EP147: Ali Shaheed Muhammad on Public Enemy’s “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back” *1988)

Episode notes

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Public Enemy’s debut album Yo! Bum Rush the Show enjoyed critical and commercial success back when it first landed in 1987, especially considering how controversial the album was. In fact, DJ’s refused to play PE on the radio because of Chuck D’s politics.

Chuck and the group started working on the next album right away. It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was released in 1988 and is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential albums of all time. No one was doing what PE was doing. Together with Hank Shocklee and the Bomb Squad’s chaotic, sample heavy production, Public Enemy started a movement.

The one and only Ali Shaheed Muhammad of Tribe, Lucy Pearl, and countless other projects sits down with us to discuss Public Enemy’s sophomore album, the use of samples all over the place, and Flava Flav’s mastery of the art of the hypeman.

More on Ali Shaheed Muhammad

• Hear Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Adrian Younge Team With Jazz Royalty on New Comp (Rolling Stone)
• Ali’s bio on Linear Labs
• Twitter | Instagram

More on Public Enemy

• ‘Nation Of Millions’: Why Public Enemy’s Masterpiece Cannot Be Held Back (UDiscoverMusic)
• Public Enemy Talks ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back’ on Its 30th Anniversary (Pitchfork)
• You’ve Never Heard Public Enemy’s ‘It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back’?! (NPR)

Show Tracklisting (all songs from It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back unless otherwise indicated):

• Cold Lampin’ With Flavor
• Bring the Noise
• Caught, Can We Get A Witness
• Black Steel In The Hour of Chaos
• Don’t Believe the Hype
• Terminator X to the Edge of Panic
• Louder Than a Bomb
• Rebel Without a Pause
• Spoony Gee & The Treacherous Three: Love Rap
• Terminator X to the Edge of Panic
• Isaac Hayes: Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic
• Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos
• Lafayette Afro Rock Band: Darkest Light
• Show ‘Em Whatcha Got
• Terminator X to the Edge of Panic
• Bring the Noise
• Louder Than A Bomb
• She Watch Channel Zero?!
• Countdown to Armageddon
• Don’t Believe the Hype
• James Brown: Funky Drummer
• X-Clan: Grand Verbalizer, What Time is It?
• Ice Cube: Endangered Species (Tales from the Darkside)
• Louder than A Bomb

Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find there

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