On Facebook I was asked to list my top ten all-time albums that most influenced me. Since I can't list anything without a huge explanation, this is it. Not only that but I'm writing about my Top 19 instead of my Top 10.
When I was younger, I was adrift. I don't mean physically or emotionally--though there were times when I felt as if I was--but I mean in terms of popular culture. I didn't really stray from the normal likes of my classmates and would pretty much listen to or watch what most of them listened to or watched.
That began to change in the spring of 1990 when I went to visit my cousin in Mount Vernon, NY. "Big Earnin'" Mount Vernon is the polar opposite of the small, northern Massachusetts town that I was from. Heavy D made his bones here, Puff Daddy's (do we still call him that?) kid went to the school that my cousin worked at (she proud to say that she called him Sean), it's as close to New York City as you're going to get without being one of the five boroughs.
I was sort of into rap and hip-hop at this point in my life. I had a DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince tape that I listened to a lot, I wore out "License to Ill", Tone Loc and Young MC were favorites and "It Takes Two" was my jam. This wasn't the hard stuff, but I dipped my toe in it.
I recall that my cousin Kathy (who was more like an aunt, she was a few years older than my mother), my brother and I walked to the corner drug store Genovese. Kathy, who didn't have children of her own and would spoil the hell out of Jay and me, told me to pick anything we wanted. I'm not sure what my brother got, but I picked up 3rd Bass' "The Cactus Album" and Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions".
I listened to the 3rd Bass tape first, only because "That Gas Face" was in heavy rotation on MTV and I thought it was cool as hell. The PE tape took me a little while to get into. I hadn't seen their videos on "Yo! MTV Raps" and I don't recall a lot of kids in school talking about them the way that they talked about LL Cool J or Big Daddy Kane. The only thing that I knew about Public Enemy is that their two frontmen, Chuck D and Flavor Flav, made a guest appearance on my all-time favorite album: Living Colour's "Vivid".
I liked the way their voices played off each other, Chuck's rich, deep baritone compared to Flav's high-pitched, almost whine. But other than that, I knew nothing else about the group.
I was unprepared for what I was about to hear.
I loaded the tape into my yellow Sony Sport walkman, placed the headphones into my ears and it felt like a bomb went off in my head. What Chuck and Flavor rapped about (intelligent pro-black rights) and how they spoke was a revelation. Up until this point I was listening to brain-dead, party-all-the-time heavy metal guys singing about looking for nothing but a good time. But Chuck sounded smart and talked about real things that effect real people. He was pulling the cover back from what was really going on.
And he made it all sound so cool.
But PE isn't PE without the Bomb Squad, the production team that gave their beats and music depth and texture and weight and volume. The beats that the group rapped over were BIG. No they weren't. They were MASSIVE. No. That's not the word either. They were FUCKING ENORMOUS. It was a pastiche of sound, just layers and layers of cuts and clips, zaps and zips, things you thought you heard, unconscious sound worms that dig deep into your brain. It was like pointillism but for sound.
Nothing sounded like this to me ever. After a few days we drove the four-and-a-half hours home and I listened to that tape over and over and over and over again. I knew every lyric, every squeal, every kick of bass. I couldn't wait to go home and tell my friends about this band that I heard when I left our small town and made my way to the (outskirts of) big city.
I wrote this to my friend Ryan on Facebook while discussing this album. We were in a conversation as to what this sounded like when we first heard it and he said that it was akin to hearing the Sex Pistols for the first time or Coltrane. I agreed and continued:
"One of the more underrated aspect of ITANOMTHUB is that it opens in England, almost as if it's a reverse British Invasion. And while neither of us are English, I think that that first *boof* of the speaker was like a starter's pistol or the first shot of a revolution. And it's even more interesting that the first voice you hear is not Chuck D's or Flavor Flav's but Professor Griff. This album is so big, so huge, you may have pressed play on your radio, but you need to be warmed up before you hear the voice of God, the new voice of truth. It really is an astounding piece of work."
This April 1990 day began my complete and total obsession with Public Enemy. Within two or three weeks of my purchase, the group released the seminal "Fear of a Black Planet" tape, which I think I bought on the first day. These two tapes became my soundtrack for that summer. Throughout the next year or more, I'd draw the logo anywhere I could. I'd get deeper and deeper into rap and hip hop culture and I learned that it wasn't uncool to be smart or understand history or realize that some get the short end of the stick and it's worth it to stand up for what you believe in and fight for those people.
Aside from Seattle Mariner Brian Holman almost no-hitting the seemingly unstoppable Oakland Athletics, I can't remember much from that trip aside from finding Public Enemy. And that's okay. Through out your life, you don't take too many trips where your whole world view changes in an instant.
This jaunt to a Mount Vernon drug store did just that.
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