"Bring the Noise" is a song by the hip hop group Public Enemy. It was included on the soundtrack of the 1987 film Less Than Zero and was also released as a single that year. It later became the first song on the group's 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. The single reached #56 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
The song's lyrics, most of which are delivered rapid-fire 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 remarkable metrical complexity, making extensive use of meters like dactylic hexameter. The title phrase appears in the chorus. The song includes several shout-outs to artists like Run-DMC, Eric B, LL Cool J and, unusually for a rap group, thrash metal band Anthrax, allegedly because Chuck D was flattered about Scott Ian wearing Public Enemy shirts while performing Anthrax gigs. Anthrax would later collaborate with Chuck D to cover the song.
The song's production by The Bomb Squad, which exemplifies their characteristic style, features a dissonant mixture of funk samples, drum machine patterns, record scratching by DJ Terminator X, siren sound effects and other industrial noise.
Music essayist Robert Christgau has described the song as "postminimal rap refracted through Blood Ulmer and On the Corner, as gripping as it is abrasive, and the black militant dialogue-as-diatribe that goes with it is almost as scary as "Stones in My Passway" or "Holiday in the Sun". "Bring the Noise" was ranked #160 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Read more about Bring The Noise: Samples, Anthrax Version, Charts, Remixes, Other Versions
Famous quotes containing the words bring the, bring and/or noise:
“Things bring their own philosophy with them, that is, prudence.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“hands come like a backhoe
to bring him to the kitchen.
They keep his house.
They swallow the rest.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The square dance fiddler’s first concern is to carry a tune, but he must carry it loud enough to be heard over the noise of stamping feet, the cries of the “caller,” and the shouts of the dancers. When he fiddles, he “fiddles all over”; feet, hands, knees, head, and eyes are all busy.”
—State of Oklahoma, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)