CHUCK D: TOO BLACK, TOO STRONG
“It's better to have a BMW brain than a BMW”
(Message from Chuck D to gangsta-rappers) Chuck D is the perfect mix of artistic ambition and intellectual rigour. He's hyperactivity personified: musician, musicologist, family man - his greatest pride -, TV and radio journalist, anti-system activist and designer (he designed the Public Enemy logo). As a result of all this activity he has become a recognised opinion maker within the black community. He has reached this position because of the respect he has earned over 15 years of coherency, not because of his business success. Anybody who wants to find out what makes the man tick can find out by reading Fight The Power (Viva la república, 2001). He wrote this powerful book of memories with the help of Yusuf Jah. The prologue is by film director Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues).
Above all, the man has proven himself to be a fighter with criteria and he's certainly not afraid of championing unpopular ideas. Contrary to most other rappers, he supports black leaders who speak out against the use of alcohol and drugs (he says they are an obstacle to maintaining selfesteem and control over your surrounding area). Even though Public Enemy represent the hardest face of black music, Chuck D publicly defends other “brothers” considered clowns or as having sold out. Two examples of this are Eddie Murphy (he praised his film Harlem Nights) and MC Hammer (Chuck D states that Hammer tried to recycle black pop). He has also played in over 40 countries, encouraging rappers not to confine themselves to the USA. He urges them to interact with other cultures.
Chuck D considers himself a son of the Sixties, a period marked by the Black Panthers, James Brown or the militant Black Power athletes. His idea is to use the idealism of that decade to elevate hip hop to the heights attained by U2. He looks for a higher social conscience from black sports megastars and he is demanding retribution from the Government of the USA for the centuries of slavery suffered by his people (from 1600 to 1900).
This is no crackpot demand; he backs it up with serious judicial reasoning based on the compensation paid to the Jewish people as a result of the Holocaust. By his reckoning the government should pay the black community four trillion, four hundred thousand million dollars. Phew! He is not, we repeat, some mad black nutter; he's an articulate polemist who has no time for ingenuity: “Doctor King was an adorable man, but he had to be accompanied everywhere by three brothers armed to the teeth”.
Summing up: an intense and exciting book, especially when he talks about his trip to Africa with the massive concerts and educational visits to the old slave markets. Throughout the book, Chuck D states that he is both inside and outside the system. His aim is to create black leaders, positive examples to influence in music, sport and the media. “If our people like different fads, let's give them fads that teach them about themselves and their history”
PUBLIC ENEMY
Revolerlution. Koch-Epic, 2002
Public Enemy take a look back at the fifteen years they have been pumping out the goods on this collection of previously unedited songs and rarities revisited with the help of some friends. The record contains their hymns from “Public Enemy nº1” to “Fight the Power”. The versions on this record are live and remixed by friends and fans. On “Give The Peeps What They Need”, censored by MTV, they demand freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal and on “Son of a Bush” George Bush, President of the USA, is portrayed as he should be. Though they don't surprise, they show they are still very much on form. The sound is quite elegant; sharper and minimalist.
(Message from Chuck D to gangsta-rappers) Chuck D is the perfect mix of artistic ambition and intellectual rigour. He's hyperactivity personified: musician, musicologist, family man - his greatest pride -, TV and radio journalist, anti-system activist and designer (he designed the Public Enemy logo). As a result of all this activity he has become a recognised opinion maker within the black community. He has reached this position because of the respect he has earned over 15 years of coherency, not because of his business success. Anybody who wants to find out what makes the man tick can find out by reading Fight The Power (Viva la república, 2001). He wrote this powerful book of memories with the help of Yusuf Jah. The prologue is by film director Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues).
Above all, the man has proven himself to be a fighter with criteria and he's certainly not afraid of championing unpopular ideas. Contrary to most other rappers, he supports black leaders who speak out against the use of alcohol and drugs (he says they are an obstacle to maintaining selfesteem and control over your surrounding area). Even though Public Enemy represent the hardest face of black music, Chuck D publicly defends other “brothers” considered clowns or as having sold out. Two examples of this are Eddie Murphy (he praised his film Harlem Nights) and MC Hammer (Chuck D states that Hammer tried to recycle black pop). He has also played in over 40 countries, encouraging rappers not to confine themselves to the USA. He urges them to interact with other cultures.
Chuck D considers himself a son of the Sixties, a period marked by the Black Panthers, James Brown or the militant Black Power athletes. His idea is to use the idealism of that decade to elevate hip hop to the heights attained by U2. He looks for a higher social conscience from black sports megastars and he is demanding retribution from the Government of the USA for the centuries of slavery suffered by his people (from 1600 to 1900).
This is no crackpot demand; he backs it up with serious judicial reasoning based on the compensation paid to the Jewish people as a result of the Holocaust. By his reckoning the government should pay the black community four trillion, four hundred thousand million dollars. Phew! He is not, we repeat, some mad black nutter; he's an articulate polemist who has no time for ingenuity: “Doctor King was an adorable man, but he had to be accompanied everywhere by three brothers armed to the teeth”.
Summing up: an intense and exciting book, especially when he talks about his trip to Africa with the massive concerts and educational visits to the old slave markets. Throughout the book, Chuck D states that he is both inside and outside the system. His aim is to create black leaders, positive examples to influence in music, sport and the media. “If our people like different fads, let's give them fads that teach them about themselves and their history”
PUBLIC ENEMY
Revolerlution. Koch-Epic, 2002
Public Enemy take a look back at the fifteen years they have been pumping out the goods on this collection of previously unedited songs and rarities revisited with the help of some friends. The record contains their hymns from “Public Enemy nº1” to “Fight the Power”. The versions on this record are live and remixed by friends and fans. On “Give The Peeps What They Need”, censored by MTV, they demand freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal and on “Son of a Bush” George Bush, President of the USA, is portrayed as he should be. Though they don't surprise, they show they are still very much on form. The sound is quite elegant; sharper and minimalist.
