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Chuck D of Public Enemy talks... |
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Written by Kurt Brighton
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Friday, 19 October 2007 |
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 Chuck D—aka Carlton Ridenhour—is a provocateur. He is also a rapper, political activist, and he was recently named by Rolling Stone magazine as No. 44 on the magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.” But one thing you might not have known about him is that he has also been immortalized in that uniquely American art form, the comic book.
The first issues of “Public Enemy” were released last summer, with writing chores attended to by Chuck D along with I. James Bomb and contributions from Professor Griff, also of Public Enemy. And based on fan response at last March’s New York Comic Convention, where he signed autographs for a long line of fans, Chuck D and Public Enemy the group have found a new niche to conquer with Public Enemy the comic book.
“The fans were great,” Chuck said from his cell phone on a California freeway. “People were really enjoying the comic—and what I was really excited about was that people from the comic book world were enjoying it just as much as people from the music world.”
Exploding onto the airwaves in 1987, at the nadir of the waning years of Reagan’s “Morning in America,” Public Enemy captured the burgeoning sound of aggressive, East Coast rap, pairing it with Chuck D’s socially conscious lyrics. The result was a lightning rod for criticism from quavering conservatives and white suburban parents alike, uneasy about songs like “Fight the Power,” “Burn Hollywood Burn,” and “Public Enemy Number One.”
Now in its 20th year as a group (on and off; Flava Flav famously left to fight very public battles with drugs, and Professor Griff left the group for number of years) Public Enemy released, “How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul???” in August. With it, the group has rediscovered the musical heart that drove P.E.’s first records—and Chuck D’s rhymes are just as sharply incisive as ever. But he’s quick to point out that he has always sought to promulgate a positive message of independence, one of fighting for change rather than giving in to forces of negativity.
“I always try to talk about the good things too,” he said, “that people can stand up and change the world around them. It’s easy to be pessimistic, but I try to stay on the positive side too.”
But you have to break some eggs in order to make an omelet. On “How You Sell Soul” Chuck eviscerates a few modern negative influences in today’s society, like the glorification of poseur gansta rap in “Sex, Drugs & Violence,” and materialism in “Can You Hear Me Now.” And while Chuck D and Public Enemy still have no shortage of bloated targets to take down 20 years after the group’s debut, a lot has changed as well.
“Too much has changed to put in an article,” he said, laughing. “But one thing is definitely the American style of hip-hop has spread all over the world. Other things have changed too. It used to be that the government was in charge of civilization. But now, you can look around, and see it’s the culture that runs civilization now. The government can run the wars, but the people create the civilization.”
One thing that hasn’t changed for Public Enemy is that the group continues to release mp3 tracks on its Web site, publicenemy.com. Even amid the hype of Radiohead’s exclusive online release of “In Rainbows,” Chuck D is quick to point out that Public Enemy first did that nearly 10 years ago.
“We’ve been doing that since 1999, selling our records ourselves on our Web site,” he said. “Record companies don’t even exist as far as we’re concerned; they’re just not an issue.”
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Public Enemy
• 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25
• Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder
• $29.50
• 303.786.7030
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