When John Peel introduced us to hip-hop in the late eighties it was like a breath of fresh air, with the likes of Eric B and Rakim, De La Soul and of course Public Enemy. Sadly, things went downhill for the genre when the whole thing changed into rap and was either over-commercialised or over 'gansterised', and has been boring ever since.
Public Enemy were tough but socially aware, and as I trudged around the uber-depressing city of Hull in the early nineties 'It takes a Nation of Millions...' was an unlikely, but surprisingly relevant soundtrack playing on my walkman. This was passionate, intelligent and political music, but dressed up with tracksuits, trainers, jewellery, big clocks and lots of shouting 'Yeah Booooyeeeez!'. 'Rebel without a Pause' is my unoriginal choice from the album just for the lyrics, the James Brown samples and a bit of Flavour Flav action.
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