“Countdown to Armageddon” by Public Enemy

"Countdown to Armageddon" belongs to It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, the second album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, which Def Jam and Columbia released on June 28, 1988. Chuck D and Hank Shocklee produced it and share the writing credit with Eric Sadler.

The album came together in New York sessions between 1987 and 1988, at Chung King Studios, Greene St. Recording and Sabella Studios. Having seen how hard crowds went for their live shows, the group cranked the tempos above those of their 1987 debut Yo! Bum Rush the Show, and set out to make a hip hop answer to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. Their production team, the Bomb Squad, built a dense, combative racket out of musique concrète, free jazz and heavy funk, the perfect stage for Chuck D's political fire.

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