[Fair Warning: This article contains profanity and other language used by Chuck D, which may be offensive to younger surfers, Corporate America, or both.]

Chuck D's on tour. Not as part of the rap supergroup Public Enemy, but on the lecture circuit to colleges and universities across America. Or, as he says many times online in his Terrordrome (publicenemy.com), Amerikkka. He captivated a filled gymnasium at Shoreline Community College, near Seattle, Washington, with revolutionary ideas about the music business, race and the power of new musical technology.

"I've been on tour for nearly fifteen fucking years," said Chuck. "I've been talking to you all in college for an awfully long time, and it's about time that some motherfuckers should listen up. They're starting to listen here in school and they're starting to listen in Corporate Amerikkka, and I spell that with three k's." He's spoken at junior colleges and universities, and keynoted last year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame conference on the history of rap and hip-hop.

"Straight up and down, I'm gonna tell you what a lot of people don't want you to hear. Especially when it's Black Misery Month, which is what many of you all called Black History Month. For me, it's Black Misery Month, since most of my history is misery, if you know what I mean. I've been involved for a long time, especially if you consider that I was in the Black Panther free lunch program in 1967."

After listening to nearly two hours of Mistachuck's observations on rap, hip hop and the importance of education, the images that he and Flav-A Flav have on their website didn't square with me. Maybe because, when it comes to rap and hip hop, I am a square. So square that the last rap or hip hop record I bought was "Funky Cold Medina" by Tone Loc. Anyway, I learned more than I thought I did, not only from Chuck D, but some of the folks in the bleachers. The gym was filled, hanging on to Chuck's every word.

Straight up and down.

"School is the pre-season for life," he shouted. "If you're over 18 and I think most of you are, no one cares about you in life. You've got to hold on to your beliefs and get your money's worth from school. There are a lot of sharks out there and education is the only weapon that will help you navigate through the sharks. You have got to get it right, because you cannot freestyle knowledge. And, let me tell you, there are a lot of sharks out there. You must exhaust the library and make them drag your asses out of there every fucking night 'cause this place ain't free."

"There are four big music companies out there who want to get your $15 for CDs. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there depending on you to give them your money like robots. People like Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of BMG. Strauss, though, is thinking ahead. He's predicted the death of CDs and he's one of the big four."

If Strauss were in the bleachers with me, he would've left by this point, though. "There's Sony in Japan, BMG in Germany, and the last two are U.S. companies, Time-Warner and Universal."

"Strauss is only half right," said Chuck. "Digital distribution will replace CDs and the music business will transform before your very ears. Just take a CD-RW disc. They cost 80 cents. You can get 15 joints (that's slang for songs, I later discovered. Told you I was square) on one of those things."

Chuck D went on to describe the battle for the consumers' wallet, but with references the audience could understand.

"Remember Motown? Those cats were all sitting around a room wondering how they could get your money. They asked: if there was a choice between buying a sandwich and a Motown record, they wanted to produce music that would drive you to the record store. And they did."

Straight up and down.

Rap music, for me, continues to be an irritant. That's why I went to see Chuck D and that's why I've checked out his Publicenemy.com, listened to DMX, and even sat through a Tupac Shakur disc. The way Chuck talked about rap and hip hop as products of an alientated culture, I sat up and took notice.

"Rap, for black America, is like our CNN. In the 1980s, when Cool Hurt introduced rhyming over pre-recorded music from Jamaica, there were no serious Black shows about Black life. When I saw "Good Times," I didn't want to go to Chicago to see how people lived. Technology was different back then, just like TV was different. Now, we can rent a video and watch it a hundred times. Back then, we had only three channels and one Movie of the Week. And dog, if you missed that movie, you missed it. CNN always talked about Black America in the third person."

"Rap changed all that. In the music, I saw my friends and family. Don't get me wrong, I like R&B. R&B skirts the issues. Rap yells it in language that we can understand, whether we are from Oakland, New York or Los Angeles. Where I came up in the Roosevelt neighborhood on Long Island, it was 98% black."

Like many cultural exchanges, rap and hip hop happened to grow on the fringes of society. While rap and hip hop point out differences, music tends to bring people of common backgrounds together. Chuck touched upon another cultural tradition that frames the Black American male as Public Enemy No. 1. Growing up in New York, Chuck D was reminded that it was okay to speak out, but "only if you get in line."

One of his heroes changed all that.

"I noticed Muhammad Ali talking to Howard Cosell on TV. After his boxing match, Ali would praise Allah and then grab the microphone from Cosell. I knew right then and there that I, too, could have something to say."

Straight up and down.

At that point, many audience members cheered.

"Could you imagine Everett, Washington, with 24,000 brothers and sisters? You couldn't lock us all up."

He then took us on a tour of tomorrow's technology, including Internet radio.

"Stay tuned to Internet radio. It is the next big thing, it is the bomb. Pretty soon, we're going to have MP3s in cars, but we've got to make sure that the community has a voice in what is on the radio. Over 95% of all urban Black stations are white owned and programmed by Steve Smith. Radio joined Black America from the 1940's to the 1970's, but it is now the biggest cancer on Black America today. There's no accountability to the local community for what's on the air.

He also talked about the Hype. The Hype that has caused many tragedies in rap and hip hop, most recently Big Pun, who weighed nearly 700 pounds. Were Tupac Shakur alive, he would have been proud of the way his friend honored his memory.

"Too many good and talented people have died. To you, Tupac was an entertainment figure. To me, he was a friend. I helped him with his first tour. Tupac was one of the smartest and most talented young men I've ever met. And, with Notorious, I couldn't stand it."

True to form, Chuck D relayed these tragedies with a bit of humor.

"Don't get me started. There are magazines like Vibe and The Source that perpetuate this fantasy on the East Coast and West Coast thing. None of the East Coast rappers have been West of New Jersey and none of the West Coast rappers have been East of Palm Springs."

"Hey. Fuck what I say. Believe in your own self. Don't look at celebrities that you seen on the screen or hear on the record. Look after your own self and form your own opinions. Make a plan and stick with it. Planning is what got me through school and planning is what got me and my friend Tupac Shakur through our business deals."

I couldn't imagine Chuck D and Tupac sharing their Franklin Planners and comparing notes on their Palm Pilots. He did, though, speak of a Franklin that was closer to him than a Founding Father, and that was Aretha Franklin.

"I remember listening to Aretha Franlin's father preaching, and man, when he spoke, we listened."

"You've got to have a yearly plan, a three year plan, and a five year plan. We always used to say, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. We are not about failure and you've got to get that through your heads."

"Hey. Remember what I said. More importantly, remember what Kwame Toure (the late Stokely Carmichael) told me. He said that culture should help people go forward, help people progress." I believe that's what many rappers and rhymers do. We've got to get the facts to see more than the eye can see and hear more than the ears can hear."

As some of the students headed for the doors, Chuck D wrapped up the evening with some suprising pieces of good advice. Advice that should be in 72-point red on his website:

- Common sense isn't common. Most people follow nonsense.

- You must see more than the eye can see and hear more than ear can hear.

- Your skills will pay the bills. Talent will get you by only for a second.

- Logic and rational thinking and deductive reasoning are unique human gifts. Dogs and cat's don't have 'em.

- Don't roll with the wrong crowd. Hype can cause people to overrule logic and even instinct.

- Don't believe in fantasy. Believe in yourself and in reality.

This two-hour lecture took me from Long Island to Shoreline and back, through a unique form of music that I still don't quite understand or appreciate. Largely because of the disconnect I see between the images on his Public Enemy website and his message. While I'm not expecting sweetness and light, I could do without his "soldiers" like Flav-A-Flav in the cross-hairs. I'm still going to give it a try, though.

Chuck D has a powerful voice and a powerful message. He's parlayed his talent into several arenas, now that he's settled down a bit from touring with Public Enemy. He is currently developing Rapp Station Hip Hop Nation, a multimedia website. He is also organizing and developing a program called REACH, Rapper Educating All Curricula Through Hip Hop. He recently joined Fox News channel as a commentator and released his first book last year, Fight the Power, Chuck D on Rap, Race and Reality.

Straight up and down.


(C) 2000 Eric Steiner