Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Christopher R. Weingarten
Bloomsbury Academic
<p>Christopher R. Weingarten provides a thrilling account of how the Bomb Squad produced such a singular-sounding record: engineering, sampling, scratching, constructing, deconstructing, reconstructing - even occasionally stomping<br/>on vinyl that sounded too clean. Using production techniques that have never been duplicated, the Bomb Squad plundered<br/>and reconfigured their own compositions to make frenetic splatter collages; they played samples by hand together in a<br/>room like a rock band to create a "not quite right" tension; they hand-picked their samples from only the ugliest squawks and sirens.</p><br/><p>Weingarten treats the samples used on <em>Nation Of Millions</em> as molecules of a greater whole, slivers of music that retain their own secret histories and folk traditions. Can the essence of a hip-hop record be found in the motives, emotions and energies of the artists it samples? Is it likely that something an artist intended 20 years ago would re-emerge anew? This is a compelling and thoroughly researched investigation that tells the story of one of hip-hop's landmark albums.</p>>