Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

Yo! Bum Rush The Show was an invigorating record, but it looks like child's play compared to its monumental sequel, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, a record that rewrote the rules of what hip-hop could do. That's not to say the album is without precedent, since what's particularly ingenious about the album is how it reconfigures things that came before into a startling, fresh, modern sound. Public Enemy used the template Run-d.m.c. created of a rap crew as a rock band, then brought in elements of free jazz, hard funk, even musique concrète, via their producing team, The Bomb Squad, creating a dense, ferocious sound unlike anything that came before. Read More