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Bring the Noise

1988 single by Public Enemy

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ2397570
Source-derived summary

"Bring the Noise" is a song by the American hip hop group Public Enemy. It was included on the soundtrack of the 1987 film Less than Zero; the song was also released as a single that year. It later became the first song on the group's 1988 album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. The single reached No. 56 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

The song's lyrics, most of which are delivered by Chuck D with interjections from Flavor Flav, include boasts of Public Enemy's prowess, an endorsement of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, retorts to unspecified critics, and arguments for rap as a legitimate musical genre on par with rock. The lyrics also have a metrical complexity, making extensive use of meters like dactylic hexameter. The title phrase appears in the chorus. The song includes several shout-outs to fellow hip hop artists like Run-D.M.C., Eric B, LL Cool J and, unusually for a rap group, Yoko Ono, Sonny Bono and the thrash metal band Anthrax. Anthrax later collaborated with Chuck D to cover the song.

The song's production by the Bomb Squad, which exemplifies their characteristic style, features a dissonant mixture of funk samples, drum machine patterns, record scratching by DJ Terminator X, siren sound effects and other industrial noise.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bring the Noise” as 1988 single by Public Enemy. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1987, 1988—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1987. The account is most persuasive where Bring, Noise and single can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as 1988 single by Public Enemy. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2397570. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1987 and 1988.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Bring the Noise”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Bring the Noise primary sources, Bring the Noise archive and Bring research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Bring the Noise” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.