“It was more about, ‘OK if we were a band, you would have different instruments.’ So each sample represents a different instrument being played.” - Hank Shocklee Having already demonstrated some unique production savvy on their 1987 single “Public Enemy №1”, The Bomb Squad nurtured a deep understanding of how to layer multiple loops through nonstop recording and touring after the release of Public Enemy’s debut Yo! Bum Rush the Show - an album that already showed an affinity for using multiple samples on tracks like “My Uzi Weighs A Ton”. “Everybody would sample, but they would sample maybe a kick a snare or maybe just a loop of a phrase. “Sampling was an art form at that point,” Bomb Squad member Hank Shocklee explained in a 2018 interview with KEXP. To help the art of sampling cross a new threshold into uncharted waters, Bomb Squad members Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee, Chuck D, Eric “Vietnam” Sadler, Gary G-Wiz, and Bill Stephney had to take stock of what other producers were doing at the time and figure out how to separate themselves from the pack. HBO will air the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony and performances on May 18.The Spotify version of ‘It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back”. But, for now, he says, he’s taking it slow, spending time creating - and getting his own name and his own work out there. His future plans include teaching composition and orchestration at the college level. "I’ve been able to meet other students who play some of these instruments," says Young. Studying with faculty members like Chen Yi and Zhou Long, he started writing for Chinese instruments, such as the pipa and erhu. He earned his bachelor’s in 2012 – and he’s working on a Master of Music degree. He’s also written music for films ("Sister Act 2," "He Got Game,") and for television ("New York Undercover," "Flavor of Love 2").Ībout a decade ago, he started composing for orchestra – and to hone this craft, he’s now studying composition at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. Young continued to produce or perform music on records - working with Public Enemy and other artists, like Ice Cube, the James Brown Band, and Mobb Deep. It was a collaborative effort all the time." "Most of the time we’d do songs and it would be our own individual thing, but the other guys would come in and say, hey, you know, why not this, or that. "We were a team that worked collectively together," says Young. "I just wanted to make music, and make records."īy 1989, he was a part of the Bomb Squad and assisted with Fear of a Black Planet, probably best known for "Fight the Power," featured in the Spike Lee film, “Do The Right Thing.” "I was still green, I didn't know anything about the business," he says. And that was the whole premise."įor the next few years, Young spent time at the studio as an apprentice, "getting the guys potato chips, Chinese food," or just watching and learning. "(They were) just going there with sound, and seeing what they could contribute to music as a whole, to create something that paid homage to the artists they appreciated, but still could contribute something new. "They listened to a lot of old Motown, Temptations, Sly Stone, the Beatles, Stockhausen, Sun Ra," says Young. And that’s where, at age 17, he met the Bomb Squad, Public Enemy’s production team, who layered sounds, music and spoken word, sirens and scratches. Young had been DJ-ing since his early teens and told some friends about his records they took him to Public Enemy’s studio. "(It was) so much different from the music that was out at the time." "I was like, wow, it was so much different from their first album," says Young. It’s an album Rolling Stone described as “loud, obnoxious, funky, avant-garde, political, uncompromising and hilarious all at once.” Public Enemy’s second album, It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back (1988), hooked Young on their music. "The regular radio stations wouldn’t play their music, and some of the guys in my high school brought their music to school." "I first heard their music on a local college radio station, WBAU. Public Enemy’s lead rapper Chuck D lived just around the corner – and it was in this neighborhood that Young was introduced to their hard, hip hop sound. Kerwin Young was born in New York, and grew up in Roosevelt, Long Island. And along with rappers Chuck D and Flavor Flav, a Kansas City-based composer and master's student at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, Kerwin Young, shared the spotlight. Public Enemy is only the fourth hip hop band to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Some of this year’s inductees included Heart, Randy Newman, Rush and Public Enemy. The induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame took place Thursday, April 18, in Los Angeles.
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