Chuck D is an anomaly in 2012. While the MC continues through both speech and action to work to expose the cracks in a perennially broken system, the majority of today’s radio rappers remain fixated on cars and clothes; on wealth, power and fame.
It’s probably not the way Carlton Douglas Ridenhour envisioned it in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when his group Public Enemy blasted out jams like “911 is a Joke” and “Fight the Power,” inner- and inter-city anthems that seemed insanely bold at the time and still do, songs that represented rap’s emergence on the vanguard of an ongoing (if often painfully coded) cultural debate.
It’s true that hip-hop is more popular than it has ever been in large part because of its move toward the middle. Chuck D has repeatedly lambasted the increased commercialization of rap music, expressing his desire that its key figures (specifically Jay-Z) “come to task” with their music rather than pander to the nebulous mainstream.
Take a breath. This is, of course, all quite tricky. Yes, there is something inherently troubling about lambasting “today’s rappers” for not explicitly carrying on the political messages of their forefathers; likewise, were all artists as confrontational as Public Enemy, the genre would doubtless not be the cornerstone of American society it is today. Alternatively, it can certainly be argued that hip-hop does itself a disservice by advancing an overwhelmingly inaccurate portrayal of black culture.
Chuck D’s upcoming UGA lecture, titled “Rap, Race and Reality,” will no doubt address these issues and, in doing so, get folks talking. But for a moment, let’s stop talking. As a true progenitor of modern music—and, at one historically significant point, conservative America’s most worthy adversary—this dude has a hell of a lot to say. It’s probably best to just shut up and listen.
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