CHUCK D OF PUBLIC ENEMY SPEAKS AT THE MISSOURI THEATRE ABOUT HIP HOP AS 'HIGH ART'



Photo by Benita Brown

The co-founder of Public Enemy, one of the most influential Hip Hop groups ever from Long Island was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Chuck D spoke Tuesday night at the Missouri Theatre and touched upon "Race, Rap and Reality." Here's an excerpt of his speech:
 

"I always thought you could be beyond the music; especially as a former college student, I understood the quest for learning about what music can do. Rap culture changes every year and has for decades. The difference between rap music now and rap in the 1980s when he first started is "the teaching of it hasn't been thorough." People think they know what rap and hip-hop are but don't understand the historical context of blacks expressing themselves through music. Their only option in pre-Civil War America, when most were slaves. That music lives on through hip-hop. Rap and hip-hop can be considered high art. For the longest period of time, hip-hop has been my religion, and rap is my military."



 
“If you don’t know the original meaning of hip hop, how can you call it hip hop?” - Chuck D

and -

“The silence of intelligence in pop culture is more damaging than the loudening of ignorance” - Chuck D

- See more at: VOX Magazine