Soul Strut 100: # 34 - Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

[Ricky Forcefield]

but they've said since that they felt Yo! already sounded dated by the time Def Jam put it out and it wasn't grabbing the streets like they wanted it to, and that Rebel was kind of in reaction to hearing I Know You Got Soul and something else, knowing they had to step their game up. It's true about You're Gonna Get Yours only being bought for that.

 

[DocMcCoy]

batmon saidocMcCoy said:batmon saido yall consider Rebel Without A Pause a Nation's song or a YO! Bum Rush The Show extension/b-side?




That's a really good question.





Funnily enough, I saw it as a stand-alone joint and still do, to an extent. Yo!... had already been out for a minute, and the reason everybody was copping the 12" of You're Gonna Get Yours was because this was on the b-side. It was obviously in a different league from the sound they had on the first album, so it never really felt like just something they had lying around from those sessions. They'd taken it up a bunch of levels. Nobody could believe they'd tossed it away as a b-side, and it made sense when it was eventually released as a single in its own right. Equally it made sense within the context of Nation Of Millions..., but because it was so familiar by then, I still consider it to be like the trailer for the album - this is where it's going next.




I dont recall this dropping way after Yo! came out.


That Black Flames/Bring The Noise single came out afterwards and then Dont Believe The Hype then Nations.





It saw it as an extension of Yo! An improved sound yet still under that umbrella.





I think they said they were in the studio right after YO! dropped and was making new shit.


So yeah its not some lost master from YO! stuck on B-Side.





And the roots of the Rebel sound was there in Yo!s production. I dont see it as rendering YO extinct.





In fact Rebel sounded kinda "dated" by the time Nations hit and we got the album. On some simple shrill + break shit like YO.


Rebel to me was like Nas' Halftime on Nations. Burnt out in the streets by the time the album drops.





______





Like w/ The B-Side Wins Again on Black Steel yet is appears on Fear 2 years later. Is it a Fear song or an extension of Nations?


Or Dwyck.....?





Can they be both?




Yeah, this is an interesting perspective to me, because obviously I'm speaking on how people reacted to it over here. I'd expect the view to be significantly different in the US. But I definitely remember it being their first new shit after Yo!...





I like the comparison between Rebel and Halftime. I feel like Rebel stayed hot a little longer, though.

 

[matamatic]

DocMcCoy said:batmon saido yall consider Rebel Without A Pause a Nation's song or a YO! Bum Rush The Show extension/b-side?

That's a really good question.





Funnily enough, I saw it as a stand-alone joint and still do, to an extent. Yo!... had already been out for a minute, and the reason everybody was copping the 12" of You're Gonna Get Yours was because this was on the b-side. It was obviously in a different league from the sound they had on the first album, so it never really felt like just something they had lying around from those sessions. They'd taken it up a bunch of levels. Nobody could believe they'd tossed it away as a b-side, and it made sense when it was eventually released as a single in its own right. Equally it made sense within the context of Nation Of Millions..., but because it was so familiar by then, I still consider it to be like the trailer for the album - this is where it's going next.




I dont recall this dropping way after Yo! came out.


That Black Flames/Bring The Noise single came out afterwards and then Dont Believe The Hype then Nations.





It saw it as an extension of Yo! An improved sound yet still under that umbrella.





I think they said they were in the studio right after YO! dropped and was making new shit.


So yeah its not some lost master from YO! stuck on B-Side.





And the roots of the Rebel sound was there in Yo!s production. I dont see it as rendering YO extinct.





In fact Rebel sounded kinda "dated" by the time Nations hit and we got the album. On some simple shrill + break shit like YO.


Rebel to me was like Nas' Halftime on Nations. Burnt out in the streets by the time the album drops.





______





Like w/ The B-Side Wins Again on Black Steel yet is appears on Fear 2 years later. Is it a Fear song or an extension of Nations?


Or Dwyck.....?





Can they be both?[/quote





I remember first hearing rebel in july 87 on the radio and they also performed it at the def jam tour I went to... if I remember correctly the Yo! Lp came out in like march/april? Maybe they felt like they had to put out a new b side since the lp was recorded in 1986.


But yeah love the nations lp. Didn't like Yo! when it I first heard it but now I prob listen to it more than nations. Still think nations is a classic


but old grumpy b boy in me says that Critical Beatdown is the best hip hop lp of all time.

 

[DJ_Enki]

I always considered "Rebel" to be more a preview of Nation of Millions than an extension of Yo!. But if I really think about why, the obvious answer is the JBs horn shriek, which was one of the defining characteristics of Nation of Millions.

 

[per0]

Can't believe this is not higher. Top 5 LPs of all time for me. Lyrics, Beats and message.





Production is sublime.

 

[HarveyCanal]

When this groundbreaking, mind-melting blockbuster of an album dropped, it instantly:





1. Made the Suzuki Samarai a viable option for weekend cruising.


2. Metaphorically beat up all the dolt-headed bullies at my school with a dog-eared copy of the Autobiography of Malcolm X.


3. Made me feel comfortable about listening to both rap and metal...at the same time.


4. Raised the collective IQ of all those who either listened to or didn't even bother to listen to the album.


5. Made my own miniature idiot, crack-smoking sidekick seem all the more acceptable.


6. Successfully converted Micheal Rappaport to Islam.


7. Forced the cafeteria ladies to stop serving pork chops ground up, dyed, and fashioned as spinach.


8. Inspired unarmed security guards across the country to become even more strictly symbolic than they had ever been before.


9. Required step show performers to salute the heavens at least once in between any 2 concurrent dog barks.


10. Made it okay for black dudes to just honk from the driveway when picking up their white dates.





Add on...

 

[Duderonomy]

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