Chuck D.

• Author: D'Ambrosio, Antonino
• Position: Interview

I first heard Public Enemy in 1987 when a tape of the rap group's Yo! Burn Rush the Show was making the rounds in my neighborhood. While the boldness of the music was like nothing I had heard before, it paled in comparison to the group's next record, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988). Incendiary and groundbreaking, it now stands as a political manifesto for youth--both black and white--to quote a lyric, "of the same mind, unblind."

Chuck D, born Carlton Douglas Ridenhour in Roosevelt, Long Island, in 1960, is Public Enemy's visionary songwriter and rapper. He told me once that he "wanted to be Wilson Pickett," the soul singer. With his signature baritone voice, limitless vocabulary, and revolutionary ideas, Chuck D instead went on to guide the most important rap group in music history.

A highly intelligent and talented student, Chuck D attended Adelphi University in Long Island, where he put his artistic skills to use by designing posters for the burgeoning hip-hop scene. He became a DJ at the campus radio station, and that's how he met future collaborators Bill Stephney and Hank Shocklee. When Chuck D put his vocals over Shocklee's "Public Enemy No.1," Public Enemy was born. The song impressed producer Rick Rubin of Def Jam, an upstart rap label, who quickly signed the group. Terminator X was the DJ, Flavor Flav was Chuck D'S comic foil, Professor Griff was the Minister of Information, and the innovative Bomb Squad produced the beats.

The first four albums that Public Enemy recorded transcended rap music. Each record built upon the previous one, offering the listener "music from the people, not above the people," as Chuck D puts it. Fear of a Black Planet ushered in the 1990s with the song "Fight the Power," a rallying cry for rebellion. Spike Lee used it to frame his landmark film, Do the Right Thing. Then in 1991, Public Enemy came out with Apocalypse 91 ... the Enemy Strikes Back, its most resolute political record. It is anchored by the song "By the Time I Get to Arizona," the group's response to that state's refusal to honor Martin Luther King's birthday.

Chuck D continues to make work that "moves us forward." He now divides his time between working with Public Enemy, collaborating with new artists, hosting a radio show on Air America, and speaking to audiences around the world.

In 2004, I began a collaboration with him. He contributed a preface to my book Let Fury Have the Hour: The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer. We also have spoken together at public events discussing the importance of cultural activism. The following interview began in the Air America studios, moved to an airport in Alaska, and ended in Long Island. Chuck D encourages everyone to check out his dispatches on www.publicenemy.com and correspond with him at mrchuck@rapstation.com.

Q: You have been an outspoken opponent of the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq.

Chuck D: Where do we start with these guys? The first thing I would like to say is that to be truly American and represent American ideals you need to consider yourself a citizen of the world. American policy has gone contrary to that ideal. The Bush Administration is bent on making the world submit to "Americanism" instead of becoming a member of the world community. This orchestration comes from the very top of the Administration and...