POWER PLAY
30 years later, Public Enemy looks back on revolutionary hip-hop album ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back’
WHEN Public Enemy set out to make “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” — their 1988 tour de force of funk and fearlessness — they firmly believed in their own self-hype.
“I had just come off of our first international tour,” recalls PE leader and lyricist Chuck D, “and I told [producer] Hank Shocklee, ‘Look, man, let’s make this album like a “What’s Going On” of rap music and hip-hop.’ We had the sole intention to make an album that stood the test of time, to make the greatest album ever as opposed to a hot street record. It was no mistake.”
They accomplished that mission with the release of “Nation” on June 28, 1988. The second LP from the Long Island crew — who were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 — showcased a groundbreaking, sampledelic sound and a visionary political and social consciousness.
Not only does it make the shortlist of contenders for the best hip-hop album of all time, but 30 years later, the album’s legacy and impact — think of it as the “Black Panther” cultural movement of its day — can still be strongly felt.
“‘Nation of Millions’ is the defining album for Public Enemy. It’s still the album that people talk about,” says Bill Adler, who was Def Jam’s director of publicity on the project. “But I wish it wasn’t so relevant 30 years later. Politically, I’d love if it were consigned to the dustbin of history. Racism is on the rise, if anything.”
After their 1987 debut, “Yo! Bum Rush the Show,” Public Enemy — which then also included Flavor Flav, Professor Griff and DJs Terminator Xand Johnny “Juice” Rosado — sought to elevate the rap genre to a serious album art form.
“We looked at bands like Iron Maiden, the Clash and Led Zeppelin,” says Chuck D, 57, of their inspirations. “We felt that we can go at making a classic almost in the same way that we did [while DJing] at WBAUin Long Island: Put one hour together like a hot-ass radio show.”
But before they got to crystallize the master plan for their second album, Public Enemy found themselves hustling to keep up with the sonic breakthroughs of another New York rap act — Eric B. & Rakim — who ultimately sparked the musical direction for “Nation.”
“After me and Chuck heard ‘I Know You Got Soul’ ... we were so pissed off because that record was amazing,” says Shocklee, who was floored by the sample-fied production on that 1987 classic. “So we went back into the lab and came up with ‘Rebel Without a Pause.’ ”
Released as a B-side to “You’re Gonna Get Yours” (off “Yo! Bum Rush the Show”) in 1987, the rambunctious “Re- bel” jump-started the momentum for “Nation.” After Chuck Dbrought an acetate disc of the track to DJ Chuck Chillout at 98.7 KISS FM, the DJ — who now spins at WBLS radio — was instantly hooked.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ I played it three times that night,” says Chuck Chillout, who would later mix “Night of the Living Baseheads” for “Nation.” “They thought I was taking money ’cause I was playing the song so much. It spread like wildfire after that.”
After “Rebel Without a Pause,” Public Enemy recorded the “Nation” anthem, “Don’t Believe the Hype,” but they didn’t release it right away. “We put it in the can because we thought it wasn’t fast enough,” says Chuck D. Instead, PE next dropped the beat-tastic “Bring the Noise” on the “Less Than Zero” soundtrack.
By the summer of 1987, it was time to start thinking bigger than individual tracks, and Chuck Dbegan plotting his lyrical maneuvers for “Nation” while PE was sharing a tour bus with Stetsasonic. “[Bomb Squad producers] Eric Sadler and Hank Shocklee would come up with some music . . . and then I would write to it on the bus,” says Chuck D.
But the rapper was in New York when inspiration struck for one militant song: “I was in traffic on the BQE, and that’s where I wrote ‘Prophets of Rage,’ ” he says. “Then check the stage/I declare a new age/Get down for the prophets of rage,” seethes Chuck Don the track, capturing the anger in the air from racial attacks against blacks, such as the late-1986 Howard Beach killing of Michael Griffith, who was hit by a car after being chased by a mob of white youths.
“There were a number of huge racial incidents happening in the New York area that really inspired Public Enemy and inspired Chuck’s writing,” says Bill Stephney, the Def Jam exec who helped to launch PE. “The environment, the time, the change in music production all combined to form the basis of ‘Nation.’ ”
Setting the musical tension to go along with the emotional agitation, Chuck D, Shocklee and the rest of the Bomb Squad crafted a dense, unsettling soundscape that took the sample boom to explosive heights when — after making “Rebel Without a Pause,” “Don’t Believe the Hype” and “Bring the Noise” in 1987 — it came time to record the rest of “Nation” in early 1988.
Much of the work was done at Greene Street Studios in Soho. “It was comfortable to build our ideas there in Soho, although it wasn’t comfortable to park a car there,” says Chuck D. “It was rampant with crackheads at that time, man. My car got broken into five times.”
As the main producer, Shocklee had his own set of challenges. “My theory was, ‘Let’s make a record out of records,’ ” he says. “And at that time, that was crazy revolutionary because you’re talking about going into a recording studio with a turntable, a mixer and a bunch of records. After that, how do we [make] these records feel like a band is playing?”
One final stroke of genius came when Shocklee decided to flip sides Aand B. “The album originally started off with ‘Show ’Em Whatcha Got,’ ” says Chuck D. “And the last-minute call was to start off with ‘Countdown to Armageddon,’ which was live in concert, going into ‘Bring the Noise.’” Now at the beginning of “Nation,” those sirens sounded the alarm that Public Enemy was about to stage a revolution.
“The album was a relentless, nonstop attack. It was a barrage,” says Chuck D. “What we had was so fast and furious and violent-sounding. We were at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.”