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It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Studio album by
Public Enemy
ReleasedJune 28, 1988
RecordedJuly–October 1987
GenreHip hop
Length57:51
LabelDef Jam (FCT-44303)
Columbia (CK-44303)
ProducerThe Bomb Squad, Terminator X, Professor Griff
Public Enemy chronology
Yo! Bum Rush the Show
(1987) 		It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
(1988) 		Fear of a Black Planet
(1990)
Singles from East718/PE
  1. "Bring the Noise"
    Released: 1988 (CSK-2916)
  2. "Don't Believe the Hype"
    Released: 1988 (44-07846)
  3. "Night of the Living Baseheads"
    Released: 1988 (44-08121)
  4. "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos"
    Released: 1989 (44-68216)
Back cover

ALL REFERENCES NOT IN THE NOTES SECTION NEED TO BE CONVERTED TO {{CITATION}} It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is the second studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released on June 28, 1988 on Def Jam Recordings. Widely regarded as a seminal work in hip hop and rock and as the group's magnum opus, the album is considered by critics as one of the greatest and most influential recordings of all time.[1][2][3] either listify or find a specific source In 2003, the album was ranked number 48 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and is the highest ranked hip hop album on the list.[4]

Uncharacteristically aggressive for its time, It Takes a Nation of Millions represented a radical shift in the hip hop zeitgeist towards black nationalism and as a result was hailed as revolutionary by rap and rock aficionados alike.[5][6] Under the direction of Hank Shocklee, Public Enemy's production team, The Bomb Squad, developed a dense, haphazard, sample-driven soundscape which created a blueprint for hardcore rap in the 1990s.[7] It Takes a Nation of Millions had surprising chart success, peaking at #42 on the Billboard 200 and being certified as platinum by the RIAA in 1989.[8]

Music

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Lyrical content

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write something here

  • focus on the struggles of black nationalism, particularly in "party for your right to fight" and "black steel in the hour of chaos"
  • a section on misogynism - from "sophisticated bitch" to "she watch channel zero?!"
  • flavor flav raps?
  • something about the instrumental interludes

Production

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After using Rick Rubin's rap-rock crossovers and coruscating guitars on Yo! Bum Rush the Show, Chuck D began experimenting with samples of musique concrète in his search for a new production style.[9][10] With the addition of hip hop's first notable production camp, The Bomb Squad, to his entourage of disc jockey Terminator X and dance choreographer Professor Griff, Chuck D stepped away from full-time production duties and instructed his production team to engineer a disturbing, disconcerting, and provocational soundscape that would become "music's worst nightmare."[10]

The Bomb Squad, who produced the album under the lead of Hank Shocklee, made a conscious decision to invest heavily in production and utilized diverse samples as the background to It Takes a Nation of Millions.[11] Eschewing their trademark contemporary R&B-influenced bass lines, melodies and chord structures in favor of stock sound fragments, old school funk and avant-garde noise,[5] they engineered what Chuck D referred to as a "sonic wall": a dense, chaotic mix of "organized noise".[12] The Bomb Squad's practice of not just replicating samples, but manipulating them to suit their needs and discarding them afterwards was praised especially for elevating the technique to an art form despite the controversy associated with it.[13] Public Enemy had little remorse for their production team's actions, bragging on "Caught, Can We Get a Witness?" that "you can't copyright no beats—what, are they crazy?"[14]

With the notable exceptions of 3 Feet High and Rising, The Chronic, and other albums using interpolation, the album would become both one of the first and last to be backed by this eclectic style as future endeavors by other artists ran into legal problems, namely copyright infringement.[15] It Takes a Nation of Millions was made before record labels sought permission for usage of samples, and by 1992 the dense productions of Public Enemy became too cost-prohibitive to secure rights for. With the movement of rap from a fringe genre to one with mainstream credibility, record labels began to invest less in upcoming artists, effectively stifling smaller-budgeted independent acts and preventing them from experimenting with samples in any ground-breaking fashion.[11] Like other parts of the movement which Public Enemy started, their musical style fell by the wayside and became a casualty of hip hop's increasing corporate demeanor.[12]

Singles

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It Takes a Nation of Millions featured four singles and three music videos, including "Bring the Noise", which was previously included on the soundtrack for the 1987 film Less Than Zero and met with critical acclaim.[16]

  • write on specific songs, as opposed to "lyrical content" which will deal with broader issues

title to come

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put some human interest bullshit here to make the reader happy, nobody wants to digest something as heavy as this album's content without some relief... critical reception? significance to rap/rock? fluff about chuck d?

dois to track down

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  • Kopano, Baruti N. (2002). "Rap Music as an Extension of the Black Rhetorical Tradition: 'Keepin' it Real'". Western Journal of Black Studies. 26 (4). Washington State University Press: 204–214. ISSN 0197-4327. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) [1]

fulltext

[edit]
  • Corbett, John (1990). "Free, Single, and Disengaged: Listening Pleasure and the Popular Music Object". October. 54. MIT Press: 79–101. ISSN 0162-2870. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) Similarly, rap sampling and scratch have reintroduced vinyl surface noise into the mainstream musical picture, even on CD. For two glowing examples of recent music shaking the standardized technology of recording and playback to its epistemological roots, hear Mark Stewart and the Mafia's LP As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade (Mute Records, 1985) and Public Enemy's "Terminator X to the Edge of Panic," on It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back (Columbia, 1988). 98
  • Butler, Paul (April 2004). "Much Respect: Toward a Hip-Hop Theory of Punishment". Stanford Law Review. 56 (5). Stanford University: 983–1016. ISSN 0038-9765.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link) In the late 1980s, mainstream rap music took two divergent directions. Many artists addressed political issues, "resulting in the most overt social agenda in popular music since the urban folk movement of the 1960s." A classic album of this era is Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. n40 Chuck D, the group's lead singer, described rap as the "Black CNN."
  • Keyes, Cheryl L. (1996). "At the Crossroads: Rap Music and Its African Nexus". Ethnomusicology. 40 (2). University of Illinois Press: 233–248. ISSN 0014-1836. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) Public Enemy's music, which is masterminded by the Bomb Squad (a production team composed of Hank Shocklee, Eric Sadler, and others), implemented dissonant sonorities-booming bass guitar and kick (bass) drum sounds, interlocking speech and music rhythms, and a boisterous, aggressive rap style-as best exemplified in Kyra Gaunt's transcription (1993) of "Fight the Power". 237-238
  • Bollig, Ben (2002). "White Rapper/Black Beats: Discovering a Race Problem in the Music of Gabriel o Pensador". Latin American Music Review. 23 (2). University of Texas Press: 159–178. ISSN 0163-0350. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) Public Enemy influenced songs" are interspersed with sirens, gunshots, car sounds, and crowd noises, thus creating a texture of conflict and violence. 169
  • Rice, Jeff (February 2003). "The 1963 Hip-Hop Machine: Hip-Hop Pedagogy as Composition". College Composition and Communication. 54 (3). National Council of Teachers of English: 453–471. doi:10.2307/3594173. ISSN 0010-096X.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link) Some of the most complex and intriguing examples of the "whatever process" in digital sampling can be found in Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation ofMillions to Hold UsBack, Digable Planets' Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space), Grandmaster Flash's "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel," and the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique. 454 [James] Brown's through an aggressive back beat configured interest in Black Power re-emerges in Ice-T's by cut-and-pasted sound selections. "Power," Salt N Pepa's "Solo Power (Syncopated Soul)," and Public Enemy's "Fight the Power." Public Enemy's song remains one of the best examples of hip-hop's interest in unequal power relations. Sampling Brown's "Funky President" and "Funky Drummer," the "I" of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff," and numerous other sources, Public Enemy shifts musical power from mainstream studio production to the compact digital sampler. 464
  • Greg, Dimitriadis (May 1996). "Hip Hop: From Live Performance to Mediated Narrative". Popular Music. 15 (2). Cambridge University Press: 174–194. ISSN 0261-1430.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link) Public Enemy's next album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, however, was quite different from Yo! Bum Rush the Show. Note that the more personal 'me' from 'Raise the Roof' has been replaced here by the more inclusive 'us', reflecting the album's encompassing black nationalistic theme. Their political agenda became more pronounced on this second release as evinced by track titles such as 'Rebel Without a Pause', 'Prophets of Rage', and 'Party for your Right to Fight'. Indeed, Chuck D and Flavor Flav wed a pro-black stance with Nation of Islam ideology on 'Party for your Right to Fight' as well as on others, such as 'Bring the Noise'. Terms such as 'devil' and 'Asiatic' abound throughout, referencing the intricate genesis beliefs preached by Nation founders W.D. Fard and Elijah Muhammad. The Nation of Islam became a pronounced force in rap at this point in time, its blend of militancy and pro-black ideology finding enthusiastic support among many young Afro-Americans. Public Enemy's radical new conception of the idiom as a nation building force was intrinsically a part of their new and innovative uses of mass-disseminated technology. Unlike most early rap albums, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is not a collection of singles. Rather, It Takes a Nation is structured as a 58- minute self-contained radio broadcast, its individual songs linked together along conceptual lines. Tracks are interspersed with portions of a UK concert, static, the sound of a radio dial turning, and bits and pieces of radio shows. Communication itself became most important as Public Enemy envisioned an Afro-American community which could be linked together through postmodern media technology. Thus, their second release marked a shift in the rap aesthetic. Community performance and entertainment on a decentralised scale gave way to worldwide mediation by and through centralised recording media. Rap became, in short, an idiom which could create solidarities beyond the boundaries of face-to-face communication. 186
  • Gates, Jr., Henry Louis (1997). "Harlem on Our Minds". Critical Inquiry. 24 (1). University of Chicago Press: 1–12. ISSN 0093-1896. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) Today, a politicized naturalism is more likely to be found in black film, such as John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood, and, of course, in gangsta rap, such as the dada vorticism of Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, or in the rap-meets-poetry movement. 9
  • Baker, Jr., Houston A. (1991). "Hybridity, the Rap Race, and Pedagogy for the 1990s". Black Music Research Journal. 11 (1). University of Illinois Press: 217–228. ISSN 0276-3605. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) But it is also time to "fight the power," as Public Enemy knows-the power of media control. In their classic rap "Don't Believe the Hype," Public Enemy indicates that the primetime media are afraid of rap's message and consider it both offensive and dangerous. 222
  • Irving, Katrina (May 1993). "'I Want Your Hands on Me': Building Equivalences Through Rap Music". Popular Music. 12 (2). Cambridge University Press: 105–121. ISSN 0261-1430.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link) If Public Enemy's album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back can top the Village Voice critics' Pazz and Jop awards for 1988, despite its castigation of the white man, we must ask where do these critics - predominantly white and male as they are - find a point of entry into this discourse? It seems that it can be plotted along one of two axes. First, an equivalence is built between white males and black males through the denigration of 'woman', who is set up as both other and contemptible. Male rappers and rap critics - both popular and academic - collude in producing a rampantly sexist discourse which constructs 'woman' as inferior and counter to the revolutionary cause. The construction of the male rapper's self appears to necessitate a virulent put-down of the black woman. To take one of myriad examples, Public Enemy's rap 'She Watch Channel Zero' asserts: I know she don't know, I quote, Her brains retrained by a 24-inch remote Revolution a solution for all our children But all her children don't mean as much as the show. As Vince Aletti puts it: 'rap has become increasingly preoccupied with the extended put-down, the "serious dis". . . . But when a fe-male enters the picture, the putdown suddenly takes a sexual turn and the language can get rough' (Aletti 1986, p. 78). The second chain of masculinist equivalence is created through the music's subversive impulse. Rap critics anxious to identify with its 'revolutionary' impulse either ignore its misogynistic and reactionary elements or hastily explain them away. After chronicling the regressive elements of Public Enemy, Tate, for example, decides that: 'For now swallowing the PE Pill means taking the bitter with the sweet and if they don't grow up, later for they asses' (Tate 1988, p. 71). As a feminist, however, given the influence of rap in academic as well as 'popular' circles (the 1989 Popular Culture Convention lists several panels which discuss the use of rap as a pedagogical instrument),7 I wonder whether we - that is, women - can wait for 'later for they asses'. 114 It is evident from these examples that rap can create an equivalence between the white male critic's discourse and that of the black male through its construction of an inferior subject position for woman which is also, as shown in Public Enemy's lyric quoted above, counter to the revolutionary cause. Misogynistic discourse becomes the basis for equivalence-building. 114
  • Hunter, Tera (Winter 1989). "'It's a Man's Man's Man's World': Specters of The Old Re-Newed in Afro-American Culture and Criticism". Callaloo (38). Johns Hopkins University Press: 247–249. ISSN 0161-2492.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link) Public Enemy "slugs out the hardest and most militant rap around," but the rappers bring with them leftover aspects of cultural-nationalism qua 1960's sexism with a ven- geance. Their heroes are Martin Luther King, John Coltrane, Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammed, and Louis Farrakhan. Their enemy is not only white, but she is also black and female. Public Enemy constructs women characters who embody, and ultimately are held most accountable for, the ills of the race. Listen to the cut "Sophisticated Bitch." Or try "She Watch Channel Zero?!": ... There's a 5 letter word / To describe her character / But her brains being washed by an actor . .. 2, 7, 5, 4, 8 she said / All added up to zero / Because I know she don't know, I quote / Her brains retrained / By a 24 inch remote / Revolution a solution / For all our children / But all her children / Don't mean as much as the show, I mean / Watch her worship the screen, and fiend / For a TV ad .... The woman in these lyrics is depicted as a self-centered zombie whose soap opera viewing precludes the possibility that she is a thinking person. A scolding male voice in the background maligns the woman for watching garbage and entreats her to read books on black culture instead. Yet without any apparent sense of contradiction, this same man wants to claim the tube for himself to watch more important shows-like football (a team with a black quarterback) or the Mike Tyson fight! Juxtapose Public Enemy's representation of women with those of black men, and a far more complex picture contexualizes the latter. In "Night of the Living Baseheads," "Message to the Black Man," or "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos," drug dealers and crooks are depicted with empathy, despite the fact that the group articulates disdain for certain forms of criminal behavior. The artists direct their anger at the system that produces the conditions leading black men to violate laws. No such oppressive social order exists for black women. The only other characters who are dogged more than females are (white) devils, the CIA, the FBI, and rock critics. The group has also been known to express homophobia and antisemitism. In the final analysis, the emanci- patory promise of political hiphop is stifled by Public Enemy's ironic displacement of its nemesis. 248
  • ya Salaam, Mtume (1995). "The Aesthetics of Rap". African American Review. 29 (2). Indiana State University: 303–315. ISSN 1062-4783. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) Public Enemy. I t Takes A Natio Of Millions To Hold Us Back. 1988.At one time, Public Enemy was far and away the most popular and influential group in rap music. It Takes A Nation Of Millions, their second album, was for a long time considered the rap album by both critics and fans. Public Enemy pioneered a completely different sound by combining polyrhythmic drum samples and multi-layered horn squeals and whistles-a soundscape that was as distinctive and unrnistakable as it was new. Lead rapper Chuck D's lyrics, delivered in a charismatic, booming baritone, are almost exclusively pro-Black history lessons. Public Enemy was the first rap group to focus the music's potential on social change. Chuck D and his group members vowed to create 5,000 new black leaders by the year 2,000.Though the ultraviolent, often nihilistic social climate we now live in makes it seem implausible, Public Enemy's progressive social agenda along with the Bomb Squad's frenetically seductive beats made Public Enemy, for a time, the most popular rap group in the country. Now though, in 1995, having already weathered ex-member Prof. Griff's infamous anti-Semitic remarks, and comic foil Flavor Flav's numerous ironically drug-induced brushes with the law, Public Enemy's latest release Muse Sick In Our Mess Age appears to be falling on deaf ears. Nevertheless, I f Takes A Nafiun Of Millions remains an important and undeniable testament to the positive power that music can possess for social change. 313
  • Ellis, Trey (1989). "The New Black Aesthetic". Callaloo (38). Johns Hopkins University Press: 233–243. ISSN 0161-2492. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) Mr. Stephney, who also co-produced the Public Enemy albums Yo! Bum Rush This Show and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, describes their music as "politically conscious but not preachy." They make you realize that you don't have to be black and poor to be black and angry. 241

iz in bmp, nooooo!

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much too much, refer to pdf

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some crap

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http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/061024/A721.htm

"it takes a nation of millions" - the offset is 30

newsbank

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just fucking search it! and lexis too!

awol

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more crap

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integrate this somewhere

  • "Party for Your Right to Fight" is a rearrangement of the Beastie Boys' song, "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" (frequently referred to as: "Fight For Your Right to Party").
  • The Vans shoe company released Public Enemy shoes for their Vans Supreme line of premium shoes. On the soles of the shoes is written; "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back."

Track listing

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# Title Time Producers Samples cite!
1 "Countdown to Armageddon" 1:40 The Bomb Squad
2 "Bring the Noise" 3:46 The Bomb Squad
3 "Don't Believe the Hype" 5:19 The Bomb Squad
  • "Synthetic Substitution" by Melvin Bliss
  • "Do the Funky Penguin" by Rufus Thomas
  • "I Got Ants in my Pants" by James Brown
  • "Escape-ism" by James Brown
4 "Cold Lampin' with Flavor" 4:17 The Bomb Squad
5 "Terminator X to the Edge of Panic" 4:31 Terminator X
6 "Mind Terrorist" 1:21 The Bomb Squad
7 "Louder Than a Bomb" 3:37 The Bomb Squad
  • "Long Red" by Mountain
  • "It's Yours" by T La Rock
  • "AJ Scratch" by Kurtis Blow
  • "Here We Go" (Live) by Run-D.M.C.
  • "One for the Treble" by Davy DMX
  • "Feel Like Making Love" by Bob James
  • "Who's Gonna Take the Weight?" by Kool & the Gang
  • "Fantastic Freaks at the Dixie" by Grand Wizard Theodore
  • "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" by The Beastie Boys
8 "Caught, Can We Get a Witness?" 4:53 The Bomb Squad
  • "Blow Your Head" by The J.B.'s
  • "Son of Shaft" by Bar-Kays
  • "Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes
  • "Terminator X Speaks with His Hands" by Public Enemy
  • "Soul Power" by James Brown
  • "Hot Pants... I'm Coming, I'm Coming, I'm Coming" by Bobby Byrd
9 "Show Em Whatcha Got" 1:56 The Bomb Squad
10 "She Watch Channel Zero?!" 3:49 The Bomb Squad, Professor Griff
11 "Night of the Living Baseheads" 3:14 The Bomb Squad
12 "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" 6:23 The Bomb Squad
13 "Security of the First World" 1:20 The Bomb Squad
14 "Rebel Without a Pause" 5:02 The Bomb Squad, Terminator X
  • "The Grunt" by The J.B.'s
  • "Funky Drummer" by James Brown
  • "Get Up Offa That Thing" by James Brown
  • "I Don't Know What This World Is Coming To" by the Soul Children
15 "Prophets of Rage" 3:18 The Bomb Squad
16 "Party for Your Right to Fight" 3:24 The Bomb Squad

Chart positions

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Album

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Album chart positions are taken from Billboard magazine (North America).[18]

Chart (1988) Peak position
U.S. Billboard 200 42
U.S. Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums 1

Singles

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Singles chart positions are taken from Billboard magazine (North America).[19] move these to the correct places

"She Watch Channel Zero?!"
This sample contains a portion of the intro and first verse.
"Night of the Living Baseheads"
This sample contains a portion of the hook.
"Party for Your Right to Fight"
This sample contains the intro and first verse.
Problems playing these files? See media help.
Song B-side Chart (1988) Peak position
"Bring the Noise" "Are You My Woman?" U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 56
"Don't Believe the Hype" "Prophets of Rage" U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 18
U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play 21
U.S. Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 17
"Night of the Living Baseheads" "Cold Lampin' with Flavor" U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 62
"Terminator X to the Edge of Panic"
Song B-side Chart (1989) Peak position
"Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" "Caught, Can We Get a Witness?"
(Pre Black Steel Ballistic Felony Dub) 		U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 86
U.S. Hot Rap Singles 11

Notes

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  1. ^ Brackett & Hoard 2004, pp. 661–662 track down specific text
  2. ^ Ashby 2006, p. 516
  3. ^ Hoye 2003, p. 54
  4. ^ Levy & Van Zandt 2006 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFLevyVan_Zandt2006 (help) track down specific text and page number
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference erlewine was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Forman et al. 2004, pp. 307
  7. ^ Ripani 2006, p. 143 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRipani2006 (help) track down specific text
  8. ^ Chang & Campbell 2005, p. 280
  9. ^ Friskics-Warren 2005, p. 184
  10. ^ a b Howard 2004, p. 274
  11. ^ a b Ross & Rose 1994, pp. 129–130 track down specific text
  12. ^ a b Watkins 2006, p. 117
  13. ^ Harrington & Bielby 2000, p. 247
  14. ^ Harrington 2002, p. 441
  15. ^ Perry 2004, p. 115 track down specific text
  16. ^ White 1995, pp. 82–83 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFWhite1995 (help) track down specific text
  17. ^ Chang & Campbell 2005, p. 263
  18. ^ Ashby 2006, p. 476
  19. ^ Allmusic editors 2006

References

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i need locations

needs uncommenting

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