The Hip Hop Chronicle

Public Enemy once said ‘Dont Believe The Hype’ but during their recent visit to the UK, Chuck D and the rest of Public Enemy certainly brought the noise.

Nowadays in Hip Hop we have the term a ‘conscious MC’ but over 20 years ago, a group known as Public Enemy revolutionised conscious Hip Hop forever.

From their debut release, ‘Yo! Bum Rush The Show’ in 1987, they had cemented their place in music’s Hall of Fame.

You can listen to the full interview here:

CLICK HERE - WORLD EXCLUSIVE - THE HIP HOP CHRONICLE INTERVIEWS CHUCK D (AUDIO)

The pioneer and Hip Hop legend Chuck D spoke exclusively to The Hip Hop Chronicle before their final show in the UK. He speaks to us about his musical influences, his first impressions of Flavor Flav, the current state of Hip Hop, why he can see what Nas is saying with Hip Hop is dead. He also reveals why Kanye West is the new Elton John and why KRS is most feared rapper.

Before we started the interview, Chuck told me that the group ‘missed ‘Griff (member of Public Enemy) this time around because he had a passport issue’.

Chuck D remains one of the most colossal figures in hip-hop. His intellectual rhymes helped to redefine Hip Hop. It was no longer about partying and having a good time, it had a message. It became as Chuck called it, rap ‘the CNN of Black America’.

His parents were both political activists, and he was a highly intelligent student, turning down an architecture scholarship to study graphic design at Long Island’s Adelphi University. While in school, he put his talents to use making promotional flyers for hip-hop events, and went on to co-host a hip-hop mix show on the campus.

But Chuck as a child grew up on soul music. His parents were young and had a great music collection.

‘James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Motown…The Four Tops, Glady’s Knight and The Pips, Ike and Tina Turner’

In the late 1970’s, Chuck started attending rap concerts and MC battles. It was at these venues that he found the inspiration to rhyme. He recalls going to these gigs wanting to dance to the music but ended up battling rappers.‘Going to events in the late ’70’s, which were Hip Hop events but I wasnt happy at the guys that used to get on the mic, so I used to get on the mic to get them off … thats how I started…I started by putting other emcee’s down’. But Chuck remains humble, realises the effect he has on Hip Hop; ‘Ive encourage so many emcee’s to take it seriously and do it and be better’.

‘Ive encouraged so many emcee’s to take it seriously and do it and be better’

- Chuck D on his legacy

But it was in the 1980’s that Chuck met Hank Shocklee and Bill Stephney at Adelphi University in Long Island. Chuck had been DJing when he, Shocklee and Bill Stephney bonded talking about politics and Hip Hop. Their bond grew strong and they formed the group, Spectrum City. Soon Chuck met Flavor Flav (a disc jockey at the time) and he soon recruited Keith Shocklee, Eric “Vietnam” Sadler joined the group (who later became the Bomb Squad) and then the ‘Minister of Information ‘Professor Griff’ along with DJ Terminator X.

Hank Shocklee was in charge of the group but he helped Chuck on his emcee skills. ‘He was always that other ear…saying if your doing a little too much, if you were too wordy, shorten your phrases … a great coacher’.

 ’I never seen anything like him before’

- Chuck D On Flavor Flav’

The group then changed their name to Public Enemy with the lead MC being Chuck D, with his partner being Flavor Flav. Chuck recalls the first time he met Flavor Flav.‘I never seen anything like him before’. He was blown away by his realness and his personality and Chuck always knew that Flav would a star. ‘We always felt he’d work great on televison because…people, when you put your eyes on him, your ears attached to him, you really cant take your ears and eyes off of him’

Their chemistry was immense and when they recorded a demo tape, Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin heard it and wanted to sign them. But there was one problem. Rubin wasnt sure about Flav’s role within the group. When Rubin approached Chuck with the contract, he told him that he didnt know what Flav was going to do. But Chuck stayed loyal, he knew Flav had a talent and stuck by his partner. His decision proved the correct one as Public Enemy became one of the most iconic groups in Hip Hop history.

‘We had to convince Def Jam that Flavor was something that would be added to the music … he had to find a role that he created and so Rick Rubin had to trust how he would add in as that extra voice’.

‘Rick Rubin had to trust how he (Flav) would add in as that extra voice’

 - Chuck D on Flavor Flav’s role in the group

But back in the 1970’s, 1980’s, Hip Hop wasnt about guns, it wasnt about ‘bitches and hoes’, it was about expression and partying on the block. But in the current climate of Hip Hop and Rap, its definiton can get clouded. The media often get confused about gangster rap and Hip Hop, a rapper and an MC. But being a pioneer, Chuck was the best person to clarify the difference between Hip Hop and Rap.

‘Hip Hop is a religion’

- Chuck D

‘An emcee is somebody who is a master of all ceremonies and they run the party, they could be doing three hours, they can control it, move the crowd along in convergence with the DJ. A rapper is somebody who has a short designated part and rap over a track or a beat that particular event might have. The difference between Rap music and Hip Hop, is Hip Hop is the overall culture, it embodies all different types of elements…Bambaataa (Afrika Bambaataa) says its DJ-ing, breakdancing, emceeing and graffti and those are the elements that make Hip Hop… and when you break down the emceeing part, thats why the rap comes from, so rap music, is rap on top of music…the music has already been [devised] and it started with the music being a record or a ray of records that Bambaataa can claim’.

 

‘I think its very important that we have structure and organisation and also that we have a great idea of the history of it’

- Chuck D on current Hip Hop

Two years ago, Nas claimed that Hip Hop was dead. Alot of people were shocked by this statement but Chuck feels that Nas wasnt saying the whole art form was dead, but that certain aspects needed to be revitalised.

‘I think was Nas is talking about, eloquently is; hey the artform has to talk more about life instead of things that hinge upon death or … other motives to do their music … so i think its very important that we have structure and organisation and also that we have a great idea of the history of it, always on the fore-most front of our minds and I think when you talk about guys like Kool Herc (the founder of Hip Hop), DJ Hollywood, Afrika Bambaataa, Funky Four Plus One and Sha Rock, its important to bring that up to speed’.

But while Chuck feels its important that fans and artists should know the history, he’s quick to point out later in the interview, the lack of female groups in Hip Hop. ‘

‘If Hip Hop is so big, how comes we cant name more than three female rap groups’. He even puts me on the spot. ‘You guys are The Hip Hop Chronicle right?’, I respond ‘yeah yeah’ . He says; ‘Ok name me three all female groups?’. While I started to rack my brains searching for female groups, Salt N Pepper run through my head but they arent present, I soon realised that there wasnt any I could name. Chuck then asks me; ‘Name three rappers you like?. My response - ‘Chuck D, Nas and Jay-Z’. Chuck - ‘Now name three all female groups, present!’. My response - ‘Im dumb-founded’ but that was Chuck’s point (‘There you go, how big can rap be if you cant name that?’). He was making a valid point. The genre needs more all female Hip Hop groups.

‘If Hip Hop is so big, how comes we cant name more than three female rap groups’

- Chuck D On The Lack Of Female Rap Groups in Hip Hop Now

Chuck goes futher to explain that the emergence of record companies in the genre didnt help. ‘I think when record companies came about, they were trying to tell people the importance of the money, then why have a group, you could get one person and they could get all the money’.

Chuck went on to explain that Kanye West was the new Elton John. ‘A guy like Kanye West, he’s the Elton John of rap music … like Elton John is big, he can sell stadiums, you know he’s talented but you wonder like…wow, can they really build stadiums where its the [process] of everything around it’.

‘A guy like Kanye West, he’s the Elton John of Rap music’

- Chuck D

Chuck has always been known for his poltical rhymes;

‘You better wake up and smell the real flavor Cause 911 is a fake life saver’ (911 Is A Joke),

‘Wearin’ red, white and blue Jack and his crew, the guy’s authorized beat down for the brown , man to the man, each one so it teach one, born to terrorize sisters and every brother’ (’Cant Truss It’)

‘Cause I’m Black and I’m proud I’m ready and hyped plus I’m amped, most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps’ (’Fight The Power’)

‘Fight The Power comes great responsibility, F the Police but who’s stopping you from killin me?’ (Harder Than You Think).

This last lyric is the way many African American’s feel after the Sean Bell murder case verdict. Recently a judge accquited three officers of shooting Sean Bell 50 times, the officers say Bell and friends had a gun, but this wasnt proved true and noone was arrested for gun possession. Ice Cube said the verdict shows the value of a Black man’s life in the justice system. With Public Enemy playing Summer Jam this year in New York, I asked his thoughts on the verdict.

‘The justice system in New York has never treated black people…our brown brothers and sisters like family or like citzens … so when your treated like an intruder in the only place your allowed to live, your bound to have some side effects…its gonna come out of the law…its gonna come out of economic preferences over you, its gonna come out of educational areas that are pretty and the law is one of those areas where if your looked upon as an adversary just by breathing, there’s gonna be obvious hate crimes’.

Since the verdict, there have been many tribute songs for Sean Bell by various artists of the Hip Hop community.

Chuck has always been a revolutionary artist with his music, but he’s now taken his revolutionary qualities to the internet. Few years ago, he set up a website called rapstation.com which provided online users a community to check out the latest news, tracks and videos. Chuck is a hige sports fan watches ESPN intently. The kind of coverage they have on the internet, he wanted for Hip Hop. This turned out to extremely successful as was ‘Slamjamz.com, which is a internet record label.

Now in the last week or so, Chuck has set up another record label, BTNEast Link (Bring The Noise East Link), which is an all-encompassing company that will promote Hip Hop artists but also help to create a business model for them to go on. ‘Okayplayer is doing what their demographic, we may want to do something like that with classic artists and try to organise, unionise … to make people have a preservation attitude about the art’.

And for upcoming artists Chuck has this advise. ‘Definately get your myspace account … get on a social network to get your music around and if your a music maker… we are in an audio/visual age…so if your making beats, I suggest you make songs and if your making songs, I suggest you make a video for every song and that means, you can go out and get one of them little cameras and learn how to cut and edit because cutting and editing is what you have to do with music anyway, so you should learn how cut and edit visual too’.

‘Jay-Z is the embodiment of all the way up to this point’

- Chuck D on Jay-Z Being The Greatest

One artist that Chuck respects is Jay-Z. The Brooklyn emcee will be playing a series of dates in the UK, including the much publicised Glastombury gig. Well MTV called Jay-Z the greatest of all time and most recently KRS-One in a video with allhiphop.com, Chuck feels that Jay-Z is the embodiment of Hip Hop right now. ‘Jay-Z is the embodiment of all the way up to this point, I think there will be somebody that will do it better than Jay-Z’. In Chuck’s eyes though, there is one emcee that everyone should fear. His name; ‘The Teacha’, KRS One. ‘As far as the most fearful rapper ever, for which gets high grades in my books is KRS-One. KRS-One is the only dude that I’ve seen come inside a room and change the atmosphere of the room and anybody else who was a rapper was truly trying to downplay their occupation…I’ve never seen anybody like that…its easier to ignore Kris and say he doesnt exist (laughing)’.

I dont think anyone wants it with KRS-One. In the ‘Beef’ DVD series, he said that for all the top ten rappers, he makes a diss track for all of them, just in case they come at him.

‘KRS-One is the only dude that I’ve seen come inside a room and change the atmosphere of the room’

- Chuck D On KRS-One Being One The Most Feared Emcee’s

It seems strange that it was only nine years ago, when Public Enemy took to the stage in Brixton, London for what was a memorable night in Hip Hop history.

‘I saw young people at that particular time were starting to look at themselves’

- Chuck D on Public Enemy’s Influence

Public Enemy have been part of many memorable nights in Hip Hop but the moment Public Enemy came to London for the first time ever, he realised that the group was making a difference out of music.

‘When we first came to London, the first three days…there was a whole revalation on how to look at Rap music and Hip Hop and I saw young people at that particular time were starting to look at themselves’.

Public Enemy have stayed poignant and relevant for over 20 years. They have shown the power of music to change attitudes and to make people aware of social inequalities. They will forever embedded in music history as a defintive and inspiring group and one that challenged government.

‘Fight The Power’