Day 0696 - Apocalypse 91... the Enemy Strikes Black

Public Enemy "Apocalypse 91... the Enemy Strikes Black" (1991)

Increasing concerns from record companies around copyright laws were not conducive to Public Enemy's 'wall of noise' approach, building tracks from large quantities of samples.  To add to their woes, the data discs containing all the samples and bits and pieces for their fourth album were stolen, forcing them to go back to the drawing board.  The PE production group the Bomb Squad took a back-seat as 'Executive Producers' leaving the Imperial Grandmasters of Funk to handle the bulk of the production duties.

The arrangements are less dense, more conventional hip-hop production, but still a bit more interesting than just 'beat-n-bass'.

As usual, the mixture of MCs' styles adds a nice bit of variety to things.  Not really up to the standard of "It takes a nation of millions" or "Fear of a black planet" but it holds its own.

Day 0680 - Fear of a Black Planet

Public Enemy "Fear of a Black Planet" (1990)

Production team the Bomb Squad were clearly on a roll with this, and Ice Cube's album a couple of entries earlier on the list.

Here Public Enemy revisit the 'wall of noise', and layered samples that seem more like sound collages to a beat, than just straight backing tracks.  The MCs lay abrasive in-your-face rhymes over this... it's essentially a continuation of the sound of their brilliant sophomore album "It takes a nation of millions to hold us back".

If it aint broke, don't fix it.

As the title suggests, race relations, African American empowerment and the issue of white supremacy are addressed.
A great time for hip hop, and an intense listening experience.  I can only guess at what it would be like to see these guys do their thing live.

Day 0677 - Amerikkka's Most Wanted

Ice Cube "Amerikkka's Most Wanted" (1990)

Ice Cube's first album after leaving N.W.A.  The album was produced by the BombSquad (also producing for Public Enemy, whose Flavour Flav and Chuck D guest here).  It's an almost unrelenting aural assault, and two things become quite clear from listening to it:
1. Ice Cub loves the word 'mutherfucka' 
2, He is not to impressed with anyone being 'on his dick'.

You have to take the lyrics with a grain of salt as Cube blasts a certain degree of misogyny over the tracks.  This side of things is at least partly counterbalanced by his rap battle with Yo Yo on "It's a man's world".  She gives him a run for his money.

Day 0635 - It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back

Public Enemy "It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back" (1988)

I love so many of these early rap records.   Intelligent, socially conscious lyrics, and a magpie-like approach to assembling their sounds.  The tracks feature everything from James Brown to Slayer.  As well as the music, spoken word and 'found-sound' samples are used.   There's an odd high-pitched noise that runs throughout the different tracks that would have seemed odd at the time, but came to be used by a few 90s rap artists.  Chuck D proclaimed that if Phil Spector invented the 'wall of sound' production approach, Public Enemy's Hank Shockley invented the 'Wall of Noise'.

It's a sign of how influential the album has been that other artists have likewise pilfered sounds and lines from this record, with artists ranging from Jurassic 5 to Weezer taking bits and pieces from them. The track "Prophets of Rage" would go on to give the name to the group that Chuck D would form with ex-members of Rage Against the Machine.  That collaboration also prompted by the influence this group had on that band.

There's hardcore rap, rock/metal-rap and the brilliant subversion of the Beastie Boys hit with "Party for your right to fight".   The mix of MCs works too, with Flava Flav adding a touch of levity to the otherwise intense verbal onslaught.