Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

I was grooving to Yo! Bum Rush The Show! when I was in high school. I remember rewinding You're Gonna Get Yours on my walkman on some family trip.

On a historic trip to New York in 1988, I saw a vision that would change my life forever.

As I walked up the stairs to get out of the subway, I saw a huge poster of Chuck D and Flavor Flav behind bars and the title of one of my most important albums of all time.

Public Enemy was the enemy of the public. Their Uzi weighed a ton and they had too much posse. What were they doing behind bars and why was Chuck D still so militant in that photo? I remember standing in a trance looking at that photo every time we would pass through the subway. They would have to call me away from it.



When we got back home, I got a vinyl copy of It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back from Dutchy's Record Cave. One day, I was playing the record on the family stereo and wanted to change sides. Unfortunately, the record slipped from my hands and before hitting the floor, it got scratched by one of the metallic knobs of the receiver. I will leave it up to you to determine which side got scratched. Whichever you choose, you understand the magnitude of what happened. I bought another copy while on a trip to Toronto, but don't remember what happened to it. I bought a CD copy a few years ago.



Never have I had so many opportunities to own a hip hop album. One day, while walking to my place, I noticed a bunch of vinyl and CDs in boxes on the sidewalk. I walked away with a Master Of Reality by Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin's second album, and you can guess which else.

I've got that one in plastic among my other records now.

For those unfamiliar with the classic album, Montreal's BBAM! Gallery will play Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back from beginning to end on Friday, October 24 from 7:00pm to 10:00pm.  A dissertation and cultural perspective by presented by special guest host Darcy MacDonald. Beverages and snacks included in $15 admission price.


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Public Enemy - Fear Of A Black Planet

I’m not a psychic but my prediction of what the Fear Of A Black Planet album cover was going to look like was pretty much dead on.

In my mind, the black planet with the Public Enemy logo was Earth and not eclipsing it. 

I had not seen, heard or thought about the album until the summer of 2012.

The Montreal boulevard on the Main has huge sidewalk sales every spring and fall and I sometimes rummage through to see what CDs I can find. I found Fear Of A Black Planet with a mangled booklet. The only thing that mattered to me was that the CD wasn’t mangled. Funny enough, I’m at a stage that I’m picking up doubles of CDs I already own. It is either on purpose, by mistake or laziness to avoid rummaging through my music to get to the particular CDs.

I bought the Fear of A Black Planet CD and listened to it in its entirety for the first time since I owned the vinyl. It was a Sunday morning heading into the afternoon and I popped the CD into the player and sat down in my most comfortable chair.

As mentioned numerous times on this blog, Public Enemy’s 1988 album is easily one of the three most important hip hop albums of my life.



If It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back didn’t do it for me, Fear Of A Black Planet was surely the next in line.

For whatever it’s worth, The Bomb Squad producers managed to take what they did on Nation to another level. Quite frankly, they live up to their name with the 1989 album.



The B-Side Wins Again is a song title and a statement of fact especially where Fear Of A Black Planet is concerned. The audio assault of Revolutionary Generation, Can’t Do Nuttin’ For Ya Man and Who Stole The Soul is almost too much. I mentioned earlier I was seated while listening to the album. The image of the seated Maxell man being blown away by the sounds from the stereo seems like not much of an exaggeration.



I remember Fight The Power closed off the album. By the time the song ended, I was again nostalgic as I am when revisiting classic hip hop. Hip hop albums the caliber of Public Enemy are not made anymore. Thank goodness their music was recorded. Thank goodness I was able to bear witness to those glory days.

 

Public Enemy are inductees into The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. It goes without saying, writing or typing that I hoped that would happen for them sooner than later.

Thank you to the Public Enemy crew for the music.