Aug 22, 2008

IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD US BACK - 20th Anniversary


-FUPPETS- loves to endorse sonic revolution. In 1988, a group from NYC decided that, on their second album, they would re-write the rules for making groundbreaking, incendiary, propulsive, politically-charged, chaotic music. PUBLIC ENEMY created IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD US BACK.
This album was unlike anything previously heard before. It truly opened up a new can of sonic worms, and set a standard for musical sampling innovation that will never be equalled, mainly due to the extremely reactionary and constricting copyright laws put into effect after this album's release. The Bomb Squad would use countless small samples, tweak them, change them, layer dozens of them, into sonic skronk fantasticity. Each one of those tiny un-recognizable samples would cost them thousands today and would be very cost-prohibitive. What a fucking capitalist world we live in. FIGHT THE POWER. Long live free artistic expression, especially when coupled with political rage.
Pitchfork, that polarizing purveyor of performance pulchritude, understands the importance of this album and has done a 4 part interview with the people who made this happen. Click here to reach those videos.

No comments: