Here it is. Bammm. And you say, Goddamn. This is a dope jam.

As the suburban classic rocker, I had about as much interest in rap music as I did in income tax reform. This had nothing to do with race, or bein' a playa hater (I don't think they had playa haters yet), but it did have to do with my then-fascination with technical proficiency, hard work, talent, dizzying study, pyrotechnics, level-of-difficulty in music. At the time, my interest in musicianship was based on who was the best empirically. Eddie Van Halen played fast. Ginger Baker drummed like three drummers. Geddy Lee did things with a bass that no one else did, therefore he was a genius worthy of respect. Robert Plant could screech high notes higher than the other leading brand's high notes. At this point in my development, emotion and feel had no currency with me. I scoffed at bands like U2, who were very popular at the time, because none of their songs were over four minutes.

If I scoffed at U2, imagine how I felt toward rap. I mean, shit, they didn't even play instruments! I kinda thought break dancing was neat to watch, but that fad ended quick and we were left with the horrible music. A bunch of people talking. Shit, anyone could do that.

At age 14 or so I went to summer camp and "dirty rap" was very much the rage. The Geto Boys and the 2 Live Crew were smuggled in from a friend of a friend who made a dub from someone's older cousin. (This was before 2 Live Crew became a flashpoint issue--yes, I am bragging that "I listened to the 2 Live Crew before they were famous.") I ignored it as music, but the lurid descriptions of buttsex did fascinate me.

When I would borrow these circulated tapes of "dirty rap," I would occasionally slip the cassette onto side b. Someone had scrawled "It Takes A Nation -- P.E." on the tag. These songs had few cuss words, and were not about buttsex. So I largely ignored them. But when I made my own 5th generation dub of this tape, I figured it'd be no harm to copy side B, too.

I think you know where this is going. Buttsex jokes get old eventually (they have more staying power when you are 14, but still . . .) A landmark achievement in rhythm, a Rosetta stone of a new artistic idiom, a reconfiguration of musical perspectives, descriptions that are just the tip of the iceberg in defining the importance of "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back" by Public Enemy, hell, that eventually makes itself heard.

Don't worry, flavor vision ain't blurry.

Imagine how stunned I was when I was humming along to Public Enemy. I thought that the whole point of rap was that you couldn't hum along. It's non-musical, right? Just people talking. What Public Enemy introduced me to, really, was rhythm-as-melody. What P.E. did was take whole chunks of sound from all over the map and smash them to bits to form a sound collage. And that's just for the background. Chuck D. and Flavor Flav would find the cadence to lay in their raps in ways as unique and perfect as the best jazz instrumentalists.

It was P.E. that eventually led me to James Brown, to Parliament, to WAR, to Herbie Hancock, even to Stevie Wonder. It was also on this album that I first heard words like Farrakhan or Malcolm or Panthers. I'll admit that I didn't spend too much time dissecting the lyrics (who could, with that much funk flying in your face?) but the interstitial speeches from great black activists certainly did effect me.

Mostly, this record made you feel like you had a set of testicles like bowling balls. Anyone could listen to Iron Maiden or Scorpions. This was the real tough guy shit. I remember my parents hearing "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back" coming from my bedroom, and it truly bewildering them.

To this day, I still dislike 98 percent of the rap music I hear. I still think much of it is just non-musical. Nothing has ever achieved the level of creative ingenuity of Public Enemy. I still kinda roll my eyes at all the Kiss-like superhero stuff (just what exactly did Professor Griff and the S1Ws do?) But if you're one of those guys who just can't listen to rap, pick up this CD. It might surprise you.