Hip-hop carries standard more than rock

Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited”? Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska?” Nirvana’s “Nevermind?” They’re all fine choices for the Great American Album – but America is no longer ruled by white guys with guitars.

This just in: Hip-hop, not rock, is the new universal music. At a time when rock is recycling itself, hip-hop is evolving at a breakneck pace, changing not only from generation to generation but from year to year. Its dense lyrics, multilayered sounds and equal-opportunity sampling of musical genres make it the perfect soundtrack for our post-modern, information-packed age.

So, the great American album? Public Enemy’s “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.”

In rap years, this 1988 Def Jam disc is an ancient classic, yet it still sounds fresh and relevant. Everything that could be done in rap was done here, from the innovative production to Chuck D’s unstoppable rhymes. And Public Enemy’s fearless political content showed that no subject was off-limits for rap.

Thematically, “Nation of Millions” covers a lot of ground, but it’s primarily concerned with three issues that should be close to every American’s heart: oppression, revolution and freedom.

It begins, fittingly enough, in the United Kingdom, where Professor Griff, the group’s designated minister of information, tells a screaming crowd, “London, England, consider yourselves warned!” From there, Chuck D delivers rhythmic manifestos in a deep, stentorian voice; Flavor Flav offers comic relief with his surrealist raps; and DJ Terminator X proves himself the Jimi Hendrix of the turntable.

Forget folk, blues and protest songs. Rap was a whole new form of populist music, and Public Enemy took it to new heights. Against a relentless beat, the group tackles the government , the media and civil liberties . It’s a litany of issues that still resonates throughout America today. And you don’t have to be black (though it might help) to share Public Enemy’s sense of outrage.

Rock is not dead but if you listen to it these days, you might hear the subconscious influence of hip-hop rhythms. In a globalized era, musical genres are merging and consolidating – which means that the next generation will likely have a great American album of its own.