NEWS
EVENTS
Chuck D - weaving the fabric of Hip-Hop
RnB/Hip Hop | Friday 25th April 2014 | Samantha
Pioneers of a brand of socially critical hip-hop spitting vicious verbals at the government and white America, these guys have firmly cemented themselves in Hip Hop royalty and still to this day are one of the biggest acts on the scene. We caught up with our friends and comrades on their longevity, legacy and the music.
Quote:
Beyond Trayvon is about our rights as black people to exist: things have got to change for us but we have to change as well!
I have to ask firstly how Chuck D/Public Enemy has remained so relevant twenty six years down the line?
We have a very big unit and we are very accountable to what we do. You have to be really regimented and you have to run it and not let it run you. So we know exactly what we got to do and when we have to do it-apart from that there is of course the love of hip-hop. World-wide we have been to so many countries 93 and we have been taking hip-hop to these countries for over twenty six years so it is a big thing.
What single or album do you think has defined what Public Enemy is about and why?
There are two albums: It takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back (1998) which was a national statement to the United States and Fear Of A Black Planet (1990) which was our international statement; between 1998 and 1990 we of course had Fight The Power (1989) which for sure had resonance across the globe.
With Nelson Mandela’s death it could be argued that President Obama is the next ‘hope’. Not going off the subject too much but did you have any expectations when Obama came to power?
I had no expectations of what he was going to do as the President of the United States since he is part of the United States government. All I know is that personally he has been inspirational but I am a realist and I know that governments are opposed to human beings coming together. I am a culturalist and I am an earthists and central to that is the fact of human beings coming together.
The use of the word ‘nigger’ in terms of hip-hop remains divisive-what are your views?
You cannot use the word ‘nigger’ without understanding the history of that word. The word ‘nigger’ is derogatory as much as we think we can spin it around. You can call someone a ‘pussy’ and say it in love but when you break it down it’s still the word ‘pussy’ and it will still bring anger.
Loving the album Most Of My Heroes Don’t Appear On No Stamp which seems like some enlightenment on our current world of musical output.
The album format is long gone as a market preference regardless of age. In my opinion, we have been in a predominately single song world since the first download. Digital distribution does not have to go under the constraint of the old distribution format where even if you are artistically ready you still have to wait for the system to be ready.
With this latest offering you have a rather socially powerful track called Beyond Trayvon; explain the ideas you were trying to cover in that track.
In the Western world if ‘we’ do not have our; education, our economic security and if we do not have the security of existing in our own environments then things will always be difficult. Beyond Trayvon is about our rights as black people to exist: things have got to change for us but we have to change as well!
What is the legacy for Chuck D?
What good is it if I tell a story about me and I can’t help others to be the best artist they want to be? I have a radio station and I support every period of the genre of hip-hop that is out. I think one of the problems is that too many artists believe things they are told and these things can affect their ability to allow them to make money from the game.
Do you think that the game does not teach and promote artists coming up?
We definitely need to have infrastructure that services fresh artists properly. They need to learn the aspects of having their own digital label, learn the aspects of being their own label learn how to work with other people and try to learn the aspects of being a group as opposed to being solo.
http://youtu.be/ysXUxRx101Q
My last question, when you going to be hitting the UK again?
I was out there a little while ago but Public Enemy are always touring (even now) so while there is nothing scheduled we definitely making that a plan of action.
