Greatest Hip-Hop Album of All Time
Showing posts with label Chuck D.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chuck D.. Show all posts
Friday, July 10, 2020
Monday, November 18, 2019
TODAY in NEW YORK CITY 7pm
TOGETHER FOREVER book event!
I will be having a public talk and book signing at Barnes & Nobel on Union Square. Come get the new book and stay for the talk and get your book signed if you want. DMC and Chuck D. will be there for the talk and quite possibly some other contributors to the book may be in the house.
Get advance book/pass before it sells out here:
https://togetherforevernyc.eventbrite.com
"Extra Strength Posse 1987"
Friday, November 15, 2019
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Saturday, March 24, 2018
DJ LORD x PEYOTE CODY x PROPHETS OF RAGE
METAL SHRAPNEL MOSHTAPE VOL 2
This is DOPE!
TRACKLIST:
CHUCK D MOSHTAPE DROP JAM INTRO
DJ LORD SHOW ROUTINE x (JIMI HENDRIX x MC5 x BODY COUNT x BLACK SABBATH x SLAYER)
PROPHETS OF RAGE - RADICAL EYES x (MLK x LAST POETS x GIL SCOTT HERON x ZACK DE LA ROCHA x LEE SCRATCH PERRY)
ONE DAY AS A LION - IF YOU FEAR DYING x (KRS ONE)
PUBLIC ENEMY - TOXIC x (MISFITS)
BODY COUNT - CIVIL WAR
SOUNDGARDEN - JESUS CHRIST POSE x (ISSAC HAYES x BERNARD PURDIE x JAMES BROWN)
PROPHETS OF RAGE - WHO OWNS WHO x (JAMES BROWN x CHRIS CORNELL x BEASTIE BOYS)
PUBLIC ENEMY - BEAT THEM ALL
NERVOSA - WAKE UP AND FIGHT x (JAMES BROWN x EARTH WIND AND FIRE)
DAVID AXELROD - FOR WHAT ITS WORTH x (CYPRESS HILL)
DJ LORD - WIZARD LORD SOLO x (BLACK SABBATH)
FISHBONE - RIOT
PROPHETS OF RAGE - FIRED A SHOT x (CUTTY RANKS x THE CLASH x BEASTIE BOYS x RUN DMC x BOB MARLEY)
SLAYER - TAKE CONTROL x (BUSTA RHYMES)
DJ MUGGS x MAYHEM LAUREN x ACTION BRONSON x B REAL - TENSION x (CHRIS CORNELL)
IRON MAIDEN - FLIGHT OF ICARUS x TUPAC - HOLLA IF YOU HEAR ME x RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE - VIETNOW
EDAN - HELP
HEAVY METAL KINGS - GOLAN AND GLOBUS
READY FOR WAR BREAK
SCARFACE - BLACK STILL x (JUDAS PRIEST)
JUDAS PRIEST - SAINTS IN HELL
CZARFACE - NAUTICAL DEPTH
PROPHETS OF RAGE - STRENGTH IN NUMBERS x (BIG DADDY KANE x RUN DMC x JUDAS PRIEST x BETTY DAVIS)
DJ LORD: TURNTABILISM IMPERIALISM
PEYOTE CODY: MOSHUPS x RADICAL REDUCTION
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Public Enemy Make Entire New Album Available For Free Download on the 4th of July!
Sounds like Independence Day has come early for Public Enemy. After recently leaking plans to release a new album, Nothing Is Quick In The Desert, on July 4, the iconic rap group has uploaded the entire LP to its Bandcamp page.
Chuck D deciphered the meaning behind the title earlier this week. "The record business is appearing like a desert," he told HipHopDX. "But the music has a life if you look at it right."
Prophets of Rage — Chuck D's new band consisting of Cypress Hill's B-Real, DJ Lord and Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk — is featured, in addition to Ice T and others.
The 13-track release follows up 2015's Man Plans God Laughs at a time when America's political landscape couldn't be more ripe for the Rebels Without A Pause. Consider your Fourth of July playlist complete.
The full album can be downloaded here, or streamed below.
Nothing Is Quick In The Desert comes as the band celebrates its 30th anniversary. Full track listing:
1. Nothing Is Quick In The Desert
2. sPEak!
3. Yesterday Man
4. Exit Your Mind
5. Beat Them All
6. Smash The Crowd
7. If You Can't Join Em Beat Em
8. So Be It
9. SOC MED Digital Heroin
10. Terrorwrist
11. Toxic
12. Smells Like Teens Hear It
13. Rest In Beats (Part 1 & 2)
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Skaters and musicians drawings from my personal collection
Over the last weekend I posted these three drawings on my Instagram including drawings by Wes Humpston, Chuck Dukowski and Chuck D. of Public Enemy, with some back stories... I thought you might like them.
Friday, June 17, 2016
Chuck D Speaks On Black Baseball Players
from Public Enemy.com
Almost sixty-nine years have passed since Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier, but despite the progress spurred on by this historic act, the sport faces declining numbers of both black players and black fans. Chris Rock has even likened being a black baseball fan to being part of an endangered species. In an interview with Complex, Chuck D discussed why the sport he loves is becoming an increasingly foreign experience to black youth.
In the 80's, black players represented about twenty percent of the MLB. Now they represent less than eight percent. "It disturbs me because of my own personal adoration with something I was obsessed with baseball as a [teenager]. I was obsessed with the game," Chuck said when asked how he felt about the sharp decline in black players.
Chuck sees this as another symptom of American society's eagerness to jail black men. "Number one, baseball in the United States of America starts with relationship of father to son. Ya hear me? Starts with the relationship of father to son. My father played baseball with myself and my brother... When you have the eradication of the black community and the destruction of black fatherhood for whatever reasons it might be—you can say it’s a redefinition of the family but there are actual facts. Meaning what? There was 100,000 black men in prison in 1970, and there’s well over a million and a half now in U.S. prisons... If you take the father away from the son, you’re going to have a lot of missing [opportunities for] explaining how we should work together as a team..."
"The black community has been fragmented seriously, since the 1980s, for a bunch of different reasons. Be it drugs, guns, a whole bunch of areas of non-development," Chuck said. "Baseball fields were always full in black communities in the United States in the ‘50s, in the ‘60s and in the ‘70s. They were full and at the same time you’d go to the sideline and fathers would almost always outnumber the sons. You don’t see that nowhere no more."
Chuck also takes issue with people claiming that the sport is boring, or that the reason it's failed to attract the attention of young athletes is because it's not as exciting to watch as say, basketball or football. "So when people say baseball is boring, yeah it’s boring because you don’t have the time to understand, to grasp it. Don’t just say it’s wack because you don’t understand," Chuck said.
You can read the full interview, which includes more of Chuck's thoughts on how baseball has changed since he was obsessed with it as a teen, over at Complex.
By Michael Lacerna for PublicEnemy.com
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
FOUNDING FATHERS narrated by Chuck D
A factual report about unsung DJ's who contributed to the foundational principals of the music known today as Hip Hop. This documentary transports you to a journey back to the early underground disco days of the streets and parks throughout New York City.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Chuck D: 'We battled the mainstream, we battled our label, we fought every goddamn minute'
from The Guardian:
During Public Enemy’s ‘war years’, Chuck D was the sensible one who kept the chaotic show on the road. He talks about Black Lives Matter, not getting an invitation to the White House, and why solo rappers like Kanye and Jay Z are losing their minds
It’s funny how rappers who were once explosively controversial, denounced by the press, police and politicians, turn into beloved elder statesmen. Gangsta rap pioneers NWA have been almost canonised by the hit movie Straight Outta Compton. “NWA were a bigger movie than they were a group,” Chuck D says admiringly. His group Public Enemy, meanwhile, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two years ago. “We don’t get Grammies and shit like that,” says Chuck. “It’s an incestuous circle. We’ve always operated outside the circle and attacked the circle, which makes our existence harder sometimes. When we got into the Hall of Fame, we felt we were properly curated.”
We are sitting in Chuck’s room at the Park Hyatt in Hamburg. Supporting the Prodigy in Europe’s arenas buys a better class of hotel, but Public Enemy have managed on a lot less. Chuck calculates they have played almost 4,000 shows in 104 countries and this is their 104th tour. On Harder Than You Think, which became the theme tune to the 2012 Paralympic Games and their biggest UK hit, he called the band “the Rolling Stones of the rap game”. He remembers telling his label Def Jam in 1990: “I don’t wanna be the guy that’s gonna be doing this shit for 30 years.” He sips his coke, looks at a suitcase leaking clothes and raises his eyebrows. “Duh.”
Chuck’s an “old head” now and he doesn’t mind admitting it. On Public Enemy’s new album, Man Plans God Laughs, he raps “I’m 55, double nickel” because he figures it’s a strength, not a weakness. “Someone says: ‘Chuck, you sound like an old man.’ Motherfucker, I am an old man!” He booms out a big, husky chuckle. “‘You sound like my old, cranky uncle.’ Yes, I am your old, cranky uncle. I’m not trying to not be. I’m cool with that.”
Carlton Ridenhour never really sounded young. He was already 26 when he co-founded Public Enemy in Long Island in 1986, and he sounded as if he already knew everything, with a voice like an angry god. Every element of the band, from the logo to the stagewear to the raging sea of samples, was designed to draw maximum attention to their rebooted Black Power message. Hits such as Bring the Noise, Fight the Power and the Noam Chomsky-inspired Don’t Believe the Hype sounded like urgent instructions. No other group, in hip-hop or rock, has ever expressed political ideas with as much intellect and visceral excitement – the NME hailed them as “the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world”. But they were always thorny, never safe, and they made enemies of liberals as well as conservatives: the black critic Stanley Crouch went as far as calling them “afro-fascist race-baiters”.
Chuck calls this 1987-1991 period Public Enemy’s “war years”, and he was the flak-catcher. “You take the most hits, you get the most scar tissue,” he says in his weighty baritone. “That’s cool. I got no regrets on that. We battled the mainstream, we battled our company, we fought every goddamn minute.”
Chuck likes to say that his interviews are better than most artists’ shows. The man can talk for hours. When they were touring together two years ago, LL Cool J and Ice Cube called his voice “the iron lung” because it never tired. “I could yell over a mountain,” Chuck says. “If I wasn’t MCing, maybe I would be a supervisor yelling across a factory. My father has the greatest, biggest voice of all time. I was like: ‘Just beat me, don’t yell at me!’” He laughs and makes a sound like vibrating walls. I knew he had a sense of humour – he played the spoof black radical Malcolm Y in deleted scenes from Anchorman – but I didn’t expect him to be quite so different from the formidably intense figure on the cover of Public Enemy’s 1988 masterpiece It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. I didn’t expect jovial.
Unlike most rappers, Chuck is rarely autobiographical – he says his life is “irrelevant” to the music – but his background explains a lot. He grew up in the middle-class black suburb of Roosevelt, Long Island (“the first test market for white flight”), old enough to remember the 60s. His neighbours included future bandmates Professor Griff, Hank Shocklee and Bill Stephney, as well as Eddie Murphy. “We were surrounded by like-minded people from similar backgrounds. You feel that way too? You experienced that too?” In middle school, he attended a summer programme called the Afro-American Experience, taught by Black Panthers and student radicals. “They would tell you: ‘No, Columbus did not discover America, this is the real deal.’ So when we went back to school, we presented a problem. We just thought it was the truth.”
Public Enemy hit the ground running; no other band was as informed and opinionated. “We knew what people were not doing. That allowed us to be daring.” They realised they’d only have a short window of opportunity, which Chuck now defines as the two years between Rebel Without a Pause in 1987 and Fight the Power in 1989. “We knew hip-hop moved every two, three years. We knew in the 1990s the new thing was coming in.” So their records were crammed with information that Chuck happily unpacked in interview after interview. “What’s going on with Thatcher? Why is Nelson Mandela still in prison? That type of shit. I felt confident. I was in a group. If I was on my own and it was all swirling around my head, I’d have been loony.”
Did he ever feel out of his depth? “Yeah, I was like, man, I’m having to answer shit on Israel and Palestine and y’all ain’t got this shit together. It’s still a chaotic mess in 2015!” Was he ever wrong? “Of course! Man, there’s things I said 30 years ago where I think I must have been out of my goddamn mind. Who doesn’t think that? Ain’t none of us Jesus.” (He has previously apologised for the early song Sophisticated Bitch and remarks “that wasn’t totally favourable for outside of heterosexual relationships for black people”.)
When the crew were going to clubs in the early 80s, Chuck, who didn’t smoke or drink, was the designated driver. In a way, he became Public Enemy’s designated driver: the sensible one who kept the car on the road while his friends on the backseat were acting crazy. Public Enemy was meant to be a lively democracy, with Chuck mediating between the goofy, anarchic Flavor Flav and the stern, ultra-militant “Minister of Information” Professor Griff, but that didn’t pan out. “I eventually had to assume the role of boss because if you decide to slide away from the steering wheel, the car could go off the cliff.”
We both know what he’s talking about. Public Enemy’s biggest crisis blew up when an overworked Chuck assigned some interviews to Griff, who, in 1989, told the Washington Times that Jews were “responsible for the majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe”. The situation was toxic for Public Enemy, not least because many of their closest collaborators were Jewish. Chuck tried to defuse the crisis without throwing Griff (who apologised too late) under the bus but his compromise solution ended up pleasing nobody. Collectively branded antisemites, the group briefly broke up and, says Chuck, “probably could have collapsed if I wasn’t the main motherfucker”. In the absence of such intense media scrutiny, he gives his bandmates space. He doesn’t publicly criticise Griff for giving paranoid lectures about the Illuminati, just like he didn’t knock Flav for becoming a clownish reality TV star. Sometimes he seems like a long-suffering sitcom dad. He says touring is “like being trapped in an ice-cream truck”.
Hard though it was playing “paintball” with the media, Chuck thinks it was easier to deal with the press, radio and TV than it is to handle the internet. “I’m swimming in a pool and I can manage in a pond but then you’re thrown into the Black Sea,” he says. “A lot of people aren’t literate on how to swim in the web and not believe the hype. Ha! Sounds like a song.”
In July, Chuck experienced his first Twitterstorm after he criticised attempts to erase Bill Cosby’s legacy. “No way I’m defending Cosby. But this wiping history out with a swoop is akin to Nazi book burning. Context is everything. Phil Spector still plays,” he tweeted.
Was he surprised by the backlash? “It surprised me that I was trending because I didn’t know what trending was. But I’m not into social media being this immediate lynch mob either.” He says Cosby’s alleged offences were “really criminal” and has no affection for the man. “I saw him one time and he was talking to Will Smith most of the time.” But he insists: “It’s not like a hard drive where you can say his life didn’t count. The data removal of somebody’s existence is what I was pissed about. When I was talking about the data removal being a problem, people were coming at him hard because (a), He’s Dr Huxtable, Mr America, and (b), he’s drugging chicks. I understand that.” He admits that it’s a distinction not everyone thinks is worth making. “My wife had a different point of view: ‘You’re wrong for saying that.’ I understood that. She’s an academic star in her league.” (Gaye Theresa Johnson is an associate professor at UCLA.)
I think Chuck got into trouble because he’s more interested in critiquing patterns of behaviour than individuals. He studies group dynamics: bands, sports teams, industries, political systems. So he thinks the N-word is being “ridden to success” by “lazy” rappers, but won’t name names. He likes conscious, rebellious hip-hop (Kendrick Lamar, Run the Jewels, Kanye West’s Yeezus) but, unlike some old Public Enemy fans, doesn’t expect every rapper to be political. He thinks the music industry is racist but won’t pin it on white MCs such as Macklemore. “KRS-One says we understand that these are the barriers of race but beyond that we are hip-hop. Yeah, you’re white in the United States of America. There’s gonna be people who relate to that and structures that’s gonna be able to cosign it quicker than a black guy who did it before. I’ve always fought to change the system. Individual MCs are a product of systematic conditioning. But Macklemore and Ryan Lewis? I thought it was fantastic.”
His main beef with modern hip-hop is simply that there are too many solo acts and not enough groups. “When I look at a guy like Kanye or Jay Z, the guys who are successful individuals, they’re fucking batty,” he says. “They’re out of their goddamn minds. They got no team. I’m a fan of Kanye’s rebellion. I’m not a fan of one-man teams as much. The thing that inspires me is I’m with my team. One person on stage, after 18 minutes they’d better be juggling lawnmowers or eating fire.”
He’s surprisingly diplomatic. Would he have made a good politician? “Hell, fucking no!” Why not? “Because I’m a culturalist. I’m damn near a fucking hippy. The closest I would be to any office is cultural ambassador.”
Chuck believes that “all these governments are full of shit”, but he supported Obama in 2008 and still does. “I dug him. I dig him. I don’t make any attacks on the president. You see how much he’s aged physically because if you have a good heart and you want to see it make a change then you know you’re going up against the perfect storm every fucking minute.” He grins. “My questions are real practical. One, how the fuck does he get some sleep? Two, how does he keep his old homeboys away?”
The Obamas know Public Enemy’s music – their first date was a showing of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, which features Fight the Power 15 times – so did Chuck expect a White House invitation like Jay Z? “Oh no,” he booms. “No! I would have been naive and stupid and self-centred to think: ‘Oh man, the president’s gonna invite me to the White House!’ That’s fucked up. Just listen to that sentence.”
Chuck finds it strange to be older than the president. He has always sought the counsel of his elders. When Public Enemy were starting out, he consulted Black Power veterans such as Huey Newton, Malcolm X’s widow Betty Shabazz and the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan. When the band entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he insisted they were inducted by Harry Belafonte rather than a younger rapper. You could say the modern equivalents to the young Chuck D are Ta-Nehisi Coates or Deray Mckesson of Black Lives Matter, but he hasn’t read Coates and doesn’t want to elbow his way into a new generation’s struggle uninvited.
“You have to pay attention to their energy and concern,” he says. “Black Lives Matter are responding to a gaping need and they’re being vocal about it the best way they can. I didn’t go to Ferguson but don’t be talking about how that shit ain’t good. I salute everyone who went to Ferguson.”
It comes back to acting your age, he says. He feels that there’s a “missing generation” of black activists in their 30s or 40s who can guide and advise young protesters. “They’re invisible to me,” he says. “I think what we’ve seen in the past 20 years has been a loss of how to age gracefully.” Chuck believes in continuity. He sees himself as a link in a chain much longer than hip-hop: Paul Robeson inspired Belafonte, who inspired Bob Dylan and Curtis Mayfield, who inspired Public Enemy. Through his record label, SLAMjamz, and internet radio channel, Rapstation, he mentors young rappers and DJs. “I say to people, how can I help? If I can’t help, this shit is a fucking waste.”
If Chuck were really an “old cranky uncle”, he’d be rubbing old wounds and grouching about how things were better in his day but he describes himself as “a realist and an optimist”, qualities that save musicians and activists alike from a bitter, disappointed middle age. He still talks about white supremacy, inequality and the prison industry but his searing, unapologetic rage seems to have evolved into something warmer and more philosophical. It was always obvious he was smart when it came to politics. It turns out he’s smart about life, too.
After the interview, he removes his black Public Enemy baseball cap to rub his shaved head and we spend another 15 minutes talking about raising daughters. He is about to miss a week of the Prodigy tour so that he can go home to his four-year-old. His older daughters, 22 and 27, are successful professionals. “I wasn’t gonna sacrifice family for the sake of the stage,” he says. He has some long-term parenting advice for me: “You gotta map some of this shit out. Your nine-year-old is going to be 24 in 2030. What will the world be like in 2030?”
Does he think it will be better or worse? He sighs and throws out his hands. “Life is life. Life is a fight, man. In the middle of the smoke, you fight to breathe.”
Man Plans God Laughs is out now. Public Enemy tour the UK with the Prodigy from 24 November
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Happy birthday to CHUCK D. of Public Enemy
This photo from the book MY RULES
CHUCK D OF PUBLIC ENEMY, THE EARTHIST from Juxtapoz magazine:
First thing you notice when speaking with Chuck D is that voice. It has the command of someone who has spent over 30 years as one of the most important MCs and intellectuals, not only on the subject of hip-hop, but of music and culture as a whole. Leader of the seminal musical force and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group Public Enemy, Chuck is also an accomplished artist who earned his degree in graphic design at Adelphi University and became one of the originators of fusing logo work and art into hip-hop.
On July 25, 2015, Public Enemy will release a new album, Man Plans God Laughs, that will once again stamp Chuck’s iconic PE logo onto the forefront of contemporary culture. We spoke with the iconic frontman as he prepared for another summer of touring and discussed rock logos, cartoons, and being an Earthist at heart. —Evan Pricco
Evan Pricco: The distribution of music has changed drastically throughout your career in terms of fan interaction with the medium, as well as promoting new projects. How has that changed for you over the last 20 years?
Chuck D: You have to have direct contact with people. Whatever you do release will always be weighed up against what you did release. You have to develop your own belief system, develop your own world and be very committed to your core: both in yourself and in the people that follow you. So, even if it’s a hundred people or ten people in a room, you gotta be consistent with that core and everything will follow, or it doesn’t. You have to live by that. I think another thing that we have to understand in the 21st Century is that you have to really define clearly what you’re not even as much as defining who you are and what you are.
Casual fans of music may not realize that you created the Public Enemy logo. When PE went on stage or released an album, there was a look, an overall image that you guys gave off that was strong. Were there bands before you that had that kind of aesthetic and that kind of vibe that inspired you?
Yeah, but they were in other genres, though. Lots of heavy metal and rock groups, like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, had logos and that look; and the punk movement or thrash-metal with Anthrax and Slayer. Those guys knew they had to have an identity that went beyond their sound. They had to be sight, story and sound. That’s pretty much the epitome of where we all are as artists today. Sight, story and sound has to epitomize the entry into the artistic battleground.
Do you remember the first time you showed the Public Enemy logo to somebody and what their reaction was?
I used to do flyer designs back in the day on Long Island, so I would do logos for acts that didn’t have one, or make up names for acts that didn’t really exist when I was starting out. So when I made the Public Enemy logo, I was actually making a logo for a group that didn’t exist! When Public Enemy came up as this group option, I just moved it from this other situation on over to us, and it fit perfectly. The thing that impressed me was when I saw it in a big gigantic arena-sized way, when we actually opened up for the Beastie Boys in 1987. We had the large backdrop made, and when the logo went up across the back of the arena, I was really impressed. It went from a sketchpad to a stadium. I was blown back. It stood out.
People say I studied art. I didn’t just study; I graduated with an art degree. There’s a big difference. When it came to be around that potential time of making logos, I wanted to make something that understood what a logo could do, you know? Look at the Rolling Stones. The tongue and the lips say it all without you looking at the font. I wanted to be able to make something that detaches. I don’t think there’s too many logos out there that don’t deal with a font, that you can detach and know what it is. Wu-Tang is still the W, but that kinda comes close. But Public Enemy… no font whatsoever. Circle with a man, you know what it is.
Does it still move you today if you see a kid wearing a Public Enemy T-shirt? You made generation-defining music, and that stands the test of time. But something you created that was visual, does that mean something else to you?
Yeah. But that was the intention. You’re more appreciative than shocked. What thrills me even more is when I see somebody 20 years old, or 16 or even 14 wearing the Doors, Pink Floyd or the Beatles, something 50 years before their time.
Where did you think studying in the arts was going to take you?
When I was at Adelphi University, there were two black cartoonists who took over the section in the school newspaper. It was me and Jeff Thomas, who was from a nearby town on Long Island. That was unique: we were two black kids, 18 years old, the school cartoonists as freshmen. I sort of played around a bit, got kicked out, but then I got back into school after making some deals with the dean because everybody thought I had great potential. But the thing that motivated me when I got back to school was that rap music came out, and it made sense for me to finish up school and head up some kind of art department that didn’t exist yet for rap music. So my sole intention was to finish college and be a part of a record company in the art room.
Much of this issue examines environmental themes or concerns, and one of the tracks on your new album is called “Earthizen,” which I knows touches on the subject.
Earth without art is just “eh.” Basically, the best piece of artwork is the planet Earth. You might debate whether there’s a God or not, but the design is impeccable. And I’m not going to be a person under the thumb of any government; the Earth is to be enjoyed as an incredible canvas, not to fuck up, but to enjoy in its artistic brilliance. So I’m an Earthist. I’m not a citizen of any one place on the planet other than the planet Earth, and at the core of my spiritual belief is art. Art and culture brings us together as a phenomenal human race while governments and corporations like to label us and put us in these little areas and categories that we have to aspire to. And I never really believed in that at all. At the core of my spiritual beliefs is my art, which is also my language.
That’s really good.
I didn’t make it up.
Public Enemy’s new album, Man Plans God Laughs, was released on July 25, 2015. For more information visit PublicEnemy.com
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Chuck D. on PBS with Tavis Smiley
from PBS.org - this was recorded last fall...
A Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Internet innovator and best-selling author, Chuck D has been in the business for more than 25 years. The New York native got his start while pursuing his degree at Adelphi University. At the campus radio station, which was becoming a hub for the early expansion of the hip-hop movement, he wrote music and deejayed a program that featured the artists who would later form Public Enemy—a pioneer of politically conscious rap music. He's an outspoken advocate of music on the web and delivers his message through various mediums, including his multi-format "supersite" Rapstation. He's also still focused on the fight, which he does with his new EP, "The Black in Man."
Friday, November 30, 2012
HIP HOP GODS tour
on the road now
I just got back from the show, totally fun Hip-Hop family affair brought together by none other than Chuck D., great classic hip hop performed by the pros, if you love hip hop it's a no-brainer, if you like the classic stuff and haven't seen a show in a long time, you'll have a good time. Many artists and many guests, a non-stop cavalcade of RAP. "Son of Bezerk & No Self Control" brought me back to the early days in a flash with their style and classic flow. "Poor Righteous Teachers" were cool. "Brother J" from The X-Clan and Schooly D. were awesome highlights, two artists i never met before (until tonight!) and have appreciated there records for years. Public Enemy close the night with a really strong set including a live band. Rarely will i recommend a live hip hop show, but this is the great exception, out on the road for two weeks now. check it out.
http://www.publicenemy.com/tour
http://hiphopgods.rapstation.com/news/hiphopgods.tourfest.revue
HipHopGods.com, the premier destination for classic rap fans, will launch the inaugural HipHopGods Classic Tourfest Revue with a series of concerts featuring Public Enemy and a revolving lineup of allstars from the Golden Age of hip hop including X Clan, Schoolly D, Leaders of the New School, Monie Love, Son of Bazerk, Wise Intelligent (of Poor Righteous Teachers), Awesome Dre and Davy DMX.
The tour begins on November 28th in Washington, DC at the 930 Club and will make its way across the country to Los Angeles several weeks later.
The collection of artists will take the stage each night to deliver a rare combination of thought-provoking entertainment and history lesson in the musical phenomenon they helped build. Each act not only played a vital role in the development of hip hop culture but continues to be an important and influential force in music.
Official dates and venues are as follows:
Wednesday, November 28, 2012 / Washington DC / 930 CLUB
Thursday November 29 2012/ New York / IRVING PLAZA
Friday, November 30, 2012/ Public Enemy in PHILADELPHIA
Saturday, December 01, 2012 / Burlington Vermont / HIGHER GROUND
Sunday, December 02, 2012 / Boston / ROYALE THEATER
Tuesday, December 04, 2012 / Indianapolis / VOGUE THEATRE
Wednesday, December 05, 2012 / Chicago / HOUSE OF BLUES
Thursday, December 06, 2012 / Minneapolis / FIRST AVENUE
Friday, December 07, 2012 / Lincoln, Nebraska / BOURBON THEATER
Saturday, December 08, 2012 / Denver / OGDEN THEATER
Sunday, December 09, 2012 /JacksonHoleWyoming/PINK GARTER THEATER
Monday, December 10, 2012 / Aspen, CO / BELLY UP
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 / San Diego / 4TH AND B
Thursday, December 13, 2012 / Los Angeles / NOKIA THEATRE
HipHopGods.com is the first fully-comprehensive community for old-school hip hop fans, bringing together the most important and enduring rappers into one site where classic rap lives on.
Developed by BTNEastlink in association with Chuck D, HipHopGods.com aims to "encompass and empower the hip hop nation," Chuck D explains, and "to have the hip hop community get and keep a hold on itself and connect the legacy." The site has been likened to "classic rock radio" by DMC of Run-DMC. KRS-One noted that "When I log on to HipHopGods.com, I feel like I am entering the Hip Hop nation."
Keep an eye on HipHopGods.com for exclusive content coming your way from our team on The Hip Hop Gods Classic Tourfest Revue!
http://www.publicenemy.com/tour
http://hiphopgods.rapstation.com/news/hiphopgods.tourfest.revue
Friday, April 13, 2012
Something for Nothing: The Art of Rap
THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BIGGEST DOCUMENTARY EVER.
I SAW IT AT SUNDANCE, I KNOW.
A must see for any hip hop fan and any hip hop hater, after this you'll have nothing but love.
Ice-T takes us on an intimate journey into the heart and soul of hip-hop with the legends of rap music. This performance documentary goes beyond the stardom and the bling to explore what goes on inside the minds, and erupts from the lips, of the grandmasters of rap. Recognized as the godfather of Gangsta rap, Ice-T is granted unparalleled access to the personal lives of the masters of this artform that he credits for saving his life. Interspersed with the performers' insightful, touching, and often funny revelations are classic raps, freestyle rhymes, and never before heard a cappellas straight from the mouths of the creators. What emerges is a better understanding of, and a tribute to, an original American art form that brought poetry to a new generation.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
CHUCK D. goes off on Twitter earlier this evening, from South Africa
My old friend and one time collaborator on some fine LP covers, Chuck D. of Public Enemy and radio station WBAU was in classic form tonight when i checked in on Twitter. He's one of the less than 40 people I have on my follow list. He wasn't working with the 140 characters, but he was working IT. Dropping some science for just about two hours straight, probably as fast as he could type on his iPad. I sent him a message @MrChuckD towards the middle, probably why he name checked me towards the end there.
So start from the bottom and read your way up to get his messages as he intended.
Instead in 2011 I will follow a million people to see what's inside the minds of the world. I always do more listening than talking. PEace
Lstpt. I don't look to be followed.I only tweet from my iPad.I'm deeper than 140 and refuse to do it from phone like it's some human remote
@rolfmohr thus I became a twitiot tonight Goodnight and great morning from beautiful Johannesburg South Africa Chuckd@publicenemy.com
@rolfmohr I in turn will use Twitter tofollow people instead ofthe other way around.I rather have 200 focused people than 3 million twitiots
@rolfmohr Simple I don't tweet. I'm deeper than 140 characters And I only do it from my iPad not my phone I'm am not to be followed.
When I get back to NYC in a week to turn over some desks..oh Yeah ,like said I come from a people who will tell folk to keep their FKN money
But ill be damn if I'm allowing that bullshit to infiltrate Africa into Amerfrica . Nope. So Glen Friedman tell Russell to join me when I ..
.. true HipHop generation led by the love of it behind an unknown door. 20 years since the PE anti Semitic charges we now see your results
..Had ourselves.. Soul is a bullish repellant. Without esteem and self confidence it's easy to image inject a mass. This is 35 and under ..
..Seem like you are wasting your lifetime being normal. I say this in closing. In my day black people could fight off bullsht because we..
A city block. Nervous. There are plenty of people who happy nobody knows them , so they can continue to FK peoples esteem up and make folk..
But your word sometimes must help and inspire. So I damn their exploiters who wait for their piece inthe back. LA Reid probably can't walk
Even if we talk Rick Ross or Nicki Minaj their obligation is to somehow give sometime not TAKE, and realize how to be around more than a min
I waited to be 50 so I could brag about it. And witnessing the mass debris of artists the past 20 years who now know that their word is bond
..Black celebrity must know that no one owns a culture they only borrow it because it comes from the people thus must return in high spirit
These are the people behind the barrage of image who some of them believe they are celebrities themselves. But a celebrity especially a
They take car service from point to point rather than a cab or a train. I'm talking entertainment execs usually the black ones in charge.
When a MF sits their ass up in a Viacom office they have little idea of the power emitted. It goes beyond their Job. You never know them.
I traveled the world to 76 countries in person not to have projected holograms make human beings feel inferior to the guise of celebrity.
I speak when I recognize crucial turning points.Africa can be the center of the hip hop planet on it's own terms it can't be steered from NY
I say all this tonight because a potential image and cultural poison has been planted inAfrica to create Amerfrica the nerve of businessmen
I tell Lyor Cohen at Warner don't be hidden and not so invisible when it comes down to being in charge of artists look but hate black folk
Clive Davis behind lives in some high rise , Jimmy Iovine lives in Malibu he's behind 50 EM Dre and made a lotta green off black bloodshed
Again I carry nothing but my head and heart , people should keep their jobs but I'm here to put FEAR into their bosses again people you dt C
He's gotta keep his job and satify his bosses in NYC HQ . So my goals are to fk his bosses up. We cannot afford Africa to become Amerfrica
But they are invited into the homes and heads.I'm trying to tell the bro here in AfricaMTV that turning Africa into Amerfrica Is not the way
Hot 97 broadcasts to millions but no one knows where the DJs live If somebody knocks on their home with that BS they the first to call cops
Something young heads can feel good about. If a so called celebrity is only looking for money from the people without even giving real talk
Radio DJs say zero for the people thus they are responsible for the condition. If you 40 talking to 20 year olds, your old asses should say.
Be accountable to the people and stop making young people feel inferior. They have the artists afraid by threatening to cut off their money
Start hiding when I'm in their building. It's funny I won't Nothing from them but to be accountable oh yeah just lil ol me no bodyguards..
MTV BET radio conglomerates , usually the men who pay the people you know and sometimes love. I'm 5-9 don't have a weapon and those fools ..
I don't blame people, I tell them don't be alarmed when I kick the gatekeepers asses Corporations and executives you don't know or ever see
Clubs are louder than ever because people ain't saying sht Can't look eye to eye And rather text than talk to someone a foot away. Lastly.
You have to one day think of yourself as better than an image thrown at you. It's ok to tell a person bragging about their $ Yeah. ..so ?
It's not a rant it's the clear and obvious truth never have we looked so good and been so hollow. Black americans are becoming mannequins
Thus I am done being a twitiot and picking Electronic cotton and diggin digital ditches tonight from SA where a nation of millions are movin
Last point Black america gotta nerve to say what work we ain't gonna do, claiming we picked sht..WE ain't did sht our people did it w skill
Trust me Jay Z Beyonce Diddy probably run from their family. Can you imagine them at a cookout?... probably got security and bodyguards
The fakeness of black celebrity is this. They are a sliver away from the poverty and drama of their own family.It's not the blue blood elite
@sunspotjonz Multi tasking like hit beats in a club time in your own business but fly the plane dude, cmon.
@sunspotjonz yup make yourself a tool I come here and the amount of people WORKing at skill areas is boggling. Men and women doing work
In the unitedstates continued genocide is backed by the LAW.Protecting the hood is considered taking the LAW into your own hands =violation
There are places in this world that taken THUGs who took the hood for granted and had their heads chopped off and put on posts in town..
What kind of country makes smart people wanna reduce and dumb themselves down? I don't want a FKN pilot who comes an tells me he makes beats
And I'm a knick fan but cmon money ain't everything . And in real life it's a tool remember make yourselves valuable and money will come
The USA is like the NY Knicks last 10 years a lot a hype swollen pockets lazy as f"k and not got the nerve to swing on old championships
@BrazenWords well I just got of the stage in South Africa I clearly see how far black people have fallen off from black people home a
Take the dollar just don't believe it , they got the nerve to print in God We Trust . Americas god is a dog just ask my man Mike Vick
@MsTrinaAquarian personal substance usually ends up in the garbage or yard sales within a year. Salvation Army andvPAWN shops are loaded!
I always encouraged THUG mcs to stop BS in and their companies and Mgt to do prison tours ...but many were scared. It's not a place for lies
....knowledge wisdom and understanding qualities of life you can't but or get from a microwave Technology can teach the nxt generations But
No offense to the homeless , but I know people who live in a big ass house who are homeless like a MF. Inside designers are ....
Now that we are allowed to buy designer gear , the question is who designs our insides. Bling on the outside homeless on the inside.
Trust me black people I come from were skilled but they had their soul. Bold enough to tell fools I don't want your FKN money keep that sht!
Nothing worse than a person that knows better and does worse ..no one takes Sht to the grave. YOU are measured by word and deed ..MCs heed
@rappinhood PEace my brother from Brazil
I come from a legacy of people bold enough to tell a drug dealer pimp or govt we don't want your FKN money and not the least impressed ethr
That was to some peeps from Johannesburg South africa
@MrChuckD thank you for representing we are grateful for you your city and country PEace and luvout
@TDdaPG7 thank you sir AND your city and country we are humbled Mr T
Monday, March 30, 2009
Chuck D. and Public Enemy circa 1987
Here's a classic never published shot of PE, before they shunned the gold chains (the ultimate "status symbol" of that era) completely. It was an interesting moment back stage that night when at the arena outside of Washington DC, where I brought my friend Ian MacKaye to see PE live for the first time and we both noticed that Chuck was wearing gold after speaking out about it publicly before, we thought, and one of us asked, "Chuck is that real? Are you really going out like that?" We thought that PE, and Chuck of all people saw the gold chains for what they were, further enslavement to petty capitalism and consumerism, but Chuck's answer that night was "The kids think it's DOPE, we're here for them, and it looks dope, we can't argue with that... Besides it ain't real gold!" - Well thankfully Chuck disbanded that argument before the end of that tour, or shortly thereafter, but for a minute there it looked like he slipped in front of someone who was surely a bit disappointed at that first meeting. No one's perfect.Now, just in case you are not aware, I was probably one of the biggest PE fans/promoters of all time back then. Besides doing almost all of their early photography, including their first two album covers, I believe i was one of the first people ever to say that "It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back" was the greatest rap album of all time. i'm proud to have said that as early as i did, and see many people jump on that in the many years since, deservedly so. I was very close with them and the Bomb Squad back then. And even though we did have a bit of a falling out just before the third album came out, we had long since made up, and i'm still a big PE/Chuck D. fan and friend.
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