Chuck D. Talks About Public Enemy’s New Single

(AllHipHop News) Public Enemy leader Chuck D. recently spoke out about the group’s new single titled “Say It Like It Really Is,” which was recently released by Chuck D.’s digital label SLAMjamz music. “This song is a birthday song to myself,” said Chuck D., who recently turned 50. “At the same time, it goes out […]

(AllHipHop News) Public Enemy leader Chuck D. recently spoke out about the group’s new single titled “Say It Like It Really Is,” which was recently released by Chuck D.’s digital label SLAMjamz music. “This song is a birthday song to myself,” said Chuck D., who recently turned 50. “At the same time, it goes out to Griff and brothers who cross the half-century mark age wise. The dizzy whirl of society today has trained people into robots and consumers thinking that we celebrate younger age, not the rite of graceful passage into knowledge, wisdom, and understanding,” Chuck D said. Sticking to his longstanding beliefs against the pressures that business people may put on the art of hip-hop music, Chuck D. assured fans he wasn’t expecting them to buy into anything, or for DJ’s and VJ’s to support the record. “While I overstand, I’m not asking for anyone to buy into anything, especially not this record … I got away from that notion 20 years ago. I’m not asking or begging any DJ or VJ to play this song,” the Public Enemy leader stressed. “I do not pine or sell myself, especially to an industry and society that considers black art, black history and black life a disposable, joke unless it can be cashed. I don’t joke nor play with the legacy of the contributors that made it possible.” Chuck added that P.E. as been well aware of the “digital option” to release music for some time now, having been one of the pioneering group’s to embrace the digital age in the late 1990’s. Chuck D chastised the media and the major record companies for withholding the release of classical black music, while many of the legendary white groups  continue to receive a push. “Structures [have been created] that depend on a forced black mind state to detach from it’s own history, while saluting the Beatles, Eric Clapton, The Eagles, Rolling Stones ,Bob Dylan even U2 and Eminem who know more about our root culture than US,” Chuck D lamented.  “In comparison we lost Michael Jackson, James Brown, Isaac Hayes, Ray Charles, Rick James ,Teddy Pendergrass Nina Simone, Barry White, and even Richard Pryor these past 10 years, to relative mainstream media silence with the exception of Mr. Jackson.“ To listen to “Say It Like It Really Is,” click here. Editor’s note: we erroneously reported that Chuck D was a professor in the Department of Black Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara. He is not.