Combat Jack Ethers Pete Rosenberg and Ebro #RaiseTheBarRosenberg

[The Ruler 09]

Legacy[edit]

Terminator X's innovative scratching tricks can be heard on the songs "Rebel Without a Pause", "Night of the Living Baseheads", and "Shut 'Em Down". The Bomb Squad offered up a web of innovative samples and beats. Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine declared that PE "brought in elements of free jazz, hard funk, even musique concrète, via [its] producing team the Bomb Squad, creating a dense, ferocious sound unlike anything that came before."[16][17]
Public Enemy made contributions to the hip-hop world with political, social and cultural consciousness, which infused itself into skilled and poetic rhymes, using raucous sound collages as a foundation. Public Enemy held a strong, pro-Black, political stance. Before PE, politically motivated hip-hop was defined by a few tracks by Ice-T, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and KRS-One. Other politically motivated opinions were shared by prototypical artists Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets. PE was a revolutionary hip-hop act, basing an entire image around a specified political stance. With the successes of Public Enemy, many hip-hop artists began to celebrate Afrocentric themes, such as Kool Moe Dee, Gang Starr, X Clan, Eric B. & Rakim, Queen Latifah, the Jungle Brothers, and A Tribe Called Quest.


Public Enemy official logo.

Public Enemy was one of the first hip-hop groups to do well internationally. PE changed the Internet's music distribution capability by being one of the first groups to release MP3-only albums,[18] a format virtually unknown at the time.

Public Enemy helped to create and define "rap metal" by collaborating with Living Colour in 1988 (Funny Vibe) and New York thrash metal outfit Anthrax in 1991. The single "Bring the Noise" was a mix of semi-militant black power lyrics, grinding guitars, and sporadic humor. The two bands, cemented by a mutual respect and the personal friendship between Chuck D and Anthrax's Scott Ian, introduced a hitherto alien genre to rock fans, and the two seemingly disparate groups toured together. Flavor Flav's pronouncement on stage that "They said this tour would never happen" (as heard on Anthrax's Live: The Island Years CD) has become a legendary comment in both rock and hip-hop circles. Metal guitarist Vernon Reid (of Living Colour) contributed to Public Enemy's recordings, and PE sampled Slayer's "Angel of Death" half-time riff on "She Watch Channel Zero?!"

Members of the Bomb Squad produced or remixed works for other acts, like Bell Biv DeVoe, Ice Cube, Vanessa Williams, Sinéad O'Connor, Blue Magic, Peter Gabriel, L.L. Cool J, Paula Abdul, Jasmine Guy, Jody Watley, Eric B & Rakim, Third Bass, Big Daddy Kane, EPMD, and Chaka Khan. According to Chuck D, "We had tight dealings with MCA Records and were talking about taking three guys that were left over from New Edition and coming up with an album for them. The three happened to be Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, and Ronnie DeVoe, later to become Bell Biv DeVoe. Ralph Tresvant had been slated to do a solo album for years, Bobby Brown had left New Edition and experienced some solo success beginning in 1988, and Johnny Gill had just been recruited to come in, but [he] had come off a solo career and could always go back to that. At MCA, Hiram Hicks, who was their manager, and Louil Silas, who was running the show, were like, 'Yo, these kids were left out in the cold. Can y'all come up with something for them?' It was a task that Hank, Keith, Eric, and I took on to try to put some kind of hip-hop-flavored R&B shyt down for them. Subsequently, what happened in the four weeks of December [1989] was that the Bomb Squad knocked out a large piece of the production and arrangement on Bell Biv DeVoe's three-million selling album Poison. In January [1990], they knocked out Fear of a Black Planet in four weeks, and PE knocked out Ice Cube's album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted in four to five weeks in February."[19] They have also produced local talent such as Son of Bazerk, Young Black Teenagers, Kings of Pressure, and True Mathematics—and gave producer Kip Collins his start in the business.

Poet and hip-hop artist Saul Williams uses a sample from Public Enemy's "Welcome to the Terrordome" in his song "Tr[n]igger" on the Niggy Tardust album. He also used a line from the song in his poem, amethyst rocks.

Public Enemy's brand of politically and socially conscious hip hop has been a direct influence on new hip hop artists such as The Cornel West theory.

The Manic Street Preachers track "Repeat (Stars And Stripes)" is a remix of the band's own anti-monarchy tirade by Public Enemy production team The Bomb Squad of whom James Dean Bradfield and Richey Edwards were big fans. The song samples "Countdown to Armageddon" from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. The band had previously sampled Public Enemy on their 1991 single Motown Junk.

The influence of the band goes largely beyond hip-hop as the group was cited by artists as diverse as Autechre (selected in the All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival) in 2003), Nirvana (It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back being cited by Kurt Cobain among his favorite albums), Nine Inch Nails (mentioned the band in Pretty Hate Machine credits), Björk (included Rebel Without a Pause in her The Breezeblock Mix in July 2007), Tricky (did a cover of Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos and appears in Do You Wanna Go Our Way ??? video), Prodigy (included Public Enemy No. 1 in The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One), Ben Harper, Underground Resistance (cited by both Mad Mike and Jeff Mills), Orlando Voorn, M.I.A., Amon Tobin, Mathew Jonson and Aphex Twin (Welcome To The Terrordome being the first track played after the introduction at the Coachella festival in April 2008).

In September 2009, VH1 aired a show called "100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs" where Public Enemy earned the number one spot with their hit song, Fight the Power.[20]

In December 2012, the group was announced as one of the inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for its 2013 class

 

[THE 101]

GTFOH. Theres a big difference between straight jokes and challenging Chuck D's credibility which is exactly what Rosenberg did.

I'm sorry but legends on this site are treated terribly and constantly dismissed as irrelevant. 80s music is clowned as dated with trash beats and basic lyrics and flows and threads on the subject matter do single digit numbers while a thread on Miley Cyrus' latest dress goes platinum.

BUT NOW everyone on The Coli are fukking b-boys who live and die by the element of hip hop and worship the alter of Chuck D, Melle Mel and Kool Herc.

fukk Rosenberg for his comments on Chuck but let's not pretend this isn't anything other than an excuse to have another tedious race debate by the e-militants.

 

[#SOG_soldier]

Chuck, as the voice of Public Enemy, spoke honestly and emphatically about the plights facing the Black Community in the post Reagan/Bush era, and in a world where Apartheid still existed in South Africa. He offered an unflinching account of the Black experience in America, and in some ways songs like Fight The Power were the continuation of the Black Power movements that came before it. I grew up in the UK, but listening to their music and watching movies by guys like Spike gave me a way more complete understanding of Black life in America than the news ever could or would want me to have.

He has been an influence to so many rappers, I don't know if I could actually list them all.

Do yourself a favour, breh. Check out 'It Takes A Nation Of Millions' (Been acknowledged a bunch as one of the best hip-hop albums ever recorded) and my personal favourite 'Fear Of A Black Planet'. You'd be surprised how little the world has changed since they were released two plus decades ago.

i wasnt trying to shyt on PE, but Kanye has done a lot the culture. like @The Ruler 09 said his impact has not been all positive, but the fact remains that kanye is the most influential figure in hip-hop that I have EVER SEEN.

if a legend like Kanye is not off limits then nobody is

 

[Tikal]

I enjoy both podcasts. The combat jack and juan epstein. This radio personality beef sounds corny to me. Don't care as long as both shows gets good guests

 

[boskey]

I'm sorry but legends on this site are treated terribly and constantly dismissed as irrelevant. 80s music is clowned as dated with trash beats and basic lyrics and flows and threads on the subject matter do single digit numbers while a thread on Miley Cyrus' latest dress goes platinum.

BUT NOW everyone on The Coli are fukking b-boys who live and die by the element of hip hop and worship the alter of Chuck D, Melle Mel and Kool Herc.

fukk Rosenberg for his comments on Chuck but let's not pretend this isn't anything other than an excuse to have another tedious race debate by the e-militants.

Is Combat Jack a coli militant now? Cuz this thread is about his comments. Theres a lot of idiots on The Coli, we know that. But theres also many folks who listen to Combat Jack and Juan Ep on a regular basis and check for the interviews with Chuck D, Kool Herc, Large Professor, Pete Rock etc etc...so obviously some of us have a certain amount of interest and respect for old school hip hop. And again thats what THIS thread is about...

The only thing tedious is your caping . If you have a problem with "tedious race debates" you are voicing it in the wrong thread. We're talking about Rosenberg and how he chooses to use his platform...

 

[The Ruler 09]

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
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It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back


Studio album by Public Enemy

Released June 28, 1988[1]

Recorded 1987 at Chung King Studios and Greene St. Recording in Manhattan, and Sabella Studios in Long Island

Genre Hip hop

Length 57:51

Label Def Jam/Columbia

Producer Chuck D, Rick Rubin (exec.), Hank Shocklee

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 It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back[2]

1. "Rebel Without a Pause"
   Released: July 1987
2. "Bring the Noise"
   Released: November 1987
3. "Don't Believe the Hype"
   Released: June 1988
4. "Night of the Living Baseheads"
   Released: October 1988
5. "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos"
   Released: 1989

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 by Def Jam Recordings.[1] Public Enemy set out to make the hip hop equivalent to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, an album noted for its strong social commentary. Recording sessions took place during 1987 at Chung King Studios, Greene St. Recording, and Sabella Studios in New York City. Noting the enthusiastic response toward their live shows, Public Enemy intended with Nation of Millions to make the music of a faster tempo than the previous album for performance purposes.[3]

The album charted for 49 weeks on the US Billboard 200, peaking at number 42. By August 1989, it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of one million copies in the United States. The album was very well received by music critics, who hailed it for its production techniques and the socially and politically charged lyricism of lead MC Chuck D. It also appeared on many publications' year-end top album lists for 1988, and was the runaway choice as the best album of 1988 in The Village Voice 's Pazz & Jop critics' poll, a poll of the leading music critics in the US.[4]

Since its initial reception, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back has been regarded by music writers and publications as one of the greatest and most influential albums of all time.[5][6][7] In 2003, the album was ranked number 48 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, the highest ranking of all the hip hop albums on the list.

Contents
[hide]

• 1Background
• 2Recording
• 3Composition
  • 3.1Music and lyrics
  • 3.2Production
• 4Songs
• 5Release and reception
• 6Legacy and influence
  • 6.1Accolades
• 7Track listing
• 8Personnel
• 9Charts
• 10Certifications
• 11See also
• 12References
• 13External links

Background[edit]
Public Enemy's 1987 debut album Yo! Bum Rush the Show, while acclaimed by hip hop critics and aficionados, had gone ignored for the most part by the rock and R&B mainstream,[8] selling only 300,000 copies, which was relatively low by the high-selling standards of other Def Jam recording artists such as LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys at the time.[9] However, the group continued to tour and record tirelessly. "On the day that Yo! Bum Rush the Show was released [in the spring of 1987], we was already in the trenches recording Nation of Millions," stated lead MC Chuck D.[10]

With It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, the group set out to make what they considered to be the hip hop equivalent to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, an album noted for its strong social commentary.[11] As said by Chuck, "our mission was to kill the 'Cold Gettin' Dumb' stuff and really address some situations."[11] In order to ensure that their live shows would be as exciting as those they played in London and Philadelphia, the group decided that the music on Nation of Millions would have to be faster than that found on Yo! Bum Rush the Show.[12] "Years of saved-up ideas," noted Chuck, "were compiled into one focussed aural missile."[13]

 

[The Ruler 09]

Recording[edit]

It wasn't that we took records and rapped over them, we actually had an intricate way of developing sound, arranging the sound. We had musicians like Eric Sadler... Hank Shocklee, the Phil Spector of hip hop. You've got to give the credit as it's due, if Phil Spector has the Wall of Sound Hank Shocklee has the Wall of Noise.
— Chuck D, The Quietus, 2008[14]

Public Enemy began making the album at Chung King Studios in Manhattan, but ran into conflicts with engineers prejudiced against hip hop acts.[15] The group resumed recording at Greene St. Recording where they were more comfortable.[11] Initially, the engineers at Greene Street were also apprehensive about the group, but eventually grew to respect their work ethic and seriousness about the recording process.[11] Recorded under the working title Countdown to Armageddon, the group ultimately decided on It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back instead, a line from their first album's song "Raise the Roof".[16] The material was recorded in 30 days for an estimated $25,000 in recording costs,[17] due to an extensive amount of preproduction by the group at their Long Island studio.[17] The album was completed in six weeks.[18] "It was aggressive, race-against-the-clock teamwork, taking chances in sound," recalled Chuck D.[13]

Rather than touring with the rest of the group Eric "Vietnam" Sadler and Hank Shocklee would stay in the studio and work on material for the Nation of Millions album, so that Chuck D and Flavor Flav would have the music already done when they returned.[10] When the group began planning the second album, the songs "Bring the Noise", "Don't Believe the Hype", and "Rebel Without a Pause" had already been completed.[12] The latter track was recorded during the group's 1987 Def Jam tour, and the lyrics were written by Chuck D in one day spent secluded at his home.[19] Instead of looping the break from James Brown's "Funky Drummer", a commonly used breakbeat in hip hop, "Rebel Without a Pause" had Flavor Flav play the beat on the drum machine continuously for the track's duration of five minutes and two seconds.[19] Chuck D later said of his contribution to the track, "Flavor's timing helped create almost like a band rhythm".[19] Terminator X, the group's DJ/turntabilist, also incorporated a significant element to the track, the renowned transformer scratch, towards the its end. Named for its similarity to the sound made by the Autobots in The Transformers, the scratch was developed by DJ Spinbad and popularised by DJ Jazzy Jeff and Cash Money, and Terminator X had honed his take on the scratch on tour.[19] The group was satisfied with its sound after having removed the bass from his section of the track.[19]

According to Chuck D, Hank Shocklee made the last call when songs were completed. "Hank would come up with the final mix because he was the sound master... Hank is the Phil Spector of hip-hop. He was way ahead of his time, because he dared to challenge the odds in sound."[16] This was also one of the details which Chuck felt to be unique to the time and recording of the album. "Once hip-hop became corporate, they took the daredevil out of the artistry. But being a daredevil was what Hank brought to the table."[16] It was decided amongst the group that the album should be exactly one hour long, thirty minutes on each side. At the time, audio cassettes were more popular than CD's and the group didn't want listeners having to hear dead air for a long time after one half of the album was finished.[20] The two sides of the album were originally the other way around, the album beginning with "Show Em Whatcha Got" which leads into "She Watch Channel Zero?!" This instead became the start of side two, or the "Black Side." Hank Shocklee decided to flip the sides just before the mastering of the album and start the record with Dave Pearce introducing the group during their first tour of England.[16][20]

 

[Frump]

Im not a fan of that cornball Rosenberg but To be fair Combat is trying to be slick here saying how it was a civil political discussion and Rosenberg just took it to another level when he was the one who started the convo by telling him to drink cyanide

Also combat saying he's "pro human" and was just mad that a human being was being mistreated is such horseshyt.If it was somebody going off on a Jewish leader he would not give two shyts this had more to do with his own bias

 

[The Ruler 09]

Composition[edit]

Music and lyrics[edit]
Under Hank Shocklee's direction, the Bomb Squad, the group's production team, began to develop a dense and chaotic production style that relied on found sounds and avant-garde noise as much as it did on old-school funk.[8] Along with a varied selection of sampled elements, the tracks feature a greater tempo than those of the group's contemporaries.[21] Music critic Robert Christgau noted these elements and wrote that the Bomb Squad "juice post-Coleman/Coltrane ear-wrench with the kind of furious momentum harmolodic funk has never dared: the shyt never stops abrading and exploding".[22] As with the group's live performances, Flavor Flav supported Chuck D's politically charged lyrics with "hype man" vocals and surrealistic lyrics on the album.[23][24]
On the album's content, music journalist Peter Shapiro wrote "Droning feedback, occasional shards of rock guitar, and James Brown horn samples distorted into discordant shrieks back the political rhetoric of lead rapper Chuck D and the surreality of Flavor Flav".[23] Ethnomathematics author Ron Eglash interpreted the album's style and production to be "massively interconnected political and sonic content", writing that "[the Bomb Squad] navigated the ambiguity between the philosophies of sound and voice. Public Enemy's sound demonstrated an integration of lyrical content, vocal tone, sample density and layering, scratch deconstruction, and sheer velocity that rap music has never been able to recapture, and that hip-hop DJs and producers are still mining for gems".[21]

Production[edit]
We took whatever was annoying, threw it into a pot, and that's how we came out with this group. We believed that music is nothing but organized noise. You can take anything—street sounds, us talking, whatever you want—and make it music by organizing it. That's still our philosophy, to show people that this thing you call music is a lot broader than you think it is.
— Hank Shocklee, Keyboard Magazine, 1990[25]

In an interview with the New York Daily News, Shocklee noted that the album's dynamic sound was inspired by Chuck D's rapping prowess, stating "Chuck's a powerful rapper. We wanted to make something that could sonically stand up to him".[18] Of his own contributions to its production, Shocklee cited himself as being the arranger and noted that he had "no interest in linear songs".[17] When using records for sampling, Shocklee stated that he'd sometimes put them on the ground and stomp on them if they sounded too "clean."[17]
Hank referred to Chuck D as being the person who'd find all the vocal samples, Eric Sadler as "the one with the musical talent," and noted that his brother, Keith Shocklee, "knew a lot of the breakbeats and was the sound-effects master."[17] Shocklee's sentiments were reinforced by Chuck D while explaining the group's working methods during production. "Eric was the musician, Hank was the antimusician. Eric did a lot of the [drum] programming, [Hank's brother] Keith was the guy who would bring in the feel."[10] For his contributions to the production side, Chuck stated that he "would scour for vocal samples all over the Earth. I would name a song, tag it, and get the vocal samples."[10] Chuck D also noted the productiveness of Sadler and Shocklee's differing approaches to the creative process. "The friction between Hank and Eric worked very well. Hank would put a twist on Eric's musicianship and Eric's musicianship would put a twist on Hank."[16]

Some production mistakes were kept for the album. The breakdown in "Bring the Noise" in which the kick-drum sample from James Brown's "Funky Drummer" plays solo was a mistake.[17] Apparently, the wrong sequence came up in the SP1200 sampler and Shocklee decided not only to keep it but to have Chuck rewrite his rhyme to fit the pattern.[17] The album itself was mixed with no automation, instead being recorded on analog tape and later painstakingly mixed by hand.[17] This is a significant fact due to its nature as being one of the more intricate albums of digitally sampled music.[17] Asked years later if replicating the number of samples used on the album would be possible [due to increased clearance costs for copyrighted material], Hank Shocklee said while possible, it would be far more expensive than at the time to do so.[26]

 

[The Ruler 09]

Songs[edit]

"Rebel Without a Pause"

The track features aggressive rapping by Chuck D and exemplfies the album's sample-heavy production.
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Throughout the album, Chuck D delivers narratives that are characterized by black nationalist rhetoric and regard topics such as self-empowerment for African Americans, critiques of white supremacy, and challenges to exploitation in the music industry.[27] "Caught, Can We Get a Witness?" directly addresses the issue of sampling in hip hop and copyright violation from a perspective that supports the practice and claims entitlement due to "black ownership of the sounds in the first place".[27]

"Rebel Without a Pause" exemplifies the faster tempo that Public Enemy intended for the album,[19] while incorporating a heavy beat and samples of screeching horns,[28] the latter taken from The J.B.'s' "The Grunt" (1972).[27] According to Ron Eglash, such effects of sampling exemplify the "sense of urgency" given to the messages of the album's tracks, "to heighten the tension of the mix", while Chuck D's message is "one of total resistance that was readily accessible through [...] the confrontational sounds of bass, groove, and noise."[27] Lyrically, it eschews the traditional verse/chorus—verse/chorus song structure, with 12 bars of Chuck D's aggressive rapping, punctuated by Flavor Flav's stream of consciousness ad-libs.[19] Public Enemy-biographer Russell Myrie writes of the track's significance, "It matched 'I Know You Got Soul' in terms of its innovation and its breathtaking quality. It increased the tempo for Public Enemy, something they would do repeatedly during their forthcoming masterpiece [...] The faster tempo was important as it would heighten energy levels at their shows. Most important of all, it sounded fresh. It was some next level hip-hop. Chuck and Hank rightly felt it could stand alongside the best rap records of the time."[19]

Some of the song titles make reference to other works from popular culture. The title of the song "Party for Your Right to Fight" is a rearrangement of the Beastie Boys' 1987 hit single "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)."[29] The vocal sample of hip hop DJ Mr. Magic stating that his show would play "no more music by the suckers" was used on the song "Cold Lampin' with Flavor" after having been recorded from Magic's radio show by Flavor Flav.[30] Magic had dissed the group with the line when he mistakenly embroiled them in the WBAU-WBLS radio war.[30]

 

[The Ruler 09]

Release and reception[edit]
In its first month of release, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back sold 500,000 copies without significant promotional efforts by its distributing label Columbia Records.[31] It peaked at number 42 on the U.S. Billboard Top Pop Albums chart and at number one on the Top Black Albums chart.[32] It spent 49 weeks on the Billboard Top Pop Albums.[33] On August 22, 1989, it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipments of at least one million copies in the United States.[34] Since 1991, when the tracking system Nielsen SoundScan began tracking domestic sales data, the album has sold 722,000 additional copies as of 2010[update].[35]


It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back received positive reviews from contemporary critics. In his review for Rolling Stone, David Fricke described the album as a "Molotov cocktail of nuclear scratching, gnarly minimalist electronics and revolution rhyme" and complimented its "abrupt sequencing and violent sonic compression of rapid-fire samples, slamming-jail-door percussion, DJ Terminator X's tornado turntable work and Chuck D's outraged oratory".[36] Los Angeles Times writer Robert Hilburn said that the album incorporates some of the dynamics of early rap records such as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message" (1982) and Run–D.M.C.'s "Sucker M.C.'s" (1983) with the "radical, socially conscious tradition of groups like the Last Poets".[9] Hilburn commended Chuck D for his rapping on It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, writing that he "isn't afraid of being labeled an extremist, and it's that fearless bite—or game plan—that helps infuse his black-consciousness raps with the anger and assault of punk pioneers like the Sex Pistols and Clash".[37] Los Angeles Daily News gave the album a "B" and compared its musical "rage" favorably to that of rapper Schoolly D's Smoke Some Kill (1988).[38] Jon Pareles of The New York Times praised the album for its production and compared its symbolic value to hip hop music at the time, stating:
Where most rappers present themselves as funky individualists, beating the odds of the status quo, Public Enemy suggests that rap listeners can become an active community, not just an audience. Although it overreaches, It Takes a Nation jams urban tension and black anger into the foreground; it reveals the potential for demagoguery as well as the need for change. 'Whatcha gonna do/ rappers not afraid of you', Public Enemy demands, and in 1988 it sounds like something more than idle entertainment.[39]

Despite writing that it "sounds powerful, fresh and galvanizing", Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post found its lyrical content inconsistent, stating "Aurally,  'Nation of Millions ' is intoxicating; Hank Shocklee and Carl Ryder's bold production will likely prove among the most distinctive of the year, not just in rap but in any pop genre. For their work to pack the political wallop they crave, however, the members of Public Enemy need to think for themselves, not just attach themselves to the thought of whichever black nationalist is currently drawing big crowds".[40] Q magazine David Sinclair called it "an unimaginably urgent album seething with vengeful rage and booby trapped with incendiary musical devices".[41]

In its year-end list of 1988's best albums, Q called It Takes a Nation "a blistering collage of beat box [sic], rock guitar, police-radio chatter and high-velocity rapping."[42] It was voted number one in The Village Voice 's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll,[43] as well as number three on poll creator Robert Christgau's list.[44] In an article for the newspaper, Christgau called it "the bravest and most righteous experimental pop of the decade—no matter how the music looks written down (ha ha), Hank Shocklee and Terminator X have translated Blood Ulmer's harmolodic visions into a street fact that's no less edutaining (if different) in the dwellings of monkey spawn and brothers alike (and different)".[45]

 

[The Ruler 09]

Legacy and influence[edit]
Professional ratings
Retrospective reviews
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic

[46]
Robert Christgau A+[22]
NME 10/10[47]
Q

[48]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide

[49]
Slant Magazine

[50]
Sputnikmusic 5/5[51]
Pitchfork Media 10/10 [52]
Widely regarded as the group's best work, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back has been cited by critics and publications as one of the greatest and most influential recordings of all time.[5][6][7] Upon the album's remastered reissue in 1995, Q hailed It Takes a Nation as "the greatest rap album of all time, a landmark and classic".[48] Also upon its reissue, Melody Maker called the album "bloody essential" and commented that "I hadn't believed it could get harder [than Yo! Bum Rush the Show]. Or better".[48] NME dubbed it "the greatest hip-hop album ever" at the time, stating "this wasn't merely a sonic triumph. This was also where Chuck wrote a fistful of lyrics that promoted him to the position of foremost commentator/documentor of life in the underbelly of the USA".[48] Readers of Hip Hop Connection voted it the best album of all-time, prompting the magazine to comment, "Even 'Rebel Without a Pause', a definite contender for best rap single ever released, failed to put the other 12 [sic] tracks to shame, such was the high standard throughout."[53]

 

[The Ruler 09]

Mojo stated upon the album's 2000 European reissue, "Responsible for the angriest polemic since The Last Poets....[they] revolutionized the music, using up to 80 backing tracks in the sonic assault....to these ears PE sound like the greatest rock'n'roll band in history".[48] In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked the album number 48 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, making it the highest-ranked of the 27 hip hop albums included on the list.[54] Time magazine hailed it as one of the 100 greatest albums of all time in 2006.[55] Kurt Cobain, the lead guitarist and singer of rock band Nirvana, listed the album as one of his top 25 favorite albums in his Journals.[56] In 2006, Q placed the album at number seven in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s".[57] As of July 2014, It Takes a Nation of Millions is ranked as the top album of 1988 and the nineteenth greatest album of all time at AcclaimedMusic.net.[58][59] In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at #3 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s" behind Michael Jackson's Thriller and Prince and the Revolution's Purple Rain.[60] The album ranks Number 2 in the list of best records of the 20th century of German music magazine Spex.[61]

In his 2004 book Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Social Power, Ron Eglash commented that a sonically and politically charged album such as Nation "can be considered a monument to the synthesis of sound and politics".[21] In 2005, New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music hosted a two-day retrospective called "The Making of It Takes a Nation of Millions."[17] It featured a producers' panel that reunited Hank Shocklee, captain of the Bomb Squad, with the Chairmen of the Boards from Greene St. Recording.[17] When asked in 2008 if the album would still be considered as radical if it were released two decades later, Chuck D said he felt it would "simply because it's faster than anything on the radio right now. And yeah, it's radical politically... because it's not really being said a lot. You want it to not be radical, but it is because it's totally different from Soulja Boy."[14] American rapper Ice Cube said in 2005 that the album "messes with your brain even to this day."[62]

Public Enemy performed the album in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back series.[14] "I didn't think it would work," Chuck D admitted of the full-length performance. "But it ended up being something that worked tremendously well. Now we have a problem to get away from it. It amazed me that a lot of people who have gravitated to the album weren't even born when it was recorded. But it's YouTube and iLike and MySpace and file sharing which highlighted the existence of it. So I can't shoot down file sharing, as it's benefited us tremendously."[63]

Music from the album has been sampled by various artists over the years, including (though not limited to) the Beastie Boys ("Egg Man"),[64] Game ("Remedy"),[65] Jay-Z ("Show Me What You Got"),[66] Jurassic 5 ("What's Golden"),[67] Madonna ("Justify My Love"),[68] and My Bloody Valentine ("Instrumental B").[69] The album is broken down track-by-track by Chuck D in Brian Coleman's book Check the Technique.[70]

 

[Still Benefited]

Its funny how The Coli is all about respecting legends now.

What happened to them Larry Holmes smilies?

Exactly I'm tryna think of who havent yall nikkas disrespected on here?and ive disrespected people considered legends....lefs be honest it really boils down to him being white and disrespecting Chuck D....because what he said wasnt the worst thing i've heard somebody be told or asked....but he's white and a guest in hiphop

besides Combat Jack need that fade for disrespecting Pac and for them Nore contracts...if that shyt wasnt disrespectful

if these cats want to let themselves get disrespecfed by the likes of Star and Rosenberg thats on them....they shouldve been had they head cracked by sumbody who dont give a damn about that radio shyt,people either like this dude or they shook

 

[FreshAIG]

First of all why can't he be a hip hop head? The corniness is his personality but if we each took a test on hip hop he'd beat most of us. I hate hot 97s music selection but who listens to the radio? I watch YouTube interviews and he's better at interviews than a lot of his peers. He's well spoken and provkes the interviewee intellectual and sometimes pisses them off, same reason I used to watch Leno and letterman.

In short chill out, he's a DJ not all DJs.

He definitely wouldn't beat me. Just because you know some obscure rap nerd albums doesn't make you a head. He gets exposed often. He didn't even know simple shyt like Drop A Gem is a 2Pac diss or who Stretch was. Cipha Sounds constantly has to school him on non-nerd 90s rap shyt.