ABSTRACT
As we have seen in descriptions of such artists as Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, producers often obsess over the details of sound that comprise the musical “mix.” In this respect, Hank Shocklee, the head of New York rap group Public Enemy’s influential Bomb Squad production team, fits squarely into the history of rock’s most musically innovative personalities. Hip-hop producers like Shocklee, however, broke with one of rock’s most staunch traditions, substituting live musicians with backing tracks concocted out of samples. Consequently many critics and rock fans during the late ’80s treated them more as plagiarists than composers. Shocklee convincingly dismisses such claims, explaining how the Bomb Squad (comprised of Shocklee, his brother Keith, Carl Ryder, and Eric Sadler) takes a songwriting approach to Public Enemy’s music. As he shows, the Bomb Squad arranges their dense collage of layered samples with particular care and craft, and an awareness of earlier production techniques, such as those used by Motown. By deliberately highlighting elements of harmonic tension, placing samples slightly out of rhythm, and utilizing the potential of abrasive noise and dissonance, Shocklee’s structures complement the political lyrics of Public Enemy’s main rappers, Chuck D and Flavor Flav, in powerful ways.1
