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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 |
| 17. Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos (Cd-Rom Video) |
| 18. Night Of The Living Baseheads |
Product Description
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
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
Format:Audio CD
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. Indeed, at it's time of release, the media were making direct comparisons between this and Sex Pistol's Never Mind The B*llocks, stating that both albums shared the same sensibilities!!
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. Indeed, at it's time of release, the media were making direct comparisons between this and Sex Pistol's Never Mind The B*llocks, stating that both albums shared the same sensibilities!!
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
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 4 months ago by Garbageman
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 8 months ago by Dawson
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 13 months ago by J. Rome
hard. raw. original. great
tough, uncompromising rap laid over hard music and performed by several angry young men- this is one of the best hip hop albums of all time although its from the era before hip hip... Read more
Published 18 months ago by w33scotty
Rap/hip-hop masterpiece
The 'message' of rap became even more relevant with Public Enemy, whose agit-prop hip-hop music was an explicit call to arms in the face of urban violence. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Daniel Margrain
Why the hell did I buy this CD?
Let's not beat about the bush. This album is a pile of tripe. Some prat with a silly watch and some other guy are angry and shout a lot instead of inspiring people to change things... Read more
Published on 16 Nov 2009 by DARREN "Big Nose" WALKER
Decent rap album from Public Enemy
Not as good as "Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age" but worth buying for every hip hop fan that wants little bit more than In Da Club or Jay-Z, Kanye West or gangsta nonsense.
Published on 5 Oct 2009 by Pawel Zietek
politics, great words,the best beats and THE FUNK -a timeless classic
Public Enemy - were staggering when they emerged back in the late 80's - in hip-hop's golden age of many musical + lyrical riches, but even with the other giants on the scene such... Read more
Published on 28 Jun 2009 by simon mack
Bringing the noise....do believe the hype
Influential albums. Well there is The Velvet Underground and Nico( sold little but every one who heard it formed a band is the popular opinion) Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the... Read more
Published on 7 Mar 2009 by russell clarke
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. Read more
Published on 20 Feb 2008 by vincent brain
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