It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is a 1988 album by the hip hop group Public Enemy. Enormously influential, the album's mix of The Bomb Squad's sample-heavy beats and revolutionary lyrics railing against corporate control, structural racism and police brutality turned the album into a sensation, peaking at #1 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart, and #42 on the Billboard 200 chart. It also garnered much critical acclaim, and was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll. According to AcclaimedMusic.net (a site which combines several critics' polls and lists), it is the most acclaimed album of the 80's and the 18th most acclaimed album of all time.

In 2003 the TV channel VH1 named It Takes A Nation Of Millions the 20th greatest album of all time. It was ranked 93rd in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. It was also named the second greatest album in Spin Magazine's listing of the 100 greatest albums released since the magazine's founding in 1985 (Radiohead's OK Computer was number one). It was the top ranked hip-hop album in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time at number 48.

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)