Black History Music Pt. 12
In celebration of Black History Month, the Ear Candy Update intends to celebrate landmark recordings by black artists that have shaped the collective consciousness, mentality, and sense of cool the world over. Next, Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back."
This is a 58-minute, full-frontal land invasion of a record. It opens with the sirens and warnings of "Countdown to Armageddon" and does not let up until it has conquered every relevant topic of the era and your eardrums.
The assault is visceral, shaped by Chuck D's heavy baritone, Terminator X's angry turntablism, and a revolutionary production team called, appropriately, the Bomb Squad.
As Chuck took aim with both barrels at the media's whitesplaining of rap, the crack epidemic, and the idea that everything on television is gospel truth, the Bomb Squad surrounded his words with dense torrents of blaring sirens, backbeats, and a seemingly endless supply of samples culled from sources across the spectrum of all media. Brothers Hank and Keith Shocklee, and Eric "Vietnam" Sadler banded together under the Public Enemy banner to create a sonic barrier around Chuck and his comedic foil Flavor Flav. If Phil Spector created the Wall of Sound, the Bomb Squad created the Wall of Noise. They pulled samples from Malcom X, James Brown, Slayer (yes, the metal band), and Queen to get their point across.
It was impossible to ignore, and this was the intent. They went after state surveillance on "Louder than a Bomb" with the idea to exercise their 1st Amendment rights so forcefully the FBI would be forced to mellow out.
In 1967 California Governor Ronald Reagan passed the "Mulford Act" which repealed public carrying of loaded firearms in direct response to members of the Black Panther Party carried loaded weapons in their communities. This activity was later dubbed "copwatching." Public Enemy understood history in modern context better than any rap group of their day, and perhaps any other. A further piece of history: in 1886 J.G. Lewis published music and lyrics for a song called "Never Trust a Nigger with a Gun." The 12th track on this album is "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos." If intelligent debate in the arena of ideas wouldn't sway perception a gun surely would.
The assault is visceral, shaped by Chuck D's heavy baritone, Terminator X's angry turntablism, and a revolutionary production team called, appropriately, the Bomb Squad.
As Chuck took aim with both barrels at the media's whitesplaining of rap, the crack epidemic, and the idea that everything on television is gospel truth, the Bomb Squad surrounded his words with dense torrents of blaring sirens, backbeats, and a seemingly endless supply of samples culled from sources across the spectrum of all media. Brothers Hank and Keith Shocklee, and Eric "Vietnam" Sadler banded together under the Public Enemy banner to create a sonic barrier around Chuck and his comedic foil Flavor Flav. If Phil Spector created the Wall of Sound, the Bomb Squad created the Wall of Noise. They pulled samples from Malcom X, James Brown, Slayer (yes, the metal band), and Queen to get their point across.
It was impossible to ignore, and this was the intent. They went after state surveillance on "Louder than a Bomb" with the idea to exercise their 1st Amendment rights so forcefully the FBI would be forced to mellow out.
"My posse come quick, because my posse got velocityChuck never had a problem with pissing people off. He once called rap music "black America's CNN." This sent white conservatives through the roof, not that they watched CNN much, but because the established Swamp, to use current parlance, was terrified of a fiercely aware black group they couldn't intimidate.
Tappin' my phone, they never leave me alone
I'm even lethal when I'm unarmed
'Cause I'm louder than a bomb"
"Used, abused without cluesFlavor Flav wasn't just color on this album. His inclusion in the group was deliberate, in that Chuck knew to truly achieve the mission Public Enemy had to genuinely scare the status quo. To do that PE had to be capable in the arena of ideas AND on the playground. They were gonna beat that ass no matter the venue.
I refused to blow a fuse
They even had it on the news
Don't believe the hype"
In 1967 California Governor Ronald Reagan passed the "Mulford Act" which repealed public carrying of loaded firearms in direct response to members of the Black Panther Party carried loaded weapons in their communities. This activity was later dubbed "copwatching." Public Enemy understood history in modern context better than any rap group of their day, and perhaps any other. A further piece of history: in 1886 J.G. Lewis published music and lyrics for a song called "Never Trust a Nigger with a Gun." The 12th track on this album is "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos." If intelligent debate in the arena of ideas wouldn't sway perception a gun surely would.
"The joint broke, from the black smokeThe sound was militant. The group wore matching black uniforms and high-top sneakers. They were unafraid and unapologetic and we're all better for it. What's more dangerous - a gun or a library card? Public Enemy had both.
Then they saw it was rougher that the average bluffer
'Cause the steel was black, the attitude exact
Now the chase is on tellin' you to c'mon
53 brothers on the run, and we are gone"
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