It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back | 
| Artist: Public Enemy
Label: Def Jam
Category: Music
List Price: $9.98
Buy Used: $1.99
You Save: $7.99 (80%)
New (42) Used (26) Collectible (2) from $1.99
Rating:  178 reviews
Sales Rank: 6991
Format: Explicit Lyrics
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 527358
UPC: 731452735829
EAN: 0731452735829
ASIN: B0000024K1
Release Date: May 2, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Countdown to Armageddon | | • | Bring the Noise - Public Enemy, Anthrax | | • | Don't Believe the Hype | | • | Cold Lampin' With Flavor - Public Enemy, Sadler, Eric "Vietn | | • | Terminator X to the Edge of Panic | | • | Mind Terrorist | | • | Louder Than a Bomb | | • | Caught, Can We Get a Witness? | | • | Show 'Em Whatcha Got | | • | She Watch Channel Zero?! - Public Enemy, Griffin, R. | | • | Night of the Living Baseheads | | • | Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos - Public Enemy, Public Enemy | | • | Security of the First World | | • | Rebel Without a Pause | | • | Prophets of Rage | | • | Party for Your Right to Fight |
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| Similar Items:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
It Takes a Nation of Millions was the sign that hip-hop had exploded like a grenade. A rap record as abrasive, hardcore, and eloquent as a JFK 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've 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 organization to the sirens and sax squeals in nearly every track declares how urgent their mission is. It's a hugely influential album, and it still sounds fresh and frightening after all these years. --Douglas Wolk
Album Description
Japanese only SHM-CD (Super High Material CD - playable on all CD players) pressing. Universal. 2008.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 173 more reviews...
 Proof that Rap Can be Thought-Provoking AND Funky!!! February 17, 2005
P. B. Reynolds (North Carolina)
61 out of 64 found this review helpful
All that I could say after hearing this album for the first time was "wow!" Even though the tracks here are almost two decades old, they sound much more daring, progressive, and experimental than any rap you can hear on the radio today. Is it possible that we are "de-evolving" now that perfection was already reached in 1988? I mean, I enjoy a lot of Snoop and NWA as well, but everything recorded since, say 1995 has been pretty abysmal in comparison to rap's "Golden Age." I suspect that since Chuck D. and the gang so thoroughly nailed it here, others knew that they couldn't rise to the occasion, so they didn't even try.
This album is a musical marvel, in every sense of the word. This is coming from a southern white male who was only four years old when this came out and, a mere few months ago, hated pretty much all rap. What can I say? I've been converted. Chuck D.'s militant message here is simply dead on, and while I can't quite get behind their endorsement of Farakhan, I can overlook that, because I agree completely with everything else they're laying down here. From the first track to the last, the album is a relentless indictment of government and media, from the unheard voices of urban America. And if that wasn't enough, the music is incredibly funky.
I'll take these Bomb Squad arrangements and Terminator X turntable magic over all of the over-produced pop garbage we have to put up with now any day of the week. Others have already extolled the merits of the brilliant production values and technical superiority, so all I'll say is this. The grooves here are as deep and pervasive as anything you will ever hear in popular music. I've loved all types of music, from Sinatra to Stravinsky, and if "Don't Believe the Hype" doesn't get some butts shaking at your next house party, consider moving to a funkier neighborhood!!!
Other stand-out tracks here are numerous. The repetitive striking of a minor piano chord in "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" makes for a menacing, delightful hip-hop experience. In this anti-authority "story song", you can almost hear an early prototype of later, very similar songs like Dr. Dre's "Deep Cover" but this is ten times better! Chuck is in great voice, and this track seems way ahead of its time.
You can't go wrong with this album, as it is perfection epitomized, on every level. If you, like me, are fairly new to rap, check this one out and get a taste of how rap SHOULD sound, and how it sounded for so many years before the hollow, voiceless perpetrators and posers took it over (in the interest of civility, I won't name names, but you all know who I'm talking about!) On a lighter note, I want to share with you my idea for the perfect drinking game. Turn this thing up to full-blast on your speakers, get a bottle of your beverage of choice, and take a shot every time Flavor Flav shouts "Yeeeaaah, boyeeee!!!!!!"
Uhhh...maybe you'd better make that HALF a shot. Afterall, I wouldn't want anybody out there to get alcohol poisoning!
A landmark album that holds up forever July 14, 2001
R. Riis (NY)
34 out of 39 found this review helpful
Perhaps the greatest rap/hip-hop album ever made, and one of the great albums of any genre. PE rock harder than any of today's gangstas with solid beats and magnificent sound collages that front eloquent raps not about violence, sexism, and nihilism, but empowerment, self-respect, and self-determination. Just as fresh today as it was in 1988. Five times five stars.
 OVERATED April 2, 2001
11 out of 84 found this review helpful
THIS ALBUM IS RACIST, THE BLOODY BEEPING NOISE EVERY 2 LINES PISSES ME OFF, ITS PLAYED OUT DULL AND COMPLETELY OVERATED. HOW DID THEY MAKE SO MUCH MONEY OFF THIS GARBAGE ??, I WILL NEVER KNOW. HIP HOP IS MEANT TO BE FUN AND INTERESTING, IF YOU WANT EIGHTIES HIP HOP BY DE LA, OR TRY TRIBES CLASSIC FIRST 3 ALBUMS AND THE ROOTS PLEASE DONT TOUCH IT . ( AND THAT IS HELPFULL ).
The most overrated album in history February 1, 2001
Evan Streb (ohio)
9 out of 59 found this review helpful
Boy am I gonna get some hate mail for this. I must say that these songs ARE good and fully developed (whatever that means) and all... it's just that Mssrs D, Flav, X, Griff, and the others have decided to attach this MONSTROUSLY annoying BLEEEEEEEEEEPPPP noise one beats three and four of EVERY SINGLE LINE THEY SING!! And it RUINS the ENTIRE album for me. Oh yeah. And the Farrakhan lyrics. What's up with THAT?
What a GROUNDBREAKING moment in hip hop April 7, 2004
Wayne Maye (Petersburg,VA)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
If you are a long time hip hop fan like me, you remember the explosive year that was 1988, with all of the TIMELESS classics that were released that will stand the test of of time. Public Enemy's second album, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, is one of the most influential albums to ever be released in music. NO ONE, other than Krs-One, came this politically correct on an album. Chuck D's delivery is so CAPTIVATING on this album that ever song he's on, you just have to listen to him all the way through. And what resulted was one EXCELLENT album. Here's the review:Album Highlights: Let's keep it real, this entire album is worth listening to all the way through. Production: Thumbs up, The Bomb Squad at their best. Lyrics and Subject Matter: Thumbs up. Originality: Thumbs Up. The Last Word: This is a MUST HAVE for any collection. I true masterpiece in the history of hip hop. Hip hop will NEVER be like this again. Another STRONG RECOMMENDATION.
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