Arguably the greatest and most important hip hop album of all-time was released yesterday in 1988. Only one year prior, Public Enemy had issued their debut album, "Yo! Bum Rush the Show", and already they were changing their sound and moving in a radical direction. Their self-stated goal for their sophomore effort, "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back", was to make a modern day version of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?" And wouldn't you know, they did it.
The album is a true collaborative effort that masterfully blended Chuck D's powerful vocals and rhyme prowess, Flavor Flav's hype man antics, Terminator X's top flight DJ skills, and the innovative production approach and techniques of Hank Shocklee and The Bomb Squad. Dissonance, melody, and incredibly smart samples crash upon one another and push, pull, and disorient the listener with a sonic bludgeoning that has yet to be duplicated.
"It Takes a Nation" scared suburban mothers and intrigued their sons. Rockers were delighted hearing samples culled from the likes of Slayer, Queen, Sweet, David Bowie, Edwin Starr, and Jefferson Starship. Hip hoppers and funkateers weren't disappointed, either, with the requisite James Brown beats, healthy doses of Aretha, Temptations, Stevie Wonder, the Bar-Kays and Kool and the Gang, as well as nods to Def Jam label mates Run DMC and Beastie Boys.
Gallons of ink have been spilled on this album and there are many scholarly deconstructions of song structures and the themes contained therein easily available if you're interested. In the opinion of your humble narrator, while pioneers like Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster Flash laid the foundation, and Run DMC kicked the door down to the mainstream, Public Enemy broadened the scope of what hip hop could be with the release of this album.
"It Takes a Nation" sold over 500,000 copies in its first month with scant radio or promotional support. Almost cracking the top-40 at #42, the album stayed in one chart or another for 49 weeks and sold well over a million copies. Far from sounding like a punk album, it embraced the unabashed punk ethos of fearless representation of the band's point of view. One may disagree with its politics or message but it's hard to disagree that "It Takes a Nation" is an album that demands to be heard.
