Customer Reviews

It Takes a Nation of Millions

5 star:		(166)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

All that I could say after hearing this album for the first time was "wow!" Even though the tracks here are almost two decades old, they sound much more daring, progressive, and experimental than any rap you can hear on the radio today. Is it possible that we are "de-evolving" now that perfection was already reached in 1988? I mean, I enjoy a lot of Snoop and NWA as well, but everything recorded since, say 1995 has been pretty abysmal in comparison to rap's "Golden Age." I suspect that since Chuck D. and the gang so thoroughly nailed it here, others knew that they couldn't rise to the occasion, so they didn't even try.

This album is a musical marvel, in every sense of the word. This is coming from a southern white male who was only four years old when this came out and, a mere few months ago, hated pretty much all rap. What can I say? I've been converted. Chuck D.'s militant message here is simply dead on, and while I can't quite get behind their endorsement of Farakhan, I can overlook that, because I agree completely with everything else they're laying down here. From the first track to the last, the album is a relentless indictment of government and media, from the unheard voices of urban America. And if that wasn't enough, the music is incredibly funky.

I'll take these Bomb Squad arrangements and Terminator X turntable magic over all of the over-produced pop garbage we have to put up with now any day of the week. Others have already extolled the merits of the brilliant production values and technical superiority, so all I'll say is this. The grooves here are as deep and pervasive as anything you will ever hear in popular music. I've loved all types of music, from Sinatra to Stravinsky, and if "Don't Believe the Hype" doesn't get some butts shaking at your next house party, consider moving to a funkier neighborhood!!!

Other stand-out tracks here are numerous. The repetitive striking of a minor piano chord in "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" makes for a menacing, delightful hip-hop experience. In this anti-authority "story song", you can almost hear an early prototype of later, very similar songs like Dr. Dre's "Deep Cover" but this is ten times better! Chuck is in great voice, and this track seems way ahead of its time.

You can't go wrong with this album, as it is perfection epitomized, on every level. If you, like me, are fairly new to rap, check this one out and get a taste of how rap SHOULD sound, and how it sounded for so many years before the hollow, voiceless perpetrators and posers took it over (in the interest of civility, I won't name names, but you all know who I'm talking about!) On a lighter note, I want to share with you my idea for the perfect drinking game. Turn this thing up to full-blast on your speakers, get a bottle of your beverage of choice, and take a shot every time Flavor Flav shouts "Yeeeaaah, boyeeee!!!!!!"

Uhhh...maybe you'd better make that HALF a shot. Afterall, I wouldn't want anybody out there to get alcohol poisoning!

Perhaps the greatest rap/hip-hop album ever made, and one of the great albums of any genre. PE rock harder than any of today's gangstas with solid beats and magnificent sound collages that front eloquent raps not about violence, sexism, and nihilism, but empowerment, self-respect, and self-determination. Just as fresh today as it was in 1988. Five times five stars.

"Some people said rap is all noise. So, I gave them noise!"
-Hank Shocklee (Bomb Squad)

A furious mixture of whistles, whines, and noise over dense samples, scratches, and beats which Shocklee later called "Music's worst nightmare." Aside from Chuck D.'s intelligent and thought provoking lyrics and Flavor Flav's hyper-active, idiotic, role playing of the court jester, it was Hank and Keith Shocklee, and Eric (Vietnam) Sadler of the bomb Squad who put PE on the map. As a whole, the group was way ahead of it's time. Boldly putting out their political views and attacking the media, PE was also unfairly attacked in the press portrayed as anti-semetic and anti-white.

From the groundbreaking "Bring The Noise", to Slayer's guitar sample on "She Watch Channel Zero", to the pulsating piano chord on "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos", PE simply shines.

Sad that this group never got the financial recognition it rightly deserved. Back in the day, I was the only one in the group of friends who worshiped PE. Everyone else couldn't handle the intelligent lyrics that [weren't] sprayed with 4 letter words.

Feed your brain. Listen to the genius that was PE and READ the lyrics.

There's a reason why this album is consistently listed near the top of any list of great albums, hip-hop or otherwise. The layered production and album's thematic cohesion represented a quantum leap over anything that had been released in hip-hop to that point. Yet, it doesn't sound the slightest bit dated (like, for example The Chronic) because no one was able to emulate the Bomb Squad's sound the way that G-Funk or RZA-style production were constantly bitten years later. The result is an album that was monumentally important at the time of its release, and still just as fresh and jaw-dropping nearly 20 years later.

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is the definitive group statement from one of hip-hop's greatest acts. Chuck D is a true force on the mic, but PE doesn't get by on his skills alone, though they certainly could. Despite rhymes that convey his considerable intelligence, he has a presence on the microphone that has rarely been matched. Even if he wasted his flows on cookie-cutter battle raps, he could do so convincingly. Fortunately for us, that isn't the case. Flava Flav, far from the caricature he is now, provides the perfect foil for Chuck. Abrasive and wild, he underscores all of Chuck D's statements like an exclamation point. Meanwhile, Terminator X and the Bomb Squad propel the backing tracks into the stratosphere with a constant barrage of samples, scratches and funky beats. Constantly self-referencing, the music here is dense and complex, adding to the epic feel of the album (though it runs just under an hour). Not to mention, they have the best song titles in all of music: "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos", "Terminator X on the Edge of Panic", etc.

I am usually a little wary of artists that are this overtly political, and I always thought that Ice Cube traveled too far down that road, for example. With PE, however, the politics only add to the urgency of the album. It doesn't hurt that Chuck D is typically right on with his lyrics. It also doesn't hurt that all of the themes touched on (drugs, war, police, the justice system, etc.) are always relevant.

To say that It Takes a Nation... is a good rap album with a couple of classic tracks would be a gross understatement of this album's value. This is a masterwork, and nearly every other track has become a standard ("Rebel w/out a Pause", "Bring the Noise", "Night of the Living Baseheads", "Don't Believe the Hype", "She Watch Channel Zero?!"...). No filler. The consistency is staggering. In fact, at first listen, the record can be a little intimidating, since there aren't any concessions made in the effort to vary their output or spawn a hit single. Chuck D even anticipates that they won't have commercial success in his line: "Radio stations/I question their blackness/They call themselves black/But we'll see if they'll play this." Multiple listens reveal more and more of what Public Enemy has embedded into this startling effort. Any fan of hip-hop who doesn't own this album needs to. As does any fan of music who has dismissed hip-hop as anything less than a vibrant art form.

this IS the best rap/hip-hop album of all time and neither genre has been the same since. hard rhymes with a message over funky drum beats and dead-on samples. but not only did this album make a huge impact on rap and hip-hop, but it really helped shape modern electronic music as well. everyone from Fatboy Slim to the Chemical Brothers have tipped their hats to this record. i even saw Beck in concert and his DJ spun some of "It Takes A Nation.." just before the encore. the success of this album is not measured by total record sales, but by the respect it's gained from other musicians and the incalculable impact that it's had on the music world since it's release. do i even need to tell that you've got to buy this album? "power of the people, say!"

Public Enemy were perhaps the best, most influential hip-hop act of all time, and this is the greatest thing they created. Fear Of A Black Planet is the only other P.E. release in the same league and even that had some moments of filler. By the time Apocalypse '91 was released the group was already fractured from the Professor Griff controversy and past its prime. With It Takes A Nation... Chuck D., Flavor Flav, and the Bomb Squad were young, energized, angry, and at the top of their game in 1988.

It Takes A Nation... was hip-hop's clarion call to the world. While earlier albums from Run D.M.C., the Beastie Boys, and others proved that hip-hop could expand its sound and be more than a passing fad, Public Enemy showed that hip-hop could also be a voice for the black community and its social and political concerns. Intense, angry, militant, political, thoughtful, creative...all of the above apply to this album. While I'm no proponent of black radicalism (and think Louis Farrakhan is a nutcase), I definitely admire the intelligence and innovation that went into this recording. And contrary to what some have said, there is little that is racist about the messages in this album, though the views presented are largely Afrocentric. After all, this is the same group that later teamed up with Anthrax (a bunch of thrash metal-playing white dudes) to record "Bring Tha Noize" and bring about rap-metal. P.E. are trying to make people question society and history and look at the world around them, similar to what earlier punk bands like The Clash, Crass, and The Dead Kennedys have done. Pretty powerful stuff.

Love him or hate him, you ignore Chuck D. at your own peril. His prescence as an M.C. and lyricist is virtually unrivalled. While he's not as technically skilled as say, Rakim, he's definitely no slouch, and his lyrics are very thought-provoking, eloquent and downright quotable expressions of righteous indignation at the American prison system, pop culture "values," the inner-city drug epidemic, the federal government ("You're CIA, you see I ain't kiddin'"), the media, and the watered-down history we're fed in public school textbooks, among other things. A far cry from today's common topics of "bling and b-tches," that's for sure. Flavor Flav fills the role of jester, dropping humourous rhymes in between Chuck D.'s blasts of venom--smart writers know that polemics go down a little easier with a dash of humor (a lesson that all too many would-be political songwriters forget).

If the Rick Rubin/Bomb Squad production sounds dated these days (and I think it has stood up brilliantly, not something you can say for most hip-hop albums), it's because so many later hip-hop artists and producers have ripped it off. There's free jazz sax squeals, funky beats, excellent samples (my favorite is that MLK Jr. sample which, if I remember correctly, kicks off Night Of The Living Baseheads), and some crazy turntable scratching from Terminator X. On She Watch Channel Zero?, even a Slayer sample is used to awesome effect, proving already that metal can make an excellent hip-hop backdrop. Like Paul's Boutique by the Beastie Boys, It Takes A Nation... is worth listening to for its production alone.

Bring The Noise, Don't Believe The Hype (practically an anti-media anthem), Louder Than A Bomb, Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos (coolest title EVER!), Prophets Of Rage, Party For Your Right To Fight...all classic hip-hop. To all those who think Eminem is "thought-provoking" or "original" I'd advise you to pick this up and experience the real thing.

If anybody has anything bad to say about hip-hop, play them this album. Chuck D., Flava Flav, and Terminator X proved that hip-hop could be meaningful and intelligent. Chuck D.'s rhymes are classic, Flava Flav is at his comic best, and the cuts by Terminator X are top-notch. "Night Of The Living Baseheads" is one of the best anti-drug songs ever, "Bring The Noise" and "Rebel Without A Pause" will get you up out of your seat, "She Watch Channel Zero" is a great commentary track on the downside of television and perfectly fuses rap and rock, and "Black Steel..." is an intense story track. The production by the Bomb Squad is raw, loud, and brilliant. Get this album NOW! Even if you don't like hip-hop. This is one of the greatest albums ever made PERIOD!

If there's one rap-album that has created revolutionary conditions, then it has to be this. At the starting point Chuck D and Flavor Flav basically followed in Run-DMC's footsteps (Yo! Bum Rush The Show), but with help from Eric "Vietnam" Sadler and the Shocklee-brothers, better known as The Bomb Squad, this record titled It Takes A Nation Of Millions... turned out to be an explosive sophomore record which immediately achieved classic status.

In 1988 political rap dominated, and Public Enemy where the leaders. It Takes A Nation... were their manifest, and Chuck D delivered his message with authority and justice, much on same level as Malcolm X in his time. Songs as "Don't Believe the Hype", "Black Steel in the Hour Of Chaos", "Rebel Without A Pause" and "Night Of the Living Baseheads" are all classics. In fact I could have mentioned each and every track that deserves the same label. Actually everything was perfect. The sound-picture really showed Chuck D's frustration, and horns and sirens that created a feeling of paranoia. Compared with other producers at the time, the Bomb Squad made more complex beats. They used a lot of samples, and the result got energetic and loud, like we had never heard before.

Chuck D, Flavor Flav and Terminator X have become hip-hop icons, and PE have blessed us with several great albums. It Takes A Nation Of Millions... clearly stands out though, not just because it was innovative, but `cause it was truly consistent and a compromise less record. Perfectionism might be the word. Let me conclude by saying that this must be one of the most important albums ever, not just hip-hop, but music in generally. Even in a cultural perspective, does Public Enemy have huge importance. Believe that!

How can you diss REAL MUSIC?! You don't know what the defenition for that word is! Face it, MTV is filling your mind with commercial c**p that soon you would forget what REAL MUSIC is about. PUBLIC ENEMY is one of the GREATEST rappers out there and you say they suck and listen to 50 Cent instead. What do you know about REAL HIP-HOP?! Do yourself a favor and get away from MTV because it's killing your mind!

This is the best rap album ever imo. Sogns like Bring The Noise, Don't Believe The Hype, and Mind Terorist are classics. Buy this album along with Fear of a Black Planet and aovid horrible albums by rappers out today. I may be a metalhead but every now and then I'll listen to old school rap. Public Enemy are my favorite rap artist. This album is recommended.

My name is Ripper, and I approve of this review.