The song's lyrics, most of which are delivered by Chuck D with interjections from Flavor Flav, include boasts of Public Enemy's prowess, an endorsement of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, retorts to unspecified critics, and arguments for rap as a legitimate musical genre on par with rock. The lyrics also have a notable metrical complexity, making extensive use of meters like dactylic hexameter. The title phrase appears in the chorus. The song includes several shout-outs to fellow hip hop artists like Run-D.M.C., Eric B, LL Cool J and, unusually for a rap group, Yoko Ono, Sonny Bono and thrash metal band Anthrax, allegedly because Chuck D was flattered about Scott Ian wearing Public Enemy shirts while performing Anthrax gigs. Anthrax later collaborated with Chuck D to cover the song.
The recording begins with a sample of Malcolm X's voice saying "Too black, too strong" repeatedly from his public speech at the Northern Negro Grass Roots Leadership Conference on November 10, 1963, in King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan entitled Message to the Grass Roots.
"Bring the Noise" has been sampled in many other songs; among them "Much More" by De La Soul, "Here We Go Again!" by Portrait, and "I Know" by Seo Taiji & Boys. "Everything I Am" by Kanye West and "Here We Go Again" by Everclear all sample the Chuck D line "Here we go again". His exclamation "Now they got me in a cell" from the first verse of the song is also sampled in the Beastie Boys song "Egg Man". The track "Undisputed", from the 1999 album Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic by Prince samples Chuck D's voice saying "Once again, back, it's the incredible" in its chorus and also features an appearance from Chuck D himself. This same sample is used on Fat Joe's album All or Nothing on the track "Safe 2 Say (The Incredible)". Rakim's 1997 single "Guess Who's Back" also uses the same sample. The game Sonic Rush samples the beginning of "Bring the Noise" in the music for the final boss battle. In addition, Ludacris' hit "How Low" samples Chuck D's "How low can you go?" line. In 2010, it was sampled by Adil Omar and DJ Solo of Soul Assassins on their single "Incredible". LL Cool J used a sample of Chuck D's line "I want bass" during the final verse on the song "The Boomin' System" from the Mama Said Knock You Out album. Also, the lines "[To save] face, how low can you go" and "[So keep] pace how slow can you go" in Linkin Park's song "Wretches and Kings" on their album A Thousand Suns (which is also produced by Rick Rubin) refer to Chuck D's line "Bass! How low can you go?".[3]Francis Magalona's 1993 songs "Ito ang Gusto Ko" and "Meron Akong Ano" both sample "Bring the Noise".
Additionally, Public Enemy sampled the song themselves in several other songs on It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, including the lines "Now they got me in a cell" and "Death Row/What a brother knows" in "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" and the lines "Bass!" and "How low can you go?" in "Night of the Living Baseheads".
Thrash metal band Anthrax recorded a version of "Bring the Noise", which sampled the vocals from the original Public Enemy recording.[4] Chuck D has stated that upon the initial request of Anthrax, he "didn't take them wholehearted seriously", but after the collaboration was done, "it made too much sense",[5] and it was eventually included on both the Anthrax compilation Attack of the Killer B's and as the final track on Public Enemy's own Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black album.
The song's release was followed by a joint-tour featuring the two groups, with shows ending with both groups on stage performing the song together. Chuck D went on to say that shows on the tour were "some of the hardest" they ever experienced[5], and that at the start of the tour, Anthrax "commenced to destroy, slaughter and wipe the fuckin' stage" with Public Enemy as the opener,[6] forcing the group to not only up the intensity of their set, but to innovate by having a dedicated light board operator - a first in hiphop.[6] According to Chuck D, the show intensities eventually began to even out,[6] and when the two bands joined on stage for "Bring the Noise", "it was shrapnel".[5] Anthrax first played "Bring the Noise" live in 1989, two years before the Public Enemy collaboration was released, and it has been a live staple ever since.[7]
In 2007, "Bring the Noise" was remixed by Italian houseDJBenny Benassi as well as Ferry Corsten. Benassi's remix slowed the track down, and cut off many of the lyrics. Benassi mixed two versions of the song. The Pump-kin version exemplifies a heavy melody, while the S-faction edit added more emphasis to the bassline. The S-faction version won a Grammy Award for best remixed recording at the 2008 Grammy Awards. The Pump-kin remix appeared on his album Rock 'n' Rave (2008). The song was also used for the EA Sports game, NBA Live 09. Ferry Corsten only mixed one version which was released around the same time as Benny Benassi's remixes, it was released on February 26, 2008 on iTunes. In 2007, Gigi D'Agostino also released a track called "Quoting", which is a remix made by him of "Bring the Noise". He made it in the bass line of Lento Violento a style created by him, similar to hard style but slower and harder.
A remix of "Bring the Noise" titled "Bring the Noise 20XX", featuring Zakk Wylde, is a playable track in the video games Guitar Hero 5 and DJ Hero.
A traditional country version by Unholy Trio is included on the Bloodshot Records sampler "Down to the Promised Land".
An unofficial remix entitled "Bring DA Noise", (based on Led Zeppelin's – "Immigrant Song") was released for free download in 2005 by Irish radio presenter DJ Laz-e.
The 2012 video game Yakuza 5 features a track titled “Skankfunk - Vendor Pop”, which samples the ending of the Anthrax version of “Bring The Noise”, which plays during one of Tatsuo Shinada’s substories titled “Shinada’s Interview.”
↑ Alexander, Phil (January 2015). "Anthrax and Public Enemy Bring the Noise, 1991". MOJO. Peterborough, UK: Bauer Consumer Media. ISSN1351-0193. p.31: When did we record with Chuck? I have to tell you that Chuck and Flavor Flav never came into the studio. We got their vocals from [the master to] Bring The Noise and sat there without sampling technology and cut them into the track word by word until we made it work. I've never told anybody that because nobody's actually asked when we cut it together. It took forever. Our version was in a different key but in the end we were even more stoked with the results because it was so great.
Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, known professionally as Chuck D, is an American rapper, best known as the leader and frontman of the hip hop group Public Enemy, which he co-founded in 1985 with Flavor Flav. Chuck D is also a member of the rock supergroup Prophets of Rage. He has released several solo albums, most notably Autobiography of Mistachuck (1996).
Public Enemy is an American hip hop group formed by Chuck D and Flavor Flav in Roosevelt, New York, in 1985. The group rose to prominence for their political messages including subjects such as American racism and the American media. Their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, was released in 1987 to critical acclaim, and their second album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988), was the first hip hop album to top The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll. Their next three albums, Fear of a Black Planet (1990), Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black (1991) and Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age (1994), were also well received. The group has since released twelve more studio albums, including the soundtrack to the 1998 sports-drama film He Got Game and a collaborative album with Paris, Rebirth of a Nation (2006).
Anthrax is an American thrash metal band from New York City, formed in 1981 by rhythm guitarist Scott Ian and bassist Dan Lilker. The group is considered one of the leaders of the thrash metal scene from the 1980s and is part of the "Big Four" of the genre, along with Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer. They were also one of the first thrash metal bands to emerge from the East Coast. The band's current lineup consists of Scott Ian, drummer Charlie Benante, bassist Frank Bello, vocalist Joey Belladonna and lead guitarist Jonathan Donais. Anthrax's lineup has changed numerous times over their career, leaving Ian as the only constant member of the band. Ian and Benante are the only two members to appear on all of Anthrax's albums, while Bello has been a member of Anthrax since 1984, replacing Lilker.
Attack of the Killer B's is a compilation album of B-sides, covers and rarities by the thrash metal band Anthrax and the band's last audio E.P. released before vocalist John Bush replaced longtime Anthrax vocalist Joey Belladonna in 1992. The album was released in June 1991 by Megaforce Worldwide/Island Entertainment. The "B's" in the album's title refers to b-sides previously unreleased and compiled for a single release. In 1992 the album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Metal Performance.
Fear of a Black Planet is the third studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy. It was released on April 10, 1990, by Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records, and produced by the group's production team The Bomb Squad, who expanded on the sample-layered sound of Public Enemy's previous album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988). Having fulfilled their initial creative ambitions with that album, the group aspired to create what lead rapper Chuck D called "a deep, complex album". Their songwriting was partly inspired by the controversy surrounding member Professor Griff's anti-Semitic public comments and his consequent dismissal from the group in 1989.
Scott Ian is an American musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist, lyricist and co-founder of the thrash metal band Anthrax, of which he is the sole continuous member. Ian is also the guitarist, lyricist, and a founding member of the crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death, and is the rhythm guitarist for the metal bands the Damned Things and Mr. Bungle. He has hosted The Rock Show on VH1 and has appeared on VH1's I Love the... series, Heavy: The Story of Metal, and SuperGroup.
Marco "Benny" Benassi is an Italian DJ, record producer and remixer. He is widely seen as a pioneer of electro house, a genre brought into the mainstream by his 2002 summer club hit "Satisfaction".
The Hip Hop Honors is an annual event that airs on VH1. The television special honors old school and golden age hip hop rappers and contributors for their long-term influence and importance in the history of hip hop culture. It features live performances by most of the honorees along with new artists who have been influenced by them in tribute. The show is taped at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan, New York City.
"Fight the Power" is a song by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released as a single in the summer of 1989 on Motown Records. It was conceived at the request of film director Spike Lee, who sought a musical theme for his 1989 film Do the Right Thing. First issued on the film's 1989 soundtrack, the extended version was featured on Public Enemy's third studio album Fear of a Black Planet (1990).
"Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" is a song on the American hip hop group Public Enemy's 1988 album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. It was released as a single in 1989. The song tells the story of a conscientious objector who makes a prison escape. It is built on a high-pitched piano sample from Isaac Hayes' "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic", from 1969's Hot Buttered Soul.
"The Beautiful People" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released as the lead single from the band's second studio album, Antichrist Superstar, in September 1996. Classified as industrial metal, the song was written by frontman Marilyn Manson and Twiggy Ramirez, and was produced by Trent Reznor, Dave Ogilvie and Manson.
Return of the Killer A's is a compilation / best of album by American heavy metal band Anthrax, released in 1999.
Cooking for Pump-Kin: Special Menu is a compilation album by Euro house DJ/producer Benny Benassi released in 2007. This is the second release on the Pump-Kin Music label.
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is the second studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released on June 28, 1988, by Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records. It was recorded from 1987 to 1988 in sessions at Chung King Studios, Greene St. Recording, and Sabella Studios in New York.
Rock 'n' Rave is the second studio album by Italian DJ and record producer Benny Benassi. It was released on 3 June 2008, through Ultra Music. The album sees a change in Benassi's sound from that he used from 2003's Hypnotica until 2005's ...Phobia. It would also see Benassi featuring a more diverse pool of vocalists than the ones him and Al Benassi used on previous albums, with Sannie Carlson being the only returning vocalist.
"Rebel Without a Pause" is a song by hip hop group Public Enemy and the first single from their 1988 album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. The title is a reference to the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause.
"Night of the Living Baseheads" is the third single released in 1988 by hip hop group Public Enemy, from their critically acclaimed album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. The lyrics deal with the effects of crack cocaine on African-Americans during the 1980s crack epidemic, referring to the slang for freebase cocaine "base" or crack cocaine. The song reached #62 on the U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks.
Rocco Rampino, better known as Congorock, is an Italian producer and DJ. He is best known for his song "Babylon" in 2010.
Run-DMC was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens New York City, formed in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of hip hop culture and especially one of the most famous hip hop acts of the 1980s. Along with Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, and Public Enemy, the group pioneered new-school hip hop music and helped usher in the golden age of hip hop. The group was among the first to highlight the importance of the MC and DJ relationship.
Cappucino is the third and final single from MC Lyte's album Eyes on This. It was published on August 2, 1990. In its single version it is a remix by Ivan "Doc" Rodríguez of the original version of the album produced by Marley Marl.
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