Holy shit was I nervous. In fact I was so edgy when Chuck D’s voice came down the line that I almost vomited all over my question page, and then hung up on him. Twice. Idiot.
Incompetent as this may sound, when you’re faced with talking to the founding member of a legendary hip-hop outfit that helped pioneer a new musical and social movement, suffering from extreme feelings of anxiety and inadequacy seems entirely appropriate. Having been touted by many as the definitive rap group of all time, Public Enemy has spent the better part of the last two decades challenging the ideas of information, race and the system through their often inflammatory and always infectious beats and rhymes. Exploding into the limelight with the albums It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back (1988) and Fear of a Black Planet (1990), Public Enemy quickly caught the attention of audiences worldwide, allegedly even coming under the microscope of the CIA.
So now, nearly two decades on, following their latest release New Whirl Odor and on the verge of their upcoming Australian tour, Lifelounge caught up with founding member and front man, Chuck D to find out what’s going on in the world of Public Enemy in 2006.
D: So Chuck, how have you come to be in the position you are today? That is, was there any pivotal point in your life where you decided that being a lyricist and MC was the avenue you were born to take, or did it begin more gradually? CD: I was always a big sports fan, I dug the organisation of sports, and I always thought that music was kind of like that. You know, there are organised situations that exist in music, like in rock bands, and I thought that rap music could kind of follow the way of both sports and rock. I thought that I could infuse hip-hop with the competitive vibe from the sports world and a little bit from the rock genre.
D: There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding your lyrics over the years, and you have been quoted saying, ‘Rap is the black CNN’, do you feel that you are in a position where you’re responsible for the education of people who maybe wouldn’t search for the truth of their own accord? CD: I feel that you can always spark a life through education, through information, you know. We come through the portal of culture, which makes it quite beneficial to understand that culture. It kind of bonds our human family together with similarities and knocks our differences to the side.
D: And how successful do you feel you’ve been in your mission?CD: I don’t think I’ve weighed and tallied up a success rate, you know. I think we’ve added something, in our prime, to make the world look at some things from a different cultural standpoint.
D: Do you consider yourself an activist, or more of an observer and commentator of issues facing the world today?CD: A combination of both. I’m definitely active as opposed to being asleep!
D: What do you think of social commentators such as Noam Chomsky? CD: Never met him, but he was the inspiration for me doing ‘Don’t Believe the Hype’. That track’s saying the same things that he’s been talking about for eons, like challenging information and don’t be a victim of propaganda.
D: So do you feel that you have witnessed any social change, maybe not so much as a result of yourself as an individual but as a result of the movement you are a part of?CD: I don’t think we can take any credit for that because I think people like Curtis Mayfield and Bob Dylan and Bob Marley set that precedent.
D: OK, so are you continuing that precedent into today? CD: Yeah I think so, and I think what we were able to do is just put it to a different music. You have to pay respect to the architects of music itself because hip-hop started as a total respect for the masses and for the recordings.
D: You have been quoted as saying rap music is not music, can you elaborate on that?CD: Rap music is not music. It’s a vocal application that goes on top of music that has already been designed. So it started as a voice over records, then they overdubbed it and that’s how the vocal style happened on those previous recordings. So saying that rap will disappear is as silly as saying I wonder when you think records are going to stop. It’s derived from previous recording work that is given a different vocal application.
D: You have also stated that it’s harder to create the style of music that you were creating in your earlier albums purely because of record company licensing issues.CD: Well you know, it’s a threefold thing, I mean record company issues is one thing, but also when you’re talking 15 years later, it wouldn’t be as serious as it was then, but you have to try something that’s even more startling sometimes. You also have to be ready, because rap music has been accepted by society, and they create their own standards for it and we might not match up to those standards. We might go over them in lieu of making something else, something that escapes definition. But that’s cool!
D: I guess sometimes it’s nice to have boundaries because it’s something to rally against.CD: Sometimes I guess to make music you’ve gotta be anti-music.
D: Public Enemy have a new comic book coming out later this year, what is the concept surrounding this, and what is the purpose of it?CD: Well the purpose of anything that we get involved in has to be based on the energy of people surrounding us, people that are willing to do some different and innovative things. Adam Wallenta AKA Illus has been recording artists with us online, and you know he’s an illustrator and he came up with the idea, so it was just a matter of melding the storylines. We have always felt that truth is stranger than fiction; you know how it goes, so the fact that truth is stranger than fiction was kind of the premise for us doing a comic book.
D: This edition of Lifelounge magazine is the Tough edition, and I saw another quote of yours where you stated, ‘I don’t care how rough they say life is in America, I deal with cats who are from Russia, and I ain’t never seen no hard life as Russia’.
So what defines tough for you right now and where do you think would be the toughest place to live right now?CD: Russia! There’s places in Africa that are very difficult to live in, but the thing that also makes Russia kind of rough is that it’s cold. Very, very cold. You guys are out there in Australia which I call the California of countries. I’m bringing one of my artists Bob Jason there for the first time, and he’s going to try to stir up enough activity so he might be able to come there and tour on his own.
D: Well hopefully you will enjoy your tour here. Are you looking forward to it? CD: Yeah, definitely I’ve toured all over the world, but Australia is always a pleasure, I mean how can you not like Australia?
D: Have you heard anything about the social issues in Australia at all?CD: Of course.
D: So do you think there is a parallel between the issues here and in America?CD: It’s two different things, I mean there are people who move away from society who ostracise themselves and go on to treat people even worse, and that’s something that always struck me as being odd. But then there’s the human nature thing too, and you see people when they’ve been oppressed they end up running the same traits.
D: Well I guess we need to wrap it up, but I just want to say thanks for your time. To be honest I was kind of nervous, I find you pretty intimidating.CD: Hey that’s obviously fine, I ain’t no big deal.
D: Thanks Chuck.(puke)
Public Enemy are touring nationally during April, finishing up at the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival in Byron Bay from the 13–17. Check <www.publicenemy.com> for details.