radio Raheem to death with a nightstick. They put his corpse into a patrol car and drive away. He dies and everyone mourns for him. They start a riot, burning the pizzeria down.
The next day, Mookie tells Sal how Radio Raheem is dead and asks for his money. Sal says how it was the cops who killed him and it was Buggin' Out's fault for starting all this. The film ends with Senor Love Daddy saying how the next record is dedicated to Radio Raheem.