Chuck D

AS one of the trailblazers of the rap movement, Chuck D was promoting New York hip-hop acts as early as 1979. The son of political activists, he was studying graphic design when he was drawn into the music scene, which had formerly been just a hobby. The turning point came when he saw Dick Gregory, the activist, comedian, and health nut, give a speech that stressed education through entertainment. This would become the basic principle of Public Enemy, which he formed in 1986 with friend Hank Shocklee. When Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, and Terminator X came on board, writers dubbed them the "Black Panthers of rap," and their influence on the burgeoning rap music scene was unrivaled through the remainder of the decade.

Their critical reputation was established with their album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, in 1987. The squadrons of security forces that accompanied the group's tour attracted some media attention, as did the anti-Semitic cracks of Professor Griff, a Nation of Islam follower (he was expelled from the band, but later rehired). Public Enemy's next album, It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, rose high on Billboard's charts and made People's list of the best rap recordings ever made. The group's Apocalypse '91 was another top-five seller, and their video for "By the Time I Get to Arizona" raised a storm of controversy. The song, written as a protest to Arizona's refusal to recognize Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday as a national holiday, was accompanied by a video that featured a reenactment of the King assassination spliced with shots of sixties civil rights protests. It ended with a series of assassinations.

Rolling Stone named Public Enemy Best Rap Group in 1991. The group's later efforts were not up to previous standards, however, and in 1995, Chuck D announced the group's demise. On his own, Chuck D scored much of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and he appears as a frequent lecturer at minority schools, urging kids to stay away from drugs and violence. His late 1996 solo release, Autobiography of Mistachuck, provided an indictment of the unrealistic expectations for easy money that the music industry promotes in poor black communities and established beyond a doubt his standing as the conscience of rap. Chuck D's influence should not be underestimated: Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot claims that "What Bob Dylan did for rock in the 1960s, what George Clinton did for funk and Bob Marley did for reggae in the 1970s, Public Enemy's Chuck D has done for rap: given it legitimacy and authority far beyond its core following."

As the founder of Public Enemy, Chuck D. is one of the most colossal figures in the history of hip-hop, not to mention its most respected intellectual. He redefined hip-hop as music with a message, and his strident radicalism ushered in an era when rap was closely scrutinized for its content; although rap's primary concerns have changed over the years, its status as America's most controversial art form has only gotten stronger since Public Enemy hit the scene. Chuck D. was born Carlton Douglas Ridenhour in Roosevelt, Long Island, on August 1, 1960. 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 radio station with two future Public Enemy cohorts, Bill Stephney and Hank Shocklee. Under the name Chuckie D, he rapped on Shocklee's demo recording, "Public Enemy No. 1," which caught the interest of Rick Rubin at Def Jam. In response, the now simply named Chuck D. assembled Public Enemy, a group designed to support the force of his rhetoric with noisy, nearly avant-garde soundscapes.

Public Enemy debuted in 1987 with Yo! Bum Rush the Show, a dry run for one of the greatest three-album spans in hip-hop history. Released in 1988, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was acclaimed by many critics as the greatest hip-hop album of all time, and was instrumental in breaking rap music to white, alternative rock audiences. Fear of a Black Planet (1990) and its follow-up, Apocalypse '91...The Enemy Strikes Black, consolidated Public Enemy's position as the most important rap group of its time. There were storms of controversy along the way, most notably Chuck D.'s endorsement of the polarizing Muslim minister Louis Farrakhan, and group member Professor Griff's highly publicized anti-Semitic slurs. But on the whole, Public Enemy's groundbreaking body of work established Chuck D. as one of the most intelligent, articulate spokesmen for the black community. He became an in-demand speaker on the college lecture circuit (much like his peer KRS-One), and was frequently invited to provide commentary on TV news programs.

Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age (1994) found the group's status slipping, and the following year Chuck put PE on hiatus while planning its next move. In the meantime, he released his first solo album, The Autobiography of Mistachuck, in 1996, and published the book version of his autobiography the following year. He reconvened Public Enemy for the soundtrack to Spike Lee's 1998 film, He Got Game, and the following year left Def Jam over the label's refusal to allow him to distribute Public Enemy music via free Internet downloads. Signing with the web-based Atomic Pop label, Chuck became an outspoken advocate of MP3 technology, and made 1999's There's a Poison Goin' On... the first full-length album by a major artist to be made available over the Internet (it was later released on CD as well). He continued his lecturing into the new millennium and made regular appearances on the Fox News Channel as a commentator. Even if Public Enemy never recaptures the popularity or vitality of its glory years, Chuck D.'s legacy is secure enough to keep him a respected voice on the American cultural landscape. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide