(AllHipHop News) Hip Hop legend Chuck D and his group Public Enemy released their latest album Man Plans God Laughs last month. The New York native did an interview with The Washington Post, and he discussed several current topics in the culture.
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On Black Lives Matter:
I went one step one step beyond. No lives matter. We don’t matter. A lot of times, when people hear “black lives matter,” you know, people are so outside of their selves. The United States citizenry always is outside of itself. They think they don’t pertain to having any involvement in the social conditions or in the systematic makeup of reducing us…
I mean look, we can talk about black lives matter. What about the brown people who are getting caught up in the shrapnel of the border between the United States and Mexico? Does that mean that we don’t give a f*ck? Or that’s not even an issue? So it’s beyond police brutality that might happen in Baltimore or Ferguson. It’s like, what’s out of wack that’s holding the system up when it does wrong? So that’s what that is, in a nutshell. No lives matter if we don’t.
On modern Hip Hop:
The power of black music and the power of hip-hop, especially in the beginning, was groups and collective efforts, but it’s been reduced to one person. You wonder if this is a lawyer’s doing or corporate doing because they didn’t want all these n*ggas in the same room screaming at ’em? It’s easier to neutralize one person than a group of them coming from all angles…
That’s been the coup d’etat of the corporate record industry over rap music and hip-hop. We name a whole bunch of individuals today — whether it’s Kanye West or Jay Z. We individualized an art form that came in as a collective. That’s been the biggest tragedy. So when it comes down to a group like Public Enemy, they just don’t know how to process it.
On Dr. Dre’s alleged assault of Dee Barnes:
Dee Barnes usually goes around and says “You know what? Beats by Dre? No, I was beat by Dre.” You know? And that was happening back in the day. You see when this movie came out Dre had to admit, “yeah, I did some stupid sh*t in my past.” Yeah, you damn right you did. But, I think people should talk to Dee Barnes and not for her. Dee Barnes was left hanging because she can’t have a voice and what she thinks now. Give Dee Barnes an interview.
Read Chuck D’s full Washington Post interview here.
[ALSO READ: Dr. Dre Addresses Past Abuse Allegations And His Social Anxiety]
