Description
Topic for the Final Paper
Topic Chosen: Analysis of It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by Public Enemy
"…Nation of Millions" is considered as one of the finest hip-hop albums ever and has attracted attention from many scholars and hip-hop enthusiasts for its radical and vocal lyrics. The album deals with a wide gamut of themes, like drugs, black self-determination, and poverty and thus is an interesting piece to be examined. It flows with consciousness and social reality, and most critics have compared it to Marvin Gaye's What's Goin On" due to its indispensability and dominance in hip-hop circles. Overall, it is an overly enthralling collection that discusses issues like Black Nationalism, self-determination, white supremacy, and exploitation in the music industry.
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Explanation & Answer
Attached.
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Name
Institution
Date
Introduction
Hip Hop is a social-political movement which was formed in 1970’s and it was meant to
be the voice of the people especially those residing in ghettos.
Hip-hop has other parts; graffiti, break dancing, free styling and rap battles that express
the hip-hop cultures.
The song “it takes a million to hold us back” by the public enemy is one of the most
popular and finest hip-hop albums.
This song tackles very important themes such as black self-determination, drugs and
poverty (Enemy, 2014).
Themes Discussed
a) Drugs - There was a trend whereby sportsmen were losing their lives out of drug overdose.
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This is due to their greed of winning in competitions as these drugs had been claimed to give them
super energy to remain in the field for long hours.
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Most Americans were already using bhang in 1985 and President Ronald Reagan supported the
fight against drugs by signing Anti-Drug Abuse Act (Price, 2006).
b) Black self-determination - There was a great strive by the African Americans to obtain selfdetermination.
They had undergone a lot of oppression and discrimination from the white Americans who viewed
them as their slaves.
There was a movement formed referred to as the back to Africa movement that was encouraging
the blacks to move back to Africa.
Cont’
3) Poverty - In the 1970s and 1980s the economy of the United States had grown and in general the
economy seemed to have flourished so well (Price, 2006).
However, a large number of people were still living below the poverty lines.
Wealth was poorly distributed throughout all regions where some people owned so much wealth
while others could not even afford the basic needs.
There was a lot of corruption all over even in the political systems and leaders were ignoring the
current situation of poverty in the United States and they assumed that everything was fine and
going on so well.
4) White supremacy - This was a racial ideology that suggested that the white Americans were
superior to the African Americans.
The whites believed that they are supposed to dominate the blacks who should therefore
automatically be their subjects.
This ideology was so spread in the United States immediately after the American Civil War.
Analysis of the Topic
This paper has narrowed down to look at those main issues and themes highlighted in the album
by the public enemy group.
These are real issues that occurred in the United States that drove these people into concentrating
on them in their album.
Theme like drug abuse is still a great problem to the society up to today and more research is
being conducted on how to handle...