Published: Monday - April 23, 2007
Words by Mike Cooper II
Chuck D (Photo: n/a)
Hailing from Long Island, Public Enemy was unlike any rap group there ever was, and probably ever will be. That's what makes them so unique. Not only are they arguably the most influential act in the history of hip-hop, but their uncompromising style has had a colossal effect on pop music in general. In other words, there's hip-hop pre-Public Enemy and hip-hop post Public Enemy, and the differences are remarkable. Before Public Enemy, hip-hop was seen as dance or party music, or simply tales of drug dealings and demise in the hood. But Public Enemy, led by the ferocious MC Chuck D, raised the bar and forced the issue. Through controversy and shock, the group brought bigger concerns to the forefront than bank accounts and booty.
Today in hip-hop, "artists" are running around blindly in circles in a rat race unable to see to finish line, tripping each other along the way and skirmish amongst themselves instead of fighting the bigger battle. Sitting comfortably in a grassy meadow behind that finish line is Chuck, waiting for the day that the others will open their eyes and join him in the Promised Land. While waiting, Chuck has taken it upon himself, through radio and documentaries, "to preach the truth to the young black youth."
There's a reason It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back is a landmark, a revolutionary release, a pioneering effort, and quite simply, the greatest hip-hop album of all-time. That's because its release marked the birth of conscious and clairvoyant MCs. As once said, "rap is the CNN of the streets," and you can thank Chuck Dangerous for that.
Fresh off penning a new book -- Lyrics Of A Rap Revolutionary -- Chuck along with Flav, Griff, and DJ Lord celebrated their 20th anniversary by embarking tour #57. BallerStatus.com was able to catch up with Mr. Dangerous to speak on his past, his current outlook on hip-hop, Flava Flav and more.
BallerStatus.com: What do you think of Obama?
Chuck D: Barack is a good dude, but can he be the President of this country? If he doesn't win it, then it's typical white man running America, which is how it's been for like forever. But, people say "Well, oh don't be racist." It's funny because there seems to be other people in America besides the white male.
BallerStatus.com: That's the trend.
Chuck D: Just like the Mavericks dominating the NBA right now. That's been going on for so long with nothing else even close. We just now have the first Muslim in Congress.
BallerStatus.com: And the first atheist in modern times came out in the House of Representatives recently. The Christian right was going nuts over that, but that makes one out of what 535 representatives that doesn't leave all of his decisions up to God's will. What was your reaction to the whole Al Sharpton/Strom Thurmond ancestors' story coming out?
Chuck D: Yeah, that's American history. I think the terrible fact in America is that Americans are terrible in geography, history and time. Especially... well all three of them.
BallerStatus.com: No one can argue that history isn't culturally biased in the classrooms.
Chuck D: History is culturally biased and naturally biased because it doesn't fit in with the scope of the rest of the world's history. It just pertains to itself, so that perspective is played out. I have two teenagers and I told them they have to learn their history in the schools. They can't rebel against that. They can't walk out of class, that's not the answer. They have to learn what's printed in the school books and then go out and get other books to read other perspectives, maybe the right perspectives. Because if you don't learn the lies, how are they going to learn the truth?
BallerStatus.com: What made you first decide to join Air America Radio?
Chuck D: I've been on the college lecture tour for 16 years. When they were first forming Air America Radio, one of the guys that was trying to launch a network full of outspoken freedom speakers heard me speak at Temple University and thought I'd be perfect for it. It's funny because I'm the only one that's been there from the start and is still on the air with them today. I do my shows either out of Atlanta or New York.
BallerStatus.com: You can't pick up Air America Radio where I live. Unfortunately all you can pick up is Glenn Beck, Hannity, Mike "Weiner" Savage, and Rush.
Chuck D: When you listen to that, what's given to you, it's like you're being programmed like a robot. You have to seek out your information or else you're just a robot.
BallerStatus.com: Are conservatives more popular on talk radio because people, who listen to music while driving, rather than AM Radio talk, are not their audience?
Chuck D: Conservatives are more popular on talk radio because they can rant and rave about nothing. Most of them are hypocritical anyway. My goal is to make sure people recognize themselves and their power to communicate, you know? People like yourself. My goal would be to have a large network of people that are able to communicate and get across the right messages, the right ideas. What I mean by "right" is that they are balanced and fair. There's a question about whether the news media in the United States is balanced and fair. And to be honest, it isn't, especially on television.
BallerStatus.com: There's just one real liberal with a political oriented news show on television and that's Keith Olbermann.
Chuck D: Right, correct. You're probably young enough not to remember how big Keith Olbermann was on SportsCenter.
BallerStatus.com: Oh yes I do, the "Big Show" as it was called. Dan Patrick and Keith were the best duo ESPN ever had.
Chuck D: But Keith went down a rocky road after leaving that network. During his transition into news and politics, he was considered a jock, a "jockocracy."
BallerStatus.com: You just invented a word there.
Chuck D: Nah, just pronounced it wrong.
BallerStatus.com: That's how some words come to be.
Chuck D: I try to invent some kinds of phrases, but they never give credit where credits due. (laughing)
BallerStatus.com: What did it mean to you to have Fear Of A Black Planet inducted into the Library of Congress?
Chuck D: When one does some work, you expect that your work is revered, but you also have to put the time and the energy and the effort into it. You can't simply say, "Oh I did something, I want props." I don't really look for props. I don't look for anything to validate my art. Most of the folks that speak badly of Public Enemy have never seen us live, don't know our message, and likely have never even heard one of our tracks. But if somebody validates it and says something close to the original point of the message that I originally intended it to be, then I have to say "Thank you." I'm going to make the music I want to make regardless. I'm never going to be in a situation where I don't make what I want to make. That's how I was raised, too. That's how I was brought up to be. My parents instilled in me from early on that I was going to grow up and do in life what I wanted to do. There's nothing worse than an adult doing something they feel deep down inside they should not be doing. Some will say, "Well sometimes people have no choice." That might be true, but that's why when I was a kid I was fortunate enough to be raised by two wonderful human beings that said, "You know what, think of your options, your potential."
BallerStatus.com: Speaking of your childhood days, what were times like back then for you? Where you grew up?
Chuck D: I was a black kid in a black neighborhood (laughing), but with a mother and father around. Having both parents in the house takes you at least out of scrambling in situations, in hard times. With parents there's some guidance at least. When you're black it always takes two just to keep your nose above water. We were living paycheck to paycheck. I think if I was in a single parent household, it would have been difficult.
BallerStatus.com: Did your parent's help steer you to music? Was there quite a lot of music being playing during your adolescence?
Chuck D: Being black in the 60s, every black family relied on music. It was our escape from the troubles outside, the problems going on all around. There was soul being played -- Stax, Motown, Atlantic... you name it. You got to understand, it was James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and Gladys Knight. And of course AM radio, especially AM radio. All of us in the group Public Enemy were influenced by AM radio. If you hear or see our set, you'll see we came from a better musical time, a time when the AM radio played everything.
BallerStatus.com: Do you think there's a big problem with today's hip-hop, and the artist not having a full grasp of the history of music?
Chuck D: That's a severe problem. It's hard to take a sound that came from a sound, that in turn came from a sound and say its banging just cause it is. The reason it was banging originally was because it had reference points. The DJs that ran rap music and hip-hop, it was imperative from them to actually know where these styles of the musicians came from. When a DJ took a sample, he definitely knew the whole record. It's not like that now. The DJ would play the record up until the break, then the break would be extended. It developed into that and I thought that was shortchanging records at that time. We happen to be cats who were always at the right stage at the right age. And although I'm 46-years-old, Flav is 47, and most of us are in our mid-forties, thank God we were able to understand the reference points of how hip-hop was. It's like nobody can tell me how it was. It's a different dynamic. I saw it develop from DJs into the MC thing. The DJ would play a record and then when the break came in it was extended. That got lazier to the point where DJs would just play the break, and then when other artists started coming in, they would actually sample the sample of another break.
BallerStatus.com: What do you think of all the diss tracks and rivalries between different rappers? There's so much division and you don't see that in other music genres.
Chuck D: Funkmaster Flex asked me that the other day. I said, "Well Flex, man, the problem is they're getting older and need something to say." They can't say the same thing they said 10 years ago.
BallerStatus.com: Is it from a "top dog" mentality where you have to put down others to make yourself shine?
Chuck D: No, it's a "TOPicless" environment that has been searching for things to say. They think going out and trying to rap about new issues, important issues, would result in them losing whatever audience they think they have. They think there's no audience there, even if they did have something profound locked away inside and let it out. To me, if you don't say what's inside, you're fake. There's nothing worse in hip-hop than being fake. You can be anything you want to be in hip-hop, but just be yourself. The minute that you become fake, you become fake. It not only tarnishes what you are now, but what you once were.
BallerStatus.com: What was your side on the whole hip-hop is dead debate after the new Nas album dropped?
Chuck D: Well I think, looking at it from my point of view, if the messages in hip-hop are going to be about shooting, killing and death... well that's the language of death because you're talking about a road that leads directly to it. So hip-hop can keep going on, but it would be like zombie rap. It takes on a morbid impression of itself. Hip-hop can be dead and still go forward. I wouldn't even say forward. Hip-hop can be dead and still be happening, but you won't grow a flower in it. That's why positive rap won't sell in it. Who says music in this day and age is supposed to sell? Selling records is not what it's all about. A good album by The Roots is better than a T.I. record no matter how much the latter sells. The only thing music is supposed to do now is alert you.
There are some groups like Dead Prez out there with meaning because beyond selling records, they have an obligation. But there was a time for albums between 1969 and about 1999, so it was a thirty year period for albums. Personally I think that today albums are outdated relics. I mean really, seriously. Only a generation from before knows the importance of albums. When it was just a thing where you sit down, put everything else aside, and let your imagination wander. That's when albums meant something because they actually could consume a bit of your time combined with your imagination. But after 1981, the whole treatment of music flip-flopped. That means that pre-1981, when you happened to see somebody on television doing a song that you've already heard and liked. it was a reminder of what you first heard. So hearing was a priority with records and seeing was secondary. Ever since 1981 and the 10 year period after that, seeing the artist became priority and hearing it was secondary. So that's just totally flip-flopped. That's why the generations are different.
BallerStatus.com: Would you say MTV has had a negative affect on all that?
Chuck D: I wouldn't say it's a negative aspect. It just developed into its own thing. My thing is that it's totally just flip-flopped man. A person in their 20s and a person in their 50s have two entirely different ways of looking at music. You know, the person in their 50s is not going to look at the visual component as being the main thing. They're going to take that audio and then attach it to their imagination. Meanwhile someone in their 20s, they're going to take the visual and attach it to whatever beat is bouncing in their head. There's less of an imagination today because the corporations are filling in the blanks.
Back in the day, when you listened to James Brown or The Temptations, you would relax, lay back, and soak it all in. An old head would do that. A younger person will listen to the music, but they'll be playing video games or doing some other sh--. That's just my scientific theory.
BallerStatus.com: What was your opinion of Flav's recent television programs?
Chuck D: Oh man! I think that Flavor has been the same cat for 30 years. Actually, I know that from experience. He's never changed in his whole life. You could look at our home videos from the 90s and 80s and he's the same dude. It's just a matter of what camera is on him, and who's watching in regards to how much he pours it on. My thing is as long as he doesn't hurt anyone, or himself, it's great. Flav will be what he is. He's the greatest actor ever. He's a non-stop ball of laughs.
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