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Track Listings
| 1. Countdown To Armageddon |
| 2. Bring The Noise |
| 3. Don't Believe The Hype |
| 4. Cold Lampin' With Flavor |
| 5. Terminator X To The Edge Of Panic |
| 6. Mind Terrorist |
| 7. Louder Than A Bomb |
| 8. Caught, Can We Get A Witness? |
| 9. Show Em Whatcha Got |
| 10. She Watch Channel Zero?! |
| 11. Night Of The Living Baseheads |
| 12. Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos |
| 13. Security Of The First World |
| 14. Rebel Without A Pause |
| 15. Prophets Of Rage |
| 16. Party For Your Right To Fight |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk
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
Review
PE: The last great political act of our times? This album certainly seems to back the theory up. A year after the polemic of Chuck D, the sneer of Flavor Flav and the post-modern noise concrete of the Bomb Squad burst onto the public consciousness with Yo, Bum Rush The Show, Public Enemy really pulled out the stops with It Takes A Nation... Signed to Rick Rubin's Def Jam label on the basis of the vocalists' freestyling skills, what emerged, when backed by the sample-crazy methodology of Hank Shocklee et al was a furious squall of beats and righteous anger that still assaults the ears.
What makes ITANOMTHUB such a fresh sound to this day is the focus given to Chuck D's ire by the production. Whether he's addressing the issues of disenfranchisement in a racist society (Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos), political obfustication (Don't Believe The Hype), or just the soma-like effects of the modern media (She Watch Channel Zero?!) his lyrics are spat with a controlled rage that is mirrored by the Bomb Squad's beats. It could be argued that these beats are where the real political agenda is adressed. Most people remember PE as the band that liberated James Brown from parodic dotage; reminding the world of how explosive and subversive his (and his proteges such as the JBs and Bobby Byrd's) beats could be. But the samples and beats on offer here also came from labelmates, the Beastie Boys and Run DMC, as well as PE themselves and a fair smattering of free jazz and other early rap acts. The message was that black music could be reclaimed and re-tooled as a semantic crowbar - screaming to the world that rhythm was as eloquent as words when reminding us of the world's inequalities.
Of course, the Nation Of Islam spiel (mainly propagated by Professor Griff, who was soon to leave the band) gave detractors a toehold, by pointing at the band's potentially anti-semitic undertow. But a careful listen to Chuck D's flow shows the man to be asking for Farrakhan to be understood in context, not just espousing his more extreme views. A caucasian-controlled media were genuinely scared by this band.
In the end ITANOMTHUB is possibly the greatest rap album ever made. Balancing political incisiveness with rock dynamics, it crossed the race divide and almost instantly made all other rap acts sound tame. For a brief spell hip hop was about more than guns and bling. --Chris Jones
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Dom Wint
Format:Audio CD
There is a case to be made that this album is the greatest ever recorded. Period. I listen to it now and it still sounds awesome. Every song makes a valid statement on American society and the problems which exist. Contemporary, powerful, brilliant. Buy it now.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
In todays world of multiplatinum, woman clad,bling blinging hiphop there is no album that can match the raw power, agression, storytelling, in yer face attitude that nation of millions can offer. Chuck D and Flavour flav honour Terminator X's flawless production with the verbal onslaught that it deserves. "rebel without a pause" can take a claim to the greatest hiphop track ever written, while being supported by classics like "dont beleive the hype" and "night of the living baseheads". They even sample a gut churning riff from slayers "Angel of Death" for "she watch channel zero. All in all a true masterpiece.
18 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
What can I say? If only hip-hop wasn't ransacked by gansta (similar thing that happened to grunge after Nevermind) then it would still be an essential music form. This album brims with more politics than 10 Houses of Lords and more funk than Aerosmith on a pub crawl. Countdown To Armageddon announces "This time the revolution will not be televised!" and you believe Chuck too! This track also gives birth to the Manic Street Preachers classic Repeat. The definitive hip-hop track comes next - Bring The Noise. Never has a song overflowed with so much content and brilliance, it is a screamed assault to everything that modern culture stands for and leaves you astounded. Ditto Don't Believe The Hype. So much manifesto and exchanges from Chuck to Flav, it fills me up with revolution. Falva Flav Cold Lampin' is hilarious (don't you just love this dude?), a light hearted interlude from the rhetoric and much appreciated. Not so for Terminator X To The Edge Of Panic: "Right the power is bold, the rhymes are politically cold/And who gives a **** about a Goddamn Grammy?". Fantastic. Mind Terrorist is just an interlude but we get back on the track again with Louder Than A Bomb, a seething attack on the FBI. Caught, Can I Get A Witness?! is another absolutely suberb beast of a funkster that has you singing along "Your singers are spineless/As you sing your senseless songs to the mindless/Your general subject love is minimal/It's sex for a profit". What other bands sing that, please? Another interlude in the form of Show Em Whatcha Got and then She Watch Channel Zero, which actually combines heavy metal riffs in with the verse to great effect - the ultimate moshing track! Night Of The Living Bassheads starts with a Martin Luther King or Malcom X (sorry Chuck, I can't quite remember(blush)) but other than that it's not as ground breaking as the others. After that comes the meanest, darkest track on any album I know, Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos. It is so biting and true, I just can't praise it enough. Unfortunately there's another interlude after that but it's back to form again with Rebel Without A Pause and Prophets Of Rage. Finally, the sprawling, awe-enspiring Party For Your Right To Fight. The last track to send a shiver down my spine with a mixture of white-hot lyrics and bastardized slap funk. The only hip-hop album worth buying.
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4.8 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolute CLASSIC!!!
What can be said about this - Not just one of ther greatest hip hop albums of all time but one of the greatest albums of all time. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jacko, Swaffham
4.0 out of 5 stars
Top Class Album
One of the all time great rap groups, needed some late 80's rap and couldn't find my copy of this album. A good price and a good listen.
Published 3 months ago by Ian Connell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Concious Rap Album Ever
25 year or so on, has anybody managed to encompass so succinctly, music into struggle expression? KRS1 perhaps, Nas more recently and a few less thrusted groups/artists. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Brytey
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classics
What can I say that has not already been said about this classic album. One of the seminal rap bands of their time and still sounds fresh and current today.
Published 4 months ago by Sukhvinder Dhat
5.0 out of 5 stars
5 stars, nothing less
Needed to post a 5 star review for this incredible album to counter that fool who gave it a 1 star and get the rankings for this classic back up to the full 5 stars it... Read more
Published 8 months ago by RichM
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is good!
I can't remember why I bought this album; I think some metal band liked them or something. Anyway I'm always looking to expand my listening experience and I'm glad I bought... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Anoosh Falak Rafat
4.0 out of 5 stars
tip top hip hop
A seminal album.An absolute must buy for anyone looking for hiphop with heart, soul and a message. Nearly, if not, two decades old but still sounding fresh and relevant
Published 10 months ago by west country muck
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great album, questionable "remaster"
So I went through the trouble to order the "Def Jam Remaster" version of Nation of Millions, since it's a great album and all that. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Garbageman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Peerless!
Quite simply, THE quintessential Rap album. From the minute it explodes into life with "Bring the Noise" to the rabble rousing "Party for your right to fight" as it's fitting... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Dawson
5.0 out of 5 stars
absolutely banging!
very prompt delivery and came as described.
had heard this album before and if you are a fan of old school hip hop then this album is mandatory listening.
had heard this album before and if you are a fan of old school hip hop then this album is mandatory listening.
Published on 22 April 2011 by J. Rome
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