Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Yo! Bum Rush the Show

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Released
  
February 10, 1987

Artist
  
Public Enemy

Producer
  
Rick Rubin

Length
  
46:44

Release date
  
10 February 1987

Label
  
Def Jam Recordings

Yo! Bum Rush the Show httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaen559Yo

Recorded
  
1986 Spectrum City Studios (Hempstead, New York)

Yo! Bum Rush the Show (1987)
  
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988)

Genres
  
Hip hop music, Hardcore hip hop, East Coast hip hop

Similar
  
It Takes a Nation of Millions t, Fear of a Black Planet, Apocalypse 91 The Enemy St, He Got Game, Muse Sick‑n‑Hour Mess Age

Public enemy yo bum rush the show full album 1987


Yo! Bum Rush the Show is the debut studio album of American hip hop group Public Enemy. The album was released on February 10, 1987 under Def Jam Recordings. The group's logo, a silhouette of a black man in a rifle's crosshairs, debuted on the album's cover. Yo! Bum Rush the Show features a sample-heavy sound by production team The Bomb Squad.

Contents

The album peaked at number 125 on the U.S. Billboard Top LPs chart and at number 28 on the Top Black Albums chart. NME magazine named it the best album of the year in its 1987 critics poll. Along with the Beastie Boys Licensed to Ill (1986) and LL Cool J's Radio (1985), music writer Cheo H. Coker has cited Yo! Bum Rush the Show as one of three of the most influential albums in hip hop history. In 1998, it was selected as one of The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. In 2003, the album was ranked number 497 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Composition

According to Jon Pareles of The New York Times, "From its first album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show in 1987, the group marketed itself as a distillation of black anger and resistance. It set out to be the voice of a community, not just one more posse of boasters". Yo! Bum Rush the Show debuts The Bomb Squad's sample-heavy production style, which is prominent on the group's following work. Joe Brown of The Washington Post described the album's music as "a more serious brand of inner-city aggression", in comparison to Licensed to Ill (1986) by Def Jam label-mates the Beastie Boys. On its musical style, Brown wrote "Public Enemy's mean and minimalist rap is marked by an absolute absence of melody - the scary sound is just a throbbing pulse, hard drums and a designed-to-irritate electronic whine, like a dentist's drill or a persistent mosquito". The album's sound is accented by the scratching of DJ Terminator X. Chicago Tribune writer Daniel Brogan described Public Enemy's style on the album as "raw and confrontational", writing that the group "doesn't aim to -- or have a chance at -- crossing over".

Reception

  • Q magazine (9/95, p. 132) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...a stunning opening...just the first, in retrospect almost shy, step on a remarkable journey...a hard, droning extension of the basic drum`n'scratch Def Jam template that had served LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys so well."
  • Melody Maker (7/22/95, p. 35) - Recommended - "It wasn't just a new sound, a discovery. It was like being struck by a meteor."
  • NME (9/25/93, p. 19) - Ranked #49 in NME's list of The 50 Greatest Albums Of The '80s.
  • NME (7/15/95, p. 47) - 9 (out of 10) - "Yo! Bum Rush The Show announced a hip-hop group who smouldered beneath dark, sparse beats like no other, introduced us to the coolest vocal double act ever...and featured as striking a statement of intent as you could wish for in `Public Enemy Number 1'....brilliant."
  • Songs

    1You're Gonna Get Yours4:05
    2Sophisticated Bitch4:30
    3Miuzi Weighs a Ton5:44

    References

    Yo! Bum Rush the Show Wikipedia