We continue our musical Cliffs Notes with our week-long feature of Afrika Bambaataa’s Top 5 albums.
Next up:
Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
“The beats and the deliverance, the message… It’s powerful.”
Public Enemy released It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back in 1988 on Def Jam Recordings, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. Like Bambaataa’s third pick, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, its criticism of the political and social environments of the time was considered groundbreaking. Its politically-charged lyrics and call to action were radical and controversial departures from mainstream hip-hop at the time.
Chuck D taunts black radio stations in “Bring the Noise”
We got to demonstrate, come on now, they’re gonna have to wait
Till we get it right
Radio stations I question their blackness
They call themselves black, but we’ll see if they’ll play this
“Bring the Noise” was later rerecorded with Anthrax in 1991, and this collaboration helped create the “rap-metal” genre.
In addition to “Bring the Noise,” Public Enemy also released “Don’t Believe the Hype,” “Night of the Living Baseheads,” and “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” from It Takes a Nation. The album is regarded as both a critical and commercial success, reaching #1 on Billboard’s Top Black Albums. It left behind a legacy of self-empowerment when faced with dissatisfaction of the status quo. And you know, where would we be in the reality dating show world now without Flavor Flav.
