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JULIO ENRIQUEZ

Mr Shocklee owned more than Ice Cube
10,000 records and when it came ë worked
to creating It Takes A Nation… with The
his collection was painstakingly Bomb Squad
scoured for samples from drum after leaving
beats to speeches, to feedback and NWA in 1989
distortion. Back in ’88, sampling
records was still in its infancy, with The
most hip-hop producers taking ì 1988
snippets from one or two records album It Takes

at most to snaffle the odd beat. A Nation Of
The Bomb Squad went wholesale Millions...
gung-ho, creating dense layers of with Chuck
sound using countless samples and D (left) and
experimental processing techniques. Flavor Flav on
They were collages no less. the cover
BIN THE BASS ‘Rebel
‘The way we did it was like a band, ì Without
Shocklee explains. ‘Like in “Rebel A Pause’ was
Without A Pause”, Flav played the released as a
snare portions, because Flavor had single in 1987 the 808 as the front note’, says There were other innovations,
the kind of feel that was good for Shocklee. ‘We would go and get a as Mr Shocklee explains. ‘Most rap
that. Eric might play the kick and Run record that had recorded it already records at the time were about 107
hi-hat, I would play the horn, and ì DMC’s and take that 808. It’s a texture beats-per-minute, 108. We pushed
Norman would put the scratch on it. Down With thing. You get all the extra grittiness “Bring The Noise” to about 109,
So when you get all these different The King so it doesn’t come across clean. almost 110. Not only did we push
feels together, it’s a band and that’s ‘Part of the sound was in the dirt the tempo, but we also pushed
what we wanted to get.’ Flavor that we would get from the samples, the energy as well. So now, instead
The process was exhausting but ê Fav live whether it be hiss from the record of the samples being long, maybe
fruitful and the Squad grew braver in concert in or a crackle on top of two bars or four-bar
and braver, pushing the envelope to 2008 the kick. [Other sound ‘Shocklee loop phrases, they
the extent that they even ditched engineers] would are more like 16th
traditional basslines. ‘None of the zero in on that owned more notes. They were
productions have basslines’, admits frequency and eighth notes. The
Shocklee. ‘That’s because basslines try to fi gure out than 10,000 samples were coming
represent melody. If it a way to get records’ faster. And it gave the
doesn’t have melody rid of it. I’d be impact of the energy
no-one perceives it sitting there, being higher and
as musical. It just saying, “No, you need to higher and higher. That’s what we
becomes a low- boost that...”. were going for, pure adrenaline.’
frequency hum.’ ‘It was about that
In place of extra funk which I’d THE SCREAM
basslines, The want to feel, that extra There were production trademarks
Bomb Squad dirtiness which would too: ‘What made James Brown great
opted for 808 make fans of Public was his screams. James Brown was
drums with pitch Enemy feel like the only artist that was pushing you
changes – not the we’re from with the scream, using the scream
drums themselves the gutter. This as an instrument. Everything that
mind you, but samples was the street, Public Enemy was doing was paying
of the drums from other this was not homage to the scream that James
records. ‘We were using processed.’ Brown used. But we didn’t use a

DECEMBER 2020 | www.hifi news.co.uk | 91