It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
It Takes a Nation of Millions was the sign that hip-hop had exploded like a grenade. A rap record as abrasive, hard-core and eloquent as a Winston Churchill speech, the 1988 disc is one classic track after another: tense, multilayered, harmonically wild music. Chuck D declaims like a master preacher with foil Flavor Flav's voice darting around his. They have got the desperate energy of people fighting for their lives, and everything from their pumped-up rhetoric ("Prophets of Rage") to the group's quasi-paramilitary organisation, to the sirens and sax squeals in nearly every track declares how urgent their mission is. It is a hugely influential album, and it still sounds fresh and frightening after all these years. --Douglas Wolk

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Description
The title says it all. In 1988, when this album was released, Public Enemy's music cut with a wholly revolutionary edge. Rarely has fear, anger, paranoia and anxiety been so masterfully compressed onto a record's grooves. The Bomb Squad's artistry is the keynote to the hard, lean delivery, while Chuck D's supremely pointed lyrics leave no stone of the blackexperience unturned. It is not comfortable listening, but on tracks such as 'Don't Believe The Hype', 'Night Of The Living Baseheads' and 'Rebel Without A Pause' the listener is left in no doubt that they are facing a fantastically potent force.

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Customer reviews

review by: Symphonic Metal Fan date: 2008-06-29 rating:
MOST INTELLIGENT RAP ALBUM EVER??
First bona fide Rap album I ever bought back in the late '80s. I confess, it was Thrash Metal veterans, Anthrax constantly banging on about them that convinced me!
Great album with perhaps the most intelligent lyrics ever written for a Rap cd - even though I don't agree with many of the opinions expressed, I respect them.
A production that was way ahead of the time, with great beats, basslines & samples, with a near perfect vocal balance between the intense and angry Chuck D and the more eccentric Flavor Flav. It's easy to see why this had appeal to the Metal crowd with it's heavy, urban tone, militaristic imagery and incendiary attitudes. Indeed, one track, She Watch Channel Zero features a sample of the riff from Slayer's Angel Of Death. EARLY crossover!
A great album that I'd recommend alongside Fear Of A Black Planet and despite it's background & personnel, it's a truly great 'Rock & Roll' album!

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review by: MUSIC MACHINE date: 2008-02-20 rating:
The great pioneers of hip hop
these boys took hip hop from grandmaster flash and run dmc and turned it around to whirringsiren loops and cutting lyrics.

public enemy have never bettered this record, everytime i hear the opening cut of bring the noise or the crumble of rebel without a pause my spine tingles....THIS IS HIP HOP...BAM

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review by: date: 2007-09-13 rating:
the don mega
this is quite possibly the best rap record ever dropped!!!
everything is so perfectly realised, the beats are fast and fresh and very,very funky.
chuck d and flava drop their best raps ever, and display a level of social awareness that is still scarily relevant to this day.
the tunes are top drawer hip hop that has stood the test of time and still sound as vital and electrifying as the very first day i heard them.
utter genius!!!!!
all you need to know about this masterpiece of political statements to the one of the greatest party soundtracks ever to hit the decks is that it contains "black steel in the hour of choas","she watch channel zero","bring the noise","dont believe the hype" and the mighty "night of the living baseheads".
all utterly top songs that make this album worth owning alone!!!!!
if you wanna see why hip hop would go on to become the biggest genre in the world you need to see where it started and this is as good a place as any!!!
and not even a nation of millions could hold them back!!!

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review by: D-BOYYYY date: 2006-09-28 rating:
Absolutely AMAZING
This albums rocks...some truly revolutionary stuff from the founders of hip hop rap! Its fantastic, highly recommended.


review by: date: 2005-10-26 rating:
The BEST
This is (in my opinion) the best album of all time. And that beats off some stiff competition.

if you don't own it, buy it. NOW!

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