Released 1987 Genre Hip hop | Format 12" Length 3:45 | |
A-side "Are You My Woman?" (by The Black Flames) (US single) B-side "Sophisticated" (UK single) | ||
"Bring the Noise" is a song by the American 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.
Contents
- Samples
- Used as a sample
- Anthrax version
- Single track listing
- Remixes
- Benny Benassi
- Ferry Corsten
- Gigi DAgostino Lento Violento Man
- Other versions
- References
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 artists like Run–D.M.C., Eric B, LL Cool J and, unusually for a rap group, Yoko Ono and 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.
Critic 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.
Samples
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.
Used as a sample
"Much More" by De La Soul, "Here We Go Again!" by Portrait, "Everything I Am" by Kanye West, and "Here We Go Again" by Everclear all sample Chuck D's voice saying "Here we go again" in "Bring the Noise". 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 in on Fat Joe's album All or Nothing on the track :Safe 2 Say (The Incredible)". Rakim, on his 1997 single "Guess Who's Back", uses the same sample. Also, 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 on the line of Chuck D's "I Want Bass" during the final verse on the song, "The Boomin' System" from the 1990 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?"
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".
Anthrax version
In 1991, Public Enemy recorded a new version of "Bring the Noise" in a collaboration with the thrash metal band Anthrax. 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". It was included on the Anthrax album Attack of the Killer B's and on Public Enemy's own Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black, and was followed by a joint tour by the two bands, 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, but when the two bands joined on stage for "Bring the Noise", "it was shrapnel".
The recording was one of the first rap metal songs. It was ranked #12 on VH1's 2006 list of the 40 Greatest Metal Songs and is featured in the video games Die Hard Trilogy, WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW, WWE Wrestlemania 21, WWE Day of Reckoning, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD
The title of the Anthrax version is sometimes spelled "Bring tha Noise" or "Bring tha Noize".
Single track listing
- "Bring the Noise" - 3:34
- "Keep It in the Family (Live)" - 7:19
- "I Am The Law '91" - 5:56
Remixes
In 2007, "Bring the Noise" was remixed by house DJ Benny 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 for best remixed recording at the 2008 Grammy Awards. The Pump-kin Remix appeared on his album Rock 'n' Rave (2008). Ferry Corsten only mixed one version which was released around the same time as Benny Benassi's remixes, it was released 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.
Benny Benassi
- "Bring the Noise (Pump-kin Edit) - 3:37
- "Bring the Noise (S-faction Edit) - 3:32
- "Bring the Noise (Pump-kin Remix) - 6:38
- "Bring the Noise (S-faction Remix) - 6:57
- "Bring the Noise (Pump-kin Instrumental) - 6:38
- "Bring the Noise (S-faction Instrumental) - 6:57
Ferry Corsten
- "Bring the Noise (Radio Edit)
- "Bring the Noise (Extended Mix)
Gigi D'Agostino (Lento Violento Man)
- "Lento Violento Man- Quoting
Other versions
The band Staind covered "Bring the Noise" with Limp Bizkit vocalist Fred Durst on the Take a Bite Outta Rhyme: A Rock Tribute to Rap compilation album. This version also appeared on the advance version of their album Dysfunction.
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.