Public Enemy Number One

Chuck D

This past Tuesday, I was able to meet Chuck D of Public Enemy when he came to the school for a presentation entitled Fight The Power: Race, Rap and Reality. This was a 3 hour program followed by a quick reception.

He first talked about the upcoming election and how the young and upcoming generation cannot remain complacent when everything around us is falling apart. He also stated that voting is a duty, not something to hang around your neck. “It’s like washing-you don’t go around telling people Hey, I washed today.” There was also the controversial issue that convicted felons couldn’t vote and couldn’t hold a passport meaning they don’t have a voice or a choice to leave.

Chuck argued that the 2 party system isn’t going to work for long and that he supported the Green party. He went on to criticize that because of party loyalty, McCain has become more conservative than he really is; the words coming out of his mouth that aren’t his, but his party’s. The same goes for Obama and his growing liberalism.

He criticized the prison system as a form of slavery. The government creates the means of crime then throws the offenders into prison. In jail, they enter work release programs and slave away.

With the recent R Kelly scandal, Chuck argued that we have “virtual pedophilia” occurring right in front of our eyes with artists like 50 cent and Lil Wayne. These songs like “In da Club” and “Lollipop” are targeted at young preteens to shape early sexuality.

Throughout his lecture, he was able to poke fun. He argued that black people don’t have jobs today. The last time that the majority of blacks had a job was in slavery. He also compared Governor Sarah Palin’s moose hunting with Michael Vick’s dog fighting.

I liked a lot of his outlook and phrasings such as MTV=Empty V or BET stands for Booty ‘en Thug. He also advised up and coming musicians to incorporate video into their music. We’re entering the age of YouTube where people want to entice more senses. When it comes down to it, sight and sound comes hand in hand.

The program followed with a Q & A session so I was able to ask Chuck where he believed Hip Hop is heading nowadays both Mainstream and Underground with the “cool” being so important to the younger generation.

Chuck said that the world is bigger than America and that we must broaden our views. Hip Hop fell off. The US fell off. Rap is no longer what it is for we have “young-it-down” as opposed to “dumb-it-down”. Rap music in general has gotten lazy with explicit, bare bottom, lyrics when back in the days, artists like Marvin Gaye was able to talk about fucking but in a safe-for-children manner. In order for Hip Hop to return to it’s former glory, there has to be a return to great performance acts such as those of Jurassic 5. Chuck then said as long as there is Graffiti, Breakdancing and Turntables, Hip Hop will continue to prosper.

A question was asked regarding conspiracy theories like the Zeitgeist movie. Chuck replied that “conspiracies” are good to have in your back pocket so that when the scales fall off our eyes, we’ll know what to expect. Conspiracies themselves have entered the group of words like “Arab” and “socialist”. The sound of these words automatically comes attached with a negative stigma when it’s wrong for us to think that way. Conspiracies are just theories and hypothesis, nothing to attack and dispel completely. You should be glad that it appalls you and makes you question so that you are “people” not “sheeple”.

Overall, it was a really interesting program touching on a broad collection of ideas.