It Takes A Nation of Millions

Public Enemy



"If ya'll really like to rock the funky beats, somebody in the house say 'hell yeah'!"

Public Enemy are perhaps one of the most listened to groups in the history of Hip Hop. I know it sounds a little over the top but it must be true. My homie agnew gave a great book called :Don't rhyme for the sake of riddlin' - Russell Myrie, it is all about PE. Reading it takes me back to my teen years. Some of the insights from the book are amazing for me. I have listened to PE's albums hundres of times and finding out these secrets/histories about the creation of the music and the situation surrounding it has caused me so much genuine joy.

I have been listening to PE steady since I opened page one, one, one........one. Thus, I decided to add some of my favorite insights and music from one of the greatest Hip Hop groups ever. This first post will be about PE's second and most well known album. 'It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back'. What a long and bold title. The title comes from a quote on one of the tracks on the first album, 'Yo! Bum Rush The Show' called - 'Raise the Roof'. The lyric goes: "and for real it's the deal and the actual fact/ It takes a nation of millions to hold us back". While reading a Canadian magazine article about their first album which was titled "It takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back" Chuck D and Hank Shocklee realised the power of the title and used it for their ground-breaking second album.



"You're blind baby, you're blind from the facts of who you are coz you're watching that garbage"

Flav was the comic relief to Chuck D's hard rhymin. However, he was a talented musician in his own right. Playing many keyboard parts and the drums. On 'Rebel without a Pause' perhaps their most famous song, and I quote "Flavor played the beat on the drum machine continuosly and perfectly for the whole five minutes and two seconds". This was quite the revelation for me. I had always though Flav was just the jester. It seems he made a big musical contribution to the Albums. Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaah Booooooooooyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeee!

At the begining of Flav's solo track, 'Cold Lampin With Flavor', there is a quote 'No more music by the suckers' Flav then goes on to say ' Yo! man what does he mean by suckers man? Yo, he only trying to put a black eye in the gang.' While this was funny for me all those years ago listening to the album, it now apears that there was quite an interestind story behind it. The quote is from DJ Mr Magic who had a very popular radio show in the late 80's in New York, he played Public Enenmy No 1 and then dissed the group due to some confussion about PE being down with KRS 1 and Scott La Rock who had been at war with the Mr Magic's homies, TheJuice Crew. Flavor listened to the radio hard and was always ready with the pause button on the tape. He recorded Mr Magic's quote live on the air and then proceeded to use it in his hit song.



The album starts with an introduction the a PE concert in London. This always struck me as a youth. Why did they use their London concert? American MC's very rarly mentioned London, my city, so when London was name checked at the beginning of the album and throughout I was very excited. Chuck, at their UK concert at the Brixton Academy went on to say "Yo, fuck Thatcher, fuck that dog faced bitch" further endearing him to the British Hip Hop fans, myself included.

One of the moist amazing facts I found was that 'Don't believe the Hype' was not supposed to even get on the album. It took Run DMC's, DMC to persuade the group that the track was dope. He used to rock it in his car all time. I have included that single so you can see what a tragedy it might have been had we not been warned 'Don't believe the Hype'.

I could go on. I won't. Instead here is some of the music.

"From a rebel it's final on black vinyl
Soul, rock and roll comin' like a rhino"



The Album



Tracklist:
01. Countdown To Armageddon (1:40)
02. Bring The Noise (3:45)
03. Don't Believe The Hype (5:19)
04. Cold Lampin With Flavor (4:17)
05. Terminator X To The Edge Of Panic (4:31)
06. Mind Terrorist (1:20)
07. Louder Than A Bomb (3:38)
08. Caught, Can We Get A Witness? (4:53)
09. Show 'Em Whatcha Got (1:56)
10. She Watch Channel Zero?! (3:49)
11. Night Of The Living Baseheads (3:14)
12. Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos (6:23)
13. Security Of The First World (1:20)
14. Rebel Without A Pause (5:02)
15. Prophets Of Rage (3:18)
16. Party For Your Right To Fight (3:25)

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back

Some 12"s



Don't Believe the Hype



Rebel Without A Pause / Bring The Noise



Night of the Living Baseheads