It Takes A Nation of Millions... released 30 years ago today

PUBLIC ENEMY - CHUCK D. - Jail Cell in Hell's Kitchen 1988. This photo was taken a week or two before, the 2nd album cover, IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD US BACK. I'm proud to have been a part of this album. That was released 30 years ago TODAY. We had to do a re-shoot because Flavor actually didn’t make it to the photo session since he was actually incarcerated for some minor offense. So we made a few photos like this one and rescheduled. At that LP cover session, Flavor was very uncomfortable during the shoot as one might imagine, some one who had actually been in a cell recently might feel. IMHO it’s the greatest hip hop album ever! Chuck gave me the title of the LP when he was ready, and i threw out the idea of them breaking out of a jail, likely inspired by some listening to the tracks or just the title. What ended up on the cover was actually a photo i was not happy with, see my books THE IDEALIST (where this photo appears) and the latest book MY RULES for better images from the same day, same roll of film, and cell as that on the LP cover. Hank and Chuck wanted a photo that showed them in jail as vividly as possible, with as many 'BARS" as possible showing up in the tiny square on the cassette (at the time of its release hiphop album sales were 80% or more on cassette - probably the peak of cassette sales) ... As an artist i threatened to scratch the film negative so they couldn't use what i thought was a sub par photograph, then they hit me right back, "Glen, it's too late, its either this image or a graphic, DON'T DESTROY THE DOPE FLICK!" What could i do? I had to be down, on what i knew was a masterpiece LP. And my sequence would be on the back of the LP, used in some ad's and on the fold outs in the smaller packages.... Of course i don't regret giving in on this one. Lesson learned. BUT at least years later i am able to share all the better images in my books. You check them out and you'll get it ... #Inspiration #integrity #DefJam #PUBLICENEMY #BlackSteel #ChuckD #S1Ws #FlavorFlav #hipHop #GoldenEra #ExtraStrengthPosse #itTakesANationOfMillionsToHoldUsBack #Punk #art #composition #character #attitude #Historic #film

A post shared by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on Jun 28, 2018 at 12:37pm PDT