Carlton Douglas Ridenhour (born August 1, 1960), known professionally as Chuck D, is an American rapper,[2] best known as the leader and frontman of the hip hop group Public Enemy, which he co-founded in 1985 with Flavor Flav.[3] Chuck D is also a member of the rock supergroupProphets of Rage. He has released several solo albums, most notably Autobiography of Mistachuck (1996).
His work with Public Enemy helped create politically and socially conscious hip hop music in the mid-1980s. The Source ranked him at No. 12 on its list of the Top 50 Hip-Hop Lyricists of All Time.[4] Chuck D has been nominated for six Grammys throughout his career, and has received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as a member of Public Enemy.[5][6] He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 as a member of Public Enemy.[7]
Early life
Ridenhour was born on August 1, 1960, on Long Island, New York.[1] When he was a child, his mother played Motown and showtunes in the home and his father belonged to the Columbia Record Club.[8] He began writing lyrics after the New York City blackout of 1977.[9] He attended W. Tresper Clarke High School,[10][11] where he was offered no formal education in music.[12] He then went to Adelphi University on Long Island to study graphic design, where he met William Drayton (Flavor Flav). He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Adelphi in 1984 and later received an honorary doctorate from Adelphi in 2013.
While at Adelphi, Ridenhour co-hosted hip hop radio show the Super Spectrum Mix Hour as Chuck D on Saturday nights at Long Island rock radio station WLIR, designed flyers for local hip-hop events, and drew a cartoon called Tales of the Skind for Adelphi student newspaper The Delphian.[9]
In 1996, Ridenhour released Autobiography of Mistachuck on Mercury Records. Chuck D made a rare appearance at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, presenting the Video Vanguard Award to the Beastie Boys, commending their musicianship. In November 1998, he settled out of court with Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace's estate over the latter's sampling of his voice in the song "Ten Crack Commandments". The specific sampling is Ridenhour counting off the numbers one to nine on the track "Shut 'Em Down".[15] He later described the decision to sue as "stupid".[16]
In September 1999, he launched a multi-format "supersite" on the web site Rapstation.com. The site includes a TV and radio station with original programming, prominent hip hop DJs, celebrity interviews, free MP3 downloads (the first was contributed by rapper Coolio), downloadable ringtones by ToneThis, social commentary, current events, and regular features on turning rap careers into a viable living. Since 2000, he has been one of the most vocal supporters of peer-to-peer file sharing in the music industry.
In 2009, Ridenhour wrote the foreword to the book The Love Ethic: The Reason Why You Can't Find and Keep Beautiful Black Love by Kamau and Akilah Butler. He also appeared on Brother Ali's album Us.[18]
Chuck D duetted with Rock singer Meat Loaf on his 2011 album Hell in a Handbasket on the song "Mad Mad World/The Good God Is a Woman and She Don't Like Ugly".
In July 2019, Ridenhour sued Terrordome Music Publishing and Reach Music Publishing for $1 million for withholding royalties.[19]
In 2023, Chuck D released a four-part documentary on PBS entitled "Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World."[20]
Rapping technique and creative process
Chuck D in 2013
Chuck D is known for his powerful rapping. How to Rap says he "has a powerful, resonant voice that is often acclaimed as one of the most distinct and impressive in hip-hop".[21]: 248 Chuck says this was based on listening to Melle Mel and sportscasters such as Marv Albert.[21]: 248
Chuck often comes up with a title for a song first.[21]: 31 [22] He writes on paper, though sometimes edits using a computer.[21]: 143 He prefers to not punch in[21]: 280 or overdub vocals.[21]: 282
Chuck listed his favourite rap albums in Hip Hop Connection in March 2000:
Run-DMC, Raising Hell ("It was the first record that made me realise this was an album-oriented genre")[23]
Politics
Chuck D identifies as Black, as opposed to African or African-American. In a 1993 issue of DIRT Magazine covering a taping of In the Mix hosted by Alimi Ballard at the Apollo, Dan Field writes,
At one point, Chuck bristles a bit at the term "African-American." He thinks of himself as Black and sees nothing wrong with the term. Besides, he says, having been born in the United States and lived his whole life here, he doesn't consider himself African. Being in Public Enemy has given him the chance to travel around the world, an experience that really opened his eyes and his mind. He says visiting Africa and experiencing life on a continent where the majority of people are Black gave him a new perspective and helped him get in touch with his own history. He also credits a trip to the ancient Egyptian pyramids at Giza with helping him appreciate the relative smallness of man.[24]
Ridenhour is politically active; he co-hosted Unfiltered on Air America Radio, testified before the United States Congress in support of peer-to-peer MP3 sharing, and was involved in a 2004 rap political convention. He has continued to be an activist, publisher, lecturer, and producer.
Addressing the negative views associated with rap music, he co-wrote the essay book Fight the Power: Rap, Race, and Reality with Yusuf Jah. He argues that "music and art and culture is escapism, and escapism sometimes is healthy for people to get away from reality", but sometimes the distinction is blurred and that's when "things could lead a young mind in a direction."[25] He also founded the record company Slam Jamz and acted as narrator in Kareem Adouard's short film Bling: Consequences and Repercussions, which examines the role of conflict diamonds in bling fashion. Despite Chuck D and Public Enemy's success, Chuck D claims that popularity or public approval was never a driving motivation behind their work. He is admittedly skeptical of celebrity status, revealing in a 1999 interview with BOMB Magazine that "The key for the record companies is to just keep making more and more stars, and make the ones who actually challenge our way of life irrelevant. The creation of celebrity has clouded the minds of most people in America, Europe and Asia. It gets people off the path they need to be on as individuals."[26]
In an interview with Le Monde, published January 29, 2008,[27] Chuck D stated that rap is devolving so much into a commercial enterprise, that the relationship between the rapper and the record label is that of slave to a master. He believes that nothing has changed for African-Americans since the debut of Public Enemy and, although he thinks that an Obama-Clinton alliance is great, he does not feel that the establishment will allow anything of substance to be accomplished. He stated that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is like any other European elite: he has profited through the murder, rape, and pillaging of those less fortunate and he refuses to allow equal opportunity for those men and women from Africa. In this article, he defended a comment made by Professor Griff in the past that he says was taken out of context by the media. The real statement was a critique of the Israeli government and its treatment of the Palestinian people. Chuck D stated that it is Public Enemy's belief that all human beings are equal.[27]
In an interview with the magazine N'Digo published in June 2008, he spoke of today's mainstream urban music seemingly relishing the addictive euphoria of materialism and sexism, perhaps being the primary cause of many people harboring resentment towards the genre and its future. However, he has expressed hope for its resurrection, saying "It's only going to be dead if it doesn't talk about the messages of life as much as the messages of death and non-movement", citing artists such as NYOil, M.I.A. and The Roots as socially conscious artists who push the envelope creatively. "A lot of cats are out there doing it, on the Web and all over. They're just not placing their career in the hands of some major corporation."[28]
In 2010, Chuck D released the track "Tear Down That Wall." He said "I talked about the wall not only just dividing the U.S. and Mexico but the states of California, New Mexico and Texas. But Arizona, it's like, come on. Now they're going to enforce a law that talks about basically racial profiling."[29]
He is on the board of the TransAfrica Forum, a Pan African organization that is focused on African, Caribbean and Latin American issues.
He has been an activist with projects of The Revcoms, such as Refuse Fascism and Stop Mass Incarceration Network.[30]Carl Dix interviewed Chuck D on The Revcoms' YouTube program The RNL – Revolution, Nothing Less! – Show.[31]
In 2022, he endorsed Conrad Tillard, formerly the Nation of Islam Minister known as Conrad Muhammad and subsequently a Baptist Minister, in his campaign for New York State Senate in District 25 (covering part of eastern and north-central Brooklyn).[32]
Chuck D is a US Global Music Ambassador in a programme established by the US State Department and YouTube. It is part of the State Department's Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, which is designed to "elevate music as a diplomatic platform to promote peace and democracy".[33][34]
As of June 2023, he had three children aged 34, 30, and 10, the two oldest by his first ex-wife, Deborah McClendon and the youngest by Gaye Theresa Johnson.[12]
Chuck D lives in California and lost his home in the Thomas Fire that occurred from December 2017 to January 2018.[39]
TV appearances
Narrated and appeared on-camera for the 2005 PBS documentary Harlem Globetrotters: The Team That Changed the World.
Appeared on-camera for the PBS program Independent Lens: Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes.
He was a featured panelist (with Lars Ulrich) on the May 12, 2000, episode of the Charlie Rose show. Host Charlie Rose was discussing the Internet, copyright infringement, Napster Inc., and the future of the music industry.[40]
In 1993, Chuck rapped on "New Agenda" from Janet Jackson's janet. "I loved his work, but I'd never met him," said Jackson. "I called Chuck up and told him how much I admired their work. When I hear Chuck, it's like I'm hearing someone teaching, talking to a whole bunch of people. And instead of just having the rap in the bridge, as usual, I wanted him to do stuff all the way through. I sent him a tape. He said he loved the song, but he was afraid he was going to mess it up. I said 'Are you kidding?'"[43]
In 2001, Chuck D appeared on the Japanese electronic duo Boom Boom Satellites track "Your Reality's a Fantasy but Your Fantasy Is Killing Me" on the album Umbra.
In 2010, Chuck D made an appearance on the track "Transformação" (Portuguese for "Transformation") from Brazilian rapper MV Bill's album Causa E Efeito (meaning Cause and Effect).
In 2011 Chuck D made an appearance on the track "Mad Mad World/The Good God Is a Woman and She Don't Like Ugly" from Meat Loaf's 2011 album Hell in a Handbasket.
In 2013, he has appeared in Mat Zo's single "Pyramid Scheme".
In 2013 he performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Music Masters concert tribute to The Rolling Stones.
In 2014 he performed with Jahi on "People Get Ready" and "Yo!" from the first album by Public Enemy spin-off project PE 2.0.
^Christgau, Robert; Tate, Greg. "Chuck D All Over the Map". Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
Chuck D; Yusuf Jah (1997). Fight the Power: Rap, Race, and Reality (1st ed.). Dell Publishing Company. ISBN978-0-8624-1720-8.
Chuck D; Yusuf Jah (2006). Lyrics of a Rap Revolutionary Volume One. Office Da Books. ISBN978-0-9749-4841-6.
Chuck D; Duke Eatmon; Ron Maskell; Lorrie Boula; Jonathan Bernstein; Shepard Fairey (2017). Chuck D Presents This Day in Rap and Hip-Hop History. Black Dog & Leventhal. ISBN978-0-3164-3097-5.
.jpg)
