Cochlear Implant

Here's a transcript of the entire Chuck D interview - those questions are not literally what I asked him, but no one really cares what I asked, let's be real about it.

April 21, 2010

So, how's it going today?

I'm pretty busy, that's what it's like.

What's your best memory of Edmonton?

Driving in and seeing the mountains behind the city.

Oh, no..that's Calgary.

I don't think it's Calgary, I think it's Edmonton. Edmonton, I know we played there. Playing in a mall – we played in the mall. I don't know, I drive into Edmonton before. Edmonton is kind of on a hilly bluff – there's lots of hills there.

What do you feel like playing for a whitewash audience?

I mean, I don't know what it says about hip-hop but obviously if I'm going to a place that is predominantly white, I'm gonna play for the people there. That's the way it's always been. If I go to Nigeria, I'm going to play for Nigerians and the black people there, so that's what it is.

It doesn't matter to you as an artist then?

Why would it matter to me? I'm gonna be who I am, I'm gonna say something about myself. So that's gonna be that..

I just wonder if the direction of hip-hop has changed at all to cater towards a white audience.

I think the direction of hip-hop always changes.

Do you like the current state of hip-hop?

I think the current state always changes as well, whether you like it or not. It's kind of like if you follow golf, you like a different thing that attracts you as an audience. Who I like and who my youngest daughter likes, who is 16, is a totally different world. If you asked me what I feel about somebody who is 16-17 years old, I just want them to be able to do something that they believe in and take it back up.

Do you think something like Fear of a Black Planet has a different relevance than it once did?

There's not much of a change as far as the world is concerned. 20 years is not long as far as the world is concerned. As far as a social structure, you almost have to look back to look at the conditions then in order to see where we've come from. It was definitely relevant in its time and it's relevant as a historical piece. Is it relevant today? It depends on how much you wanna open your head up.

Do you think that the scene, the hip-hop scene, has changed dramatically since then?

Has it changed for you in Edmonton?

When that album came out I was a child.

It's important for some music to tell it as it is instead of trying to go where money says it should go. It's a thing that Pete Seeger says very well: There are two roads, you can go where the money wants you to go, or you can go where the truth wants you to go. A lot of times people, with their art, are forced to take the road that money wants them to go. It's a marriage that has to be figured out in everybody's artistic career.

Sorry, that was Pete Seeger who said that? Obviously Seeger is a totally different artist than a rapper, but there are common threads there.

I mean bottom line, he's a musician. When you talk about Pete Seeger, words weigh heavy. We have to understand that it's all interconnected. And when we don't, we set ourselves up for scrutiny.

What's important to you now as an artist, as opposed to when you started? Same thing?

Umm.. Good question. I think what is important to me now is always trying to figure out I make the road paved for the artists I work with and hip-hop to persevere. I mean look, you can't just look at the brass strokes and say 'alright, hip-hop's a billion dollar business' – I mean most of the artists I have on my label [Slamjamz] have no profit. They're trying to climb up from the unknown and they have a hard way to go; they have a hard road as independent artist. My job is: how many opportunities can we [Public Enemy] actually expand with what we try to do as a known name. How can we expand the road for the unknown so they can expand the road for the genre and the marketplace? The stronger the marketplace and the genre, the stronger the artist will be.

Do you think the market is saturated by somewhat 'bogus' hip-hop?

Well, I mean we gotta answer our own questions. Do you think the marketplace is drowned and crowded with a whole bunch of bogus rock groups.

Yes, I would say that for sure.

I don't think many acts come into the game saying 'okay, we're going to be a bogus group'. Everybody has their own efforts, everybody has their own thing. I think the cream rises to the top, you just wanna be able to be fair across the board. There's a lot of people in your country playing hockey but you know where the NHL is. Do you discourage the young kids from playing hockey because they're not going to make the pros?

At one time, you could say that PE was rebelling against something....what do you feel hip-hop in general is rebelling against something right now?

Ummm....I think it's rebelling against itself [Laughs]. There are certain things in hip-hop you really gotta pay attention to. You have to have great public relations. I think it's important in hip hop to pay attention to it's past, it's present and also the fundamentals and foundations. Whenever hip-hop does not pay attention to that, it has a tendency to kind of counter itself in a backwards motion that doesn't fit the genre. I didn't mean to give you a complex answer, but the bottom line is that it's gotta be beyond simple beats and rhymes. But they also gotta pay attention to them too.

Do you think that young people understand the roots of hip hop?

People only understand what they're taught. And if they're not taught it and they're being sold it by a corporation, then that's problematic.

Do you think corporate acts like Kanye West or whoever are teaching the fundamentals of hip-hop?

I think that there's certain fundamentals that come out in Kanye, yes. He's very clear on his production techniques. I think, once again, he's in a zone where money starts to tell you what to do and they start to question how much they can get across. I think there is a lot in every artist, I don't think it's the artists problem at all. I think the broadcasting and the coverage of the art form needs to step up. The DJ's need to be better and more informative. If you look at hip-hop on television, who is conveying what that artist is all about? How is it being held? When people read about it in print, are they paying attention to the small details about an act? All of these things are things a fan needs to know in order to a) become a participant or b) remain a fanatic. The coverage of hip-hop is terrible. I salute hip-hops sites like: hiphopdx.com or allhiphop.com for trying to be thorough with it. The internet offers us opportunities for information for something that is an art form that is really exciting.

Do you think corporations strangle emerging artists?

I think corporations are trying to figure out how to survive. They will take one particular artist who they know works and milk it to death. Development is null and void, they don't have time for it they say.

You were at the forefront of using the internet for your own good and that's essential these days, would you agree?

Of course, 35 years ago it was actually impossible to get your name out if it wasn't in print, in television you had no control over, and in radio you had to spend a lot of money to be heard. Now you can be heard. It goes beyond anything else.

Do you think that because PE is so big that you're outside of the framework of corporate rule?

We have our own existence because we invested in going around the world at a very formative era of hip-hop. We were able to go around the world and invest in our name and what we were about – what we did. We were able to do it on our own terms. And we didn't come up with ourselves. We learned from groups like the Rolling Stones. How do the Rolling Stones remain relevant? But we don't buy the fact that just because you come from a different, you can't be relavant. I mean, the Rolling Stones were around before you were born but if they came to Edmonton and played a stadium, there's gonna be a lot of people that wasn't around when the Rolling Stones began – shoot, even when they was 10 years, or 20 years old. The Beatles have two deceased members and young people, 18 years old, wear Beatles shirts. We like to think of ourselves as taking the Rolling Stones route – we can be relevant but on our own terms. We can always say: the truth will always be the direction you can align yourself with or being highly-opinionated on something that's real.

Do you find your lyrics are the truth? A strong opinion?

I think it's strong opinion but related very closely to something I perceive as the truth.

Do you think that artists are allowed to do the same these days?

Allowed! Heh. Artists should feel that they're allowed to say anything because a lot of artists say things that they don't even believe. If you're going to say something, say what you really believe.

Chuck D's voice as an artist.

Yeah, I can't look at it as something I'm trying to sell. It is what it is. Another thing that is not cool is to rebel against aging. I'm not trying to pretend I'm 22. I won't pretend I'm something I'm not. This is something you often see artists rebelling against because it might hurt their street cred, which is really a farce. It's marketability – like a company will say 'well, we need to market you, so we can't reveal your real age'. That's just stupid. It has nothing to do with the music.

I guess it was just a coincidence that PE was marketable, do you know what I'm saying?

We had to do this on our own, we didn't have a company to market us. And that wasn't like we marketed ourselves – we just told it how it really is and who we are.

Do you think that The United States is heading towards a health-care system like Canada has?

I hope so, I hope so. There's a whole lot of fighting going on here.

So, you're a supporter of Barack?

Oh, no question. I'm a supporter of President Obama and I admit to being bias. That's why I tell people to enjoy this and embrace this time 'cuz they might look back and think 'damn', that's for sure.

Hollywood:

What do you feel like Flav's role is in Hollywood?

It's not in Hollywood, Flavour Flav's role is a being a visual character. He's a visual component for Public Enemy as well as a audio component.

Flavour Flav is like drinking a cup full of sugar.

Are you bothered by his depiction?

Does a cup full of sugar bother you if it isn't in context? It could.

HE is chastised for his role, that's all.

You don't expect that Flavour would come to Edmonton and give his speech on warm climate.You wouldn't take that seriously. Why would you? Flavour does what he does.

What bothers me personally is that the people who actually produce the show or the girls who are on it totally see it. Everyone is trying to get their star on.

When you hit Edmonton is it going to be the full line-up?

It should be. My biggest beef with Canada is getting into the country. I have a problem with that. I think that Canada is one of the most racist borders in the world. My disclaimer is that I don't believe in countries and borderlines fully any more. It's a ridiculous and dated notion. They are a ridiculous notion of territorialism that is only a blink away from the cave man days. There is no possible way you can own and claim the planet. So passports and all that is just the white man's way. 'This is our land and you can't cross this' is just white man's testosterone and Canada's full of it because there is no way you can take a place that is so big, has 37 million people and have the audacity to keep people from moving in there. What is it? Is it because Canada has which are the fuels of the future? They're going to be so strict on who can come in. I mean, there's too many people in India, there are too many people in Africa and the world needs population distribution.

I guess it's based on prior convictions and the like.

It's based on war-like, white male supremacy and opinions. When I made Fear of A Black Planet I definitely talked about that because there's a fear of proper distribution of people on this planet.

It's sad because things haven't changed.

Look man, black people didn't get to Haiti on their own, they were brought to Haiti. So many people compressed on to half of an island and they had the nerve to talk about how they have to stop reproducing so much? That's bullshit, man. It's the same old thing. I'm not an old cantenkerous dude who is talking about shit that don't mean shit. It's obvious, so...am I affected, is my group? Not having a member or a few members, can't get in. Why the fuck you need a passport traveling the earth?

I'm just saying that regardless is the core of the matter. The gathering of land upon this earth is a pre-historic, caveman notion. 'This is mine, this is not yours and I dominate it with this doctrine'. It's like some old bullshit caveman We shouldn't talk about how much we've progressed when people are pledging allegiance to small little fiefdoms. Look man, I just came back from South Africa. Africa belongs to all people. So you have all types living there and they feel that you don't have the right to dominate the land and control the resources.

Do you think this will change or is it just the way it's set up?

Look, man. Dinosaurs were wiped off the earth – change is inevitable. Yo, man. Change is inevitable whether you're a part of it or not. Whether you initiate it or not. That's the way it is, dude.

Keep doing what yo' doing if yo' doing the right thing, man.