Bring the Noise

The song first appeared on the soundtrack of the 1987 film Less than Zero and as a single that year, reaching 56 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. It then became the first track on Nation. Chuck D delivers most of the lyrics, with interjections from Flavor Flav: boasts, an endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, replies to critics and an argument that rap deserves to stand beside rock. He shouts out Run-D.M.C., Eric B and LL Cool J, and also Yoko Ono, Sonny Bono and Anthrax. The record opens on Malcolm X saying too black, too strong, from his 1963 speech Message to the Grass Roots. The samples include James Brown's Funky Drummer, Funkadelic and the Commodores.

The breakdown where the Funky Drummer kick drum plays alone was a mistake. The wrong sequence came up on the SP1200 sampler, and Shocklee kept it and had Chuck D rewrite his rhyme to fit. Robert Christgau described it as postminimal rap, as gripping as it is abrasive. Rolling Stone ranked it 160 on its list of the 500 greatest songs.

With Anthrax

The thrash band Anthrax recorded a version that sampled the vocals. Chuck D said he did not take their request wholeheartedly at first, but that once it was done it made too much sense. It appeared on Anthrax's Attack of the Killer B's and as the last track of Apocalypse 91. The two groups toured together, finishing shows with both on stage for the song. Chuck D said Anthrax at first tore the stage apart with Public Enemy as the opener, so the group raised the intensity and added a dedicated light board operator, a first in hip hop. VH1 ranked the Anthrax recording 12 on its 2006 list of the 40 greatest metal songs. Benny Benassi's S-faction remix won the 2008 Grammy for best remixed recording.

Bring the Noise appears in 241 of the 311 logged setlists, more than any other song.