Hank Shocklee - "Rebel Without A Pause" Is Public Enemy's Most Significant Record (247HH Exclusive) 

Rebel without a pause is the greatest hip hop song of all time!

"Rebel Without a Pause" is one of my favorite songs of all time.

the Italians in Brooklyn used to bang this joint so fckn hard, PE broke all kinds of barriers.

I totally agree with Hank Shocklee and make one statement further in addition... "Rebel Without A Pause" is in my honest opinion one of the most important Hip Hop songs of ALL TIME...

This man is a genius and he should have statues of him in high places

This guy is a total genius .

Always remember my mum shouting up the stairs "turn that shit down it sounds like a dying pig" just made me like it more...the intro is mad powerfull... can't call it best of all time because from Roxanne in 1984 to dre chronic 2001 each is seminal to their time imo

My favorite PE record !!!!!

IMO the greatest ever..That jam is sonically relentless and indestructible..the jam that started a revolution.. Fight The Power comes a close second in their catalogue...

Rebel Without a Pause was sonically timeless. It still holds up. The first time I heard it was when they did Soul Train back in 87. I just came back from my trip in Germany and was blown away.

this crossed barriers .. these guys started a movement ...

the number one hip hop record made period till this day no record even comes close

Bomb squad definitely all time top 5 in Hip Hop production.

Man, I can't tell you how much the Bomb Squad influenced my production, PE is one of my favorite Hip Hop groups of all time.

Yo! Bum Rush The Show is to PE what People's Instinctive Travels... is to ATCQ, dope, classic debut albums that got overshadowed by their more iconic follow-ups. Rebel... was the turning point for PE and became the blueprint for ...Nation Of Millions...

Bum Rush was a tight classic. Suckers to the side, i know ya hate my ninety eight!!

greatest hip-hop record. it brings a tear to my eye. I was upstate doing time in Fishkill. this was my warm up song for my basketball games. it still amps me up to kick ass. live, on wax, cassette, or cd. it still delivers the power. thanks for everyone who made this record possible. it takes a nation was phenomenal. rebel was the pinnacle of that

Straight up classic record; not just hip hop record........CLASSIC RECORD OFF A CLASSIC ALBUM!!!!

Hands down, one of their greatest songs ever!!! Absolutely dope!

One of the must influential hip hop tunes ever

Strong Island!

Picture a mic, the stage is empty, a beat like this might tempt me, to cold show my rings and my fat gold chain, grab the mic like im on soul train, but i wait... Cause I mastered this...

Hank Shocklee is spot on because Rebel With Out A Pause was a first, it was truly ground breaking. The screeching sound that you hear all the was through the record had never before been heard in musical form. Honestly, at the time when the record came out all you heard people talking about was that amazing rap record with the non stop screeching sound. As ground breaking as hip hop was by this point (1986) no one had ever considered that you could use a weird screeching sound in this way. Remember it's not just the fact that its a weird sound (hip hop was all about weird sounds) its a sound that is a consistent part of the BACK BEAT! so it runs the course of the whole song. It was inconceivable at that time that you could make a record much less a hit record with that sound effect AS THE BACK BEAT!!. So once Public enemy blow that idea out of the water, every one jumped on the band wagon.

This is the song that caught my attention to PE, and they been my all time favorite for all time.

Rebel Without A Pause changed it all. This was getting played in white goth clubs and packing the floor back then.

Awesome story, one masterpiece inspires another.

This guy is a genius . I've listened to so many of his interviews and sonically he is a genius .

Sonic Assault Masterpiece!

Off that 1st album. I always rocked to My Uzi Weighs A Ton & So Sophisticated.... ever since I bought back in the days and I still do. #Westcoast #CMW #Respect

this record got me Hooked!!! Mos Def!!!

I remember recording half the song off the radio, jumping between 98.7 Kiss and 107.5 WBLS. Then one day I caught it in a mix Red Alert was doing. I rewinded and played that record all night 🌙 its even deeper when you listen to it with headphones. Miss the old Bx B-Boy Days.

When i was in the army back in 1987 in heidelberg Germany living on Patton barracks and that PE album came out, rebel without a pause was our go to jam. My boy had a boomin sound system in his room and we use to crank that sh$t as loud as it could go and that would just get us hype and ready to go clubbin, those was some really good times.

GOAT hip hop song production All Time IMHO

Thank you for sharing this story .. I got soul is one of the best songs ever everything is so perfect and Rakim lyrics and delivery was so poetical and beyond this world ... Rebel with out a pause is one of the dopest songs in history

Another example of how Rakim pushed the genre forward...

Love the behind the scenes info that Hank shares on this video

Public enemy influenced the world.broke down barriers for hiphop

Hank Shocklee is the man...

That song change my life. lol

Rebel without a pause was my cut and Public enemy got me through Highschool during the hight of the crack era 85 to 89 they words were powerful peace Chuck D. Flavor and Prof. Griff and the Sw1's I salute 🫡 peace and much respect 👊🏾💪🏾

98.7 WRKS (Kiss) and 107.5 WBLS in New York City had Public Enemy's "Rebel Without A Pause" on heavy rotation during their years.

Dope 🎼🎼🎼🎼❤ P.E so HAITI put some respect on Chuck D name 👊❤

Same, I defo agree as its my fav song outta all Public Enemy songs 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🥰🥰🥰

You're gonna get yours!!

Greatest!!

Imagine having legendary emcees as your “test market” 🤑

The contribution Bomb Squad and P.E. made for hip hop will never be fully understood to the average listener. The production/politics and the concept makes Shocklee/PE one of the most underrated geniuses in all music.

Russell said The Bomb Squad and "Rebel Without A Pause" made Def Jam, period.

That's my favorite jam

I love this interview.

Yes. AGREE.

Best song in hip hop history

Amazing!

amazing

YES

I saw them tear up Madison Square Garden in 88 right before It Takes A Million came out. That was a crazy night

Where's part TWO to this?!?!?! I want to hear more!

I was in my Metal years of music identity. The drive to go harder, faster. Maiden to Metallica to Slayer to Napalm Death. But I would latch on to these songs guys were doing their freestyle BMX routines to. Terminator X to the Edge of Panic. She Watch Channel Zero. Rebel Without a Pause. Hip Hop tuff as Metal.

Mr. Magic seems like he was a very biased DJ. I know he had power being over WBLS but man all the great songs I grew up listening too. I get stories where he hated it and wouldn't play it. Did the same thing to BDP.I have always said Rick Rubin was the true Godfather of rap because nearly everything that made rap iconic. Russell hated. He didn't want DMC in Run DMC. Played 4 seconds of LL and hated it. Didn't like Public Enemy and it was rick who said lets remake "Walk this way" which is the record that opened rap to white people.

Rebel and Terror Dome!

LONS in the studio...the days 👊🏾✊🏿

Rebel was Da Bomb!!

Fact

I love this song. 1987.$$$ everyone that have a 98 Oldsmobile bmw benz maxima Cherokee jeep. Was rocking it. House party jams. Besides that it was the crack era.

This is part of my sound... my ideal...just a lot goin on in the traQ!

ya mon

SALUTE!!!!

funny i got that same story only it was welcome to the terrordrome for me

NUFF RESPEKT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe Mr. Magic dissed BDP and Public Enemy 😳.

The rock and roll scratch was too technical to be Terminator X, I bet that Johnny Juice did that one. The intro scratch could have been TX since it wasn't that difficult.

🎉HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH🎉

It’s the greatest hip-hop track of all time, Period, Point Blank, End of discussion.

If I play this some in the whip……you best believe I ain’t yielding.

Busta and dinco wanted that beat lol

This was when James Brown was the well that everyone was drawing from.

Mr Magic was wrong about a lot of things; he dissed BDP as well.

Terminator X .......

Hank The Genius !