Bring That Beat Back

Today on the Beat Authority, I'll bring back an occasional series I've neglected for far too long. It's called "Break It Down", where we play a hip hop song along with its original sample. In this case, it's an opportunity to do two favorite things: listen to The J.B.'s, and listen to Public Enemy.

The J.B.'s "The Grunt, Pts.1&2" from 1970 is sampled no fewer than three times on Public Enemy's landmark It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. What I didn't know, until now, is that the song is sampled 33 times across the hip hop world, according to Rap Sample FAQ.

What I love about the way PE samples this song is, out of context, the sampled horns sound more like sirens, whistles, or other industrial noises. It's that production touch that made Nation of Millions sound like it was from out of this world in 1988, 21 years ago.

Y'all wanna hear that beat, right?