It was the album that fulfilled the promise of what hip-hop could be.åÊ

Even if you don䴜t think that Public Enemy䴜s It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back 䴊 released in the roiling summer of 1988 䴊is the greatest hip-hop album of all time; it is, at the very least, the album that makes that debate worth having.

On February 25 and 26, 2005, New York University‰¥ús Clive Davis School of Recorded Music at hosted a two-day retrospective called ‰¥þThe Making of It Takes A Nation of Millions.‰¥ÿåÊ The event was the brainchild of the school‰¥ús associate chair, Jason King.

The conference featured a film and five separate discussions, including a producers䴜 panel where Bomb Squad captain Hank Shocklee was reunited with the Chairmen of the Boards from Greene Street Studios: Rod Hui, Nick Sansano and Chris Shaw, and others.

Among the many little-known facts and surprises revealed that weekend:

• Hank described the inner workings of the Bomb Squad. ‰¥þEach one of us had our own position,‰¥ÿ Hank said. ‰¥þMy strength is as an arranger. I have no interest in linear songs.‰¥ÿ Chuck D. would comb through records for the vocal samples.åÊ Eric Sadler ‰¥þwas the one with the musical talent.‰¥ÿ Hank‰¥ús brother Keith Shocklee: ‰¥þOn Millions, he was the rookie.åÊ He knew a lot of the breakbeats, and was the sound effects master.‰¥ÿåÊ

• ‰¥þI guarantee you, no more music by the suckers‰¥ÿ: That was a recording of ye olde DJ Mr. Magic playing ‰¥þPublic Enemy Number One‰¥ÿ before smashing it on-air.åÊ ‰¥þNobody got us at first,‰¥ÿ said Hank.

• ‰¥þDon‰¥út Believe The Hype‰¥ÿ was originally recorded for the ‰¥þLess Than Zero‰¥ÿ soundtrack, but Hank and Chuck ditched it in favor of something, well, more ‰¥þhype‰¥ÿ:åÊ ‰¥þ‰¥úBring the Noise‰¥ú was, like 109 beats per minute,‰¥ÿ said Hank.åÊ ‰¥þThat‰¥ús damn near disco.‰¥ÿ

• As they were sequencing the album, Chuck surfaced with tapes of the London performance that became the perfect segues between tracks.åÊ And Chuck disclosed that Hank switched sides at the last minute: ‰¥þSide A was originally Side B.‰¥ÿ

• The high beep in ‰¥þSecurity of the First World‰¥ÿ was sampled by Eric Sadler from engineer Chris Shaw‰¥ús Casio wrist watch.

• Those beat snippets like ‰¥þS1W‰¥ÿ (which eventually became hit records for Madonna and Teddy Riley) were added for a reason: ‰¥þChuck and I wanted both sides of the cassette to be exactly the same time‰¥ÿ to avoid pauses, said Hank. So the beats were inserted strategically to even out the programs.

• The album was mixed with no automation.åÊ That‰¥ús right:åÊ The most intricate album of digitally sampled music was recorded on analog tape and then painstakingly mixed by hand.åÊ Fab 5 Freddie recalled visiting the studio while they were mixing ‰¥þNight of the Living Baseheads‰¥ÿ: ‰¥þThey needed me to grab a bunch of faders.‰¥ÿ

• You know the breakdown in ‰¥þBring The Noise‰¥ÿ where the kick drum goes nuts over ‰¥þFunky Drummer‰¥ÿ?åÊ Mistake.åÊ The wrong sequence came up in the SP 1200, and Hank not only decided to keep it, but convinced Chuck to rewrite his rhyme to fit the pattern (‰¥þSoul-on-a-roll-but-you-treat-it-like-soap-on-a-rope‰¥Ï‰¥ÿ).åÊ ‰¥þWe don‰¥út correct mistakes,‰¥ÿ Hank said.åÊ ‰¥þWe work with them.‰¥ÿ

• Another happy accident: During the recording of ‰¥þBlack Steel In The Hour Of Chaos,‰¥ÿ Hank had Nick tear apart the studio to see why a sample sounded muffled.åÊ The culprit?åÊ A cord wasn‰¥út pushed in to the SP 1200 all the way, engaging the automatic filter.åÊ But Hank had Eric alternately pull the cord in and out, filtering and un-filtering the sample, and recorded it both ways.

• In the middle of ‰¥þBlack Steel,‰¥ÿ Flavor can be heard saying, ‰¥þYo, Hank, don‰¥út stop me, man!‰¥ÿåÊ Why?åÊ Because Flav, recording his ad-libs over a studio telephone, kept on talking over Chuck‰¥ús vocals. The engineers also struggled to get Flav to pick up the phone without answering, ‰¥þHello, Greene Street Recording!‰¥ÿ

• Before sampling, Hank would throw records to the ground and stomp on them if they sounded too ‰¥þclean.‰¥ÿ

• The album itself was recorded in 30 days for only $25,000 in recording costs.åÊ One of the reasons: extensive preproduction at their Long Island studio.åÊ ‰¥þThe four of us would be messing around, and I would tape it.åÊ It would be, like, five hours of pure shit, but there‰¥úd be one magic moment that would become the backbed of a song.åÊ Truly, we were like a band, a digital band.‰¥ÿ

Hank Shocklee is currently writing a book about the recording of the seminal album.