Public Enemy
It Takes Millions To Hold Us Back
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Public Enemy
It Takes Millions To Hold Us Back
Def Jam, 1988
RiYL: |
Accordingly, a lot of the innovations forged on It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back remain hanging for some future group to expand upon. Hank Shocklee and Eric Sadler’s remarkable production, for example, gave the band a distinct and identifiable sound rooted in James Brown samples but highlighted by a variety of squeaks, squeals, and ear-piercing shrieks. Chuck D’s lyrics were forceful and studied; if he’s not the best MC ever in terms of pure flow, he is the one most in need of footnotes. Chuck and Flav’s heavy hitter/lightweight dynamic has been repeated often in hip-hop – see: Q-Tip and Phife, Treach and Vinnie, B-Real and Sen Dog – but seldom has the anger that both felt towards the system made the transition.
Millions begins with a pair of classic singles, the stomping “Bring the Noise” and the funkier “Don’t Believe the Hype.” On the latter Chuck D cements his place as hip-hop’s preeminent agitator for change: “a follow of Farrakhan/don’t tell me that you understand/until you hear the man.” (Unfortunately the association with Louis Farrakhan was only the beginning of the problems P.E. would have with alleged anti-Semitism.) The Chuck/Flav interplay is at its best on “Don’t Believe the Hype,” with D outlining serious concerns and Flav deflating the tension with weird interjections: “Yo Chuck, they must be on the pipe, right?”
“She Watch Channel Zero” is an outright metal track, laying the roots for Ice-T’s Body Count, Rage Against the Machine, and less attractive descendents like Limp Bizkit. Chuck’s rage about black women abandoning their lives to live others’ vicariously through the TV is just as relevant today. “Night of the Living Baseheads” is an effective dance track as well as a startlingly direct take on the ghetto cocaine trade. (Compare with De La Soul’s “My Brother’s a Basehead,” released three years later, to see how quickly rap shifted from lecturing to relating.) “Party for Your Right to Fight,” besides legitimizing the Beastie Boys, transcends its outdated 808 beats with Flav and Chuck D’s unison rhyming. “They claim we’re products from the bottom of hell,” Flavor summarizes before the super funky “Louder Than a Bomb, “but black is back and it’s bound to sell.”
Indeed it did, although some things about Millions have not aged well. The instrumental tracks that showcase DJ Terminator X aren’t real interesting nearly 20 years on. Flav’s solo shot “Cold Lampin” is pretty terrible. The reoccurring clips from P.E.’s live show helped start the continuing plague of pointless interludes and skits on every rap record released since 1990. “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos,” despite Chuck’s conviction, goes on way too long over a monotonous beat; check out Tricky’s cover version on Maxinquaye for a refinement.
Despite its outdated elements, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back’s status as a classic is not in question. The album’s historical importance and its clutch of brilliant singles (actually, nearly all of the album tracks are great too) makes it a necessary element of any thinking person’s record collection.
MARK DONOHUE | Mark Donohue is a prolific freelance writer whose areas of expertise include Rockies baseball, video games, genre television, English soccer, and pub rock. He lives in Colorado, where he cultivates the largest and creepiest private collection of Alyson Hannigan memorabilia in the Mountain West.