Been awhile, maybe because I've been in reflect and prepare mode. Been taking a full couple of years prepping for the next year PE 20th anniversary. Universal has totally half stepped on the PE Archive Series. Not the amazing Hip-O catalog department, but the lawyers have reared their ugly carcasses again. It's because of their fear of uncleared sample claims, based from a website that has identified every single sound used. A total mess because there is no legitimate proof behind the accusations. Public Enemy in conjunction with Hip-O / Universal had already planned to release POWER TO THE PEOPLE AND THE VIDEOS not long after the POWER TO THE PEOPLE AND THE BEATS Greatest Hits. Also planned were the deluxe editions of FEAR OF A BLACK PLANET and NATIONS (titled 'Afraid Of The Dark' and 'Soul Of A Nation' together respectively in two CD sets.) These were to simply lead up to the Box set in summer 2007, as headed by Hank Shocklee, but again the suits and ties deaded that timing in the water.

Thus yours truly will always be a rebel for the hell of it as far as that situation goes. You're talking about a company which didn't put the video DVD out because small detailed clearances like a picture of Malcolm X or Dr King might've existed in the Fight The Power video. Or the crowd used in the video didn't sign off with Spike Lee. Dumbsht. Not to take anything from Jay -Z, but here's a company who went and bought the assets from another, rather than settling its mis-accounting issues, they pay the brother 20 million a year to head the company. They pay Russell and Lyor about nine figures to absorb the company, and then bring Russell back to start another. But unsettled issues remain. Its the sloppiness of big business, almost like the Knicks where they'll pay Larry Brown 40 million to stay, and about 30 million to go away. I was never opposed to working with the system, but lawyers cause as much cancer as they kill there. Especially when they assume the executive positions. I cannot expect Jay-Z to fix this problem with the parent company that 'tokened' him in. It's a catalog that is very diverse full of varied sounds and approaches, thus any Tom, Dick, or website can be accurate or inaccurate picking the sights and sounds. It is what it is, and a reason I left Universal with half of the archive series. The other halfs are special projects released with varied independent distributors. Since last year we are very thankful for the support of the 1987 LONDON INVASION DVD distributed through Music Video Distributors. There will be another release this fall titled 'WORLD TOUR SESSIONS'. There will also be a special project of unreleased and new aspects called 'BEATS AND PLACES' on SLAMjamz distributed through Redeye this fall, and in about six weeks a remix album called 'BRING THAT BEAT BACK' through SLAMjamz/KOCH. Along with REBIRTH OF A NATION and NEW WHIRL ODOR there's a decent windup heading into 2007's HOW YOU SELL SOUL TO A SOULESS PEOPLE WHO SOLD THEIR SOUL? and a few other offerings.

In reading the ENEMY BOARD I was forwarded to the Hank Shocklee interview, and some folks on the board responded in the fact that it was I who killed the PE 'sound'. Hank's feeling and some others was that the album approaches were of sub-standard quality. Hank's a sonic genius and I don't differ with that idea. But yes, I do assume the killing of a sound because it was the pattern we had set since day one. In 1987 the initial approach was to obliterate the YO BUM RUSH sound not only with sonics, but speed. It is often overlooked that we wanted to 'pitch up' our records. This was part of the urgency that the, then, rap world felt, along with the message, the beats, the rhyme, dynamics and the time, The tracks were to complement our athletic performances where YO was felt slow to beat out the other groups at the time. We studied how the crowd was already hyped up a notch and other than pitching the turntables up, cats were locked into a 'tempo cell'. Still when we delivered 'Nations' it was dissected until most producers at that time 'got it'. Up tempo JB style makes you get kinetic music, thus background dancers in groups had a purpose. In a way crack was the underground drug of choice then, made cats hype till the next hit. It wasn't until Dr. Dre came out with The Chronic that things slowed down to chill and toke speed.

Still, I make no excuses as everybody thinks they have it figured out. Rather than substandard, I think PE chose alt-standard or just another direction when the 100 mph fastball was expected. The rock band credo of never repeat yourself twice (especially in a row) was a sworn in testament that later day cats finally understood with OUTKAST.

By 1992 I remember TUFF CREW and ABOVE THE LAW using similar techniques as the Bomb Squad, and getting absolutely no credit for their laying genius. Once something worked with us it was time to ditch it much like when Rick Rubin had a funeral for the word 'DEF'. Fear of a Black Planet was a curve ball to Nation's fastball, both were unexpected and unhitt-able. Apocalypse was a nasty slider, looks hittable but people look at Can't Truss It, Shut Em Down, Arizona etc and even say Bring Tha Noize with Anthrax was groundbreaking. Still it was key to kill that sound as well. In the expected Greatest Hits shadow I rebelled again to release Greatest Misses. A knuckleball, ugly and expected when hit, if hit it would get bashed 900 ft, a gamble...and so. By the time of MUSE SICK (not enough spit on a spitball), HE GOT GAME, and POISON it was figured by us to do the expected in a CD marketplace that emphasized singles rather than albums. And we made songs based on performance and meaning rather than radio/videoplay we never were gonna get. After 1992 when cats could fast track and hear only the beginnings of a song upon touch, I wondered why would producers even bother with a middle or and ending?

I don't make beats. And I have a very obtuse approach to them. I'll pick usually the ugliest sound from a basket. This in turn is not expected to attract a listener in the very pretty times of the past ten years. But I've worked with disciples and fragments of the Bomb Squad ever since. I think that many records have identities that could take on higher status if chosen to be the sound favored and promoted. It was around 1992 that rockers fragmented off saying that rap became a little too pretty and slow to adapt to. Groups like Rage Against The Machine and Slipknot could take their genre to higher heights using the faster-harder approach. Rap had settled back. Even if the shows were predictable, the money coming in with this new shiny radio and video acceptance had even infused its flow with the same gangsterism that the West Coast introduced in the late 80's. The push and pull of something looking inviting but could kill your appetite. Gangster lyrics of brother to brother beef Between the Sheets of Isley.

I, at least knew that the era of 'classic albums' were over by the fact that people couldn't name more than four song titles off their favorite album of the previous year the next year. I dig Jay -Z , and offerings by 50 and EMINEM, the ROOTS but get disturbed when people can't name five non- video songs off their last few albums collectively. If this is not the case of Pavlov's rapdog roping your slobber of consumption, than I'll be a junky's uncle and aunt. Classic multimedia stars are truly what the past ten years of hip hop stars are. It was because the suits and ties of an industry finally caught up with what they didn't understand at first. We are simply in the hair band era, Framptoned, Slaughter days of the rap game. Then again, I'm talking to the converted that read these T-domes, aren't I? But again as an artist I've been pleased with my approach even if the next 'NATIONS' never lands upon us. I'm tired of the rock cats like Stones, and even Rush and AC/DC being judged by the road of their own thing, and not some grouped in standard.

Hello, does the world of hip hop realize there's a war going on? I look around at the hip hop nation and I get little or no activity whatsoever. The whole hip hop vibe has cheesed itself into the 'elite' class. Man that makes it rough on rappers who have little self esteem. Recently I've been driving my daughter's '92 Dodge Spirit and getting crazy disbelief looks in NYC. That's exactly why I dig driving it. The superficial state of bling has blinded peeps from looking inside, and believing stereotypes. Yeah, I tell people I'd be damned if they think that my self esteem can be defined by a car. I couldn't care less if it was the Concord, anything I'm rolling in is a step down from myself.

Recently played BB KINGS in NYC on May 7th and it was a special for VH 1 ICE T's School Of Rock program. It felt good but truly my memory of newer songs is lacking. Although I may practice and rehearse them, obviously it hasn't been near enough. New songs off NWO and some on Rebirth have to be learned, and although my voice is fine this is my Achilles heel. Better get this right or else, because it will be a very hectic second half of the year.

Commercials during the NBA playoffs I'm trippin on the one with the four white dudes in a car miming a CD on the radio about 'Get that money man'. Kinda funny. What I don't like is the Playstation one with the two 'jive ass' squirrels talking smack.

Gotta love dem new MAC commercials....especially since I really don't use anything else. When the squarish dude gets a cold, and freezes ...its kinda funny how they described the computers in human action form.

Spoke May 19th lecture in Paris France at Foundation Cartier. The topic was Rap, Race and Reality and it was a cool reception dealing with a interpreter across to the 60% English speaking audience.

'OVERTOYED'

If you ask me, sometimes traveling across the planet and having conversations with the world brings a level of too much understanding to interpret to the masses that surround me here in the US.

Peoples heads today are their worlds. Its sold to them that way. With the real estate of the millennium being 'minds' and 'souls' , it would be one thing to tell someone to not sell their soul, but we're in a time when peeps are giving them away. Not to say that technology is the evil apparatus that sucks them out respectively, but Prince said to be on top of technology or else it will be on top of you. There's a lot of 'toys' in the modern world of the United States and that stretches to every continent especially with the thread of now-culture. Yeah, I saw it coming during Fear Of A Black Planet, not to say I invented anything but it was just from checking the domino lean of marketing of hip hop from the 1980's. MP3 players solidify my statement of the MP3 being the 'new' 45, as in 7" RPM record. Young and older folks talk about being bored with all the apparatus' at their fingertips. Deal is that there's a lot of good entertainment around us.

Damn, there's much radio type programming beyond the airwaves with internet, satellite, and now podcasts. Cable, when we say there's five hundred channels of 'nothing' its not exactly true, when you slow yourself down you realize that if this was twenty five years ago you'd be jumping out the box on it. The amount of movies offered is staggering. Maybe the TV shows are a bit wacker but the catalog of archived shows makes it impossible to have seen it all. And video clips after twenty five years of them can make archive-catalog shows even a bit more interesting than the new ones. I've come to the realization that with all the toys in modern society , maybe the way to look at our surroundings is a bit slower. Breathe back, and realize time is god. We cannot master time, we can only best manage it. Time is personal, and probably cannot be looked at equally when being shared. Thus time is unequal depending on the beholder.

Finally saw Get Rich and Die Trying on flight back from Paris, I know I'm late but I dug it. And plus the fact it was jarring figuring how close to reality was Mr. Jackson's story. It's why I never really criticized 50. I knew that story, seriously if you knew someone was affiliated with the murder of your mother what would you think? It's the reason why one can ever expect he and JA-Rule to break any bread...nuff said.

Chuck D Worldwide Throwback and Underground Countdown June 1st 2006 Chuck D Script #52 20-Poor Righteous Teachers ‘Rock Dis Funky Joint [profile] 19-Prince B ‘Ode to a Forgetful Mind’ [Warlock] 18-Gang Starr ‘Just to Get a Rep’ [EMI] 17-E-40 ‘Tell Me When to Go’ Tracademics rmx 16-Lupe Fiasco ‘Kick Push’ [Atlantic] Hip Hop Entertainment Report 15-Ghostface Killa ‘Shakey Dog’ [Def Jam] 14-Too Short ‘Blow Your Whistle’ 00-Interview w/ Too Short-I got that Oakland Swagger 13-Too Short ‘The Ghetto’ 00-Interview w/ Too Short ‘Making West Coast Music and the love for Funk 12-Too Short ‘Short But Funky’ [Jive] 11-Warren G ‘I Need a Light’ Fredwreck rmx 10-DJ Quik ‘California’ 09-T.I. w/ Pharrell & Common ‘Good Life’ 08-Missy Elliot w/ Grand Puba ‘My Struggles’ 07-MC Lyte ‘Wonder Years’ 06-Geto Boys ‘I Tried’ 05-Gnarls Barkely ‘Crazy’ 00-Gnarls Barkely ‘Who Cares?’ 04-CL Smooth ‘American Me’ 03-Jahi & The Life w/ ADL ‘SOS 02-Talib Kweli w/ Rakim Getting Up 01-Dead Prez ‘Propaganda’ [loud]

Lastly the whole Barry Bonds thing wreaks of racism to me. Really this steroids issue is a moot point because it's questionable about Barry's use. Still the MLB commissioner Bud Selig not recognizing the 715 blast is typical on why baseball drives folks away in droves. Yes, Barry may be looked at as surly, but wasn't Ted Williams? Did someone check those hot dogs Babe Ruth ate, southern soul food for Mays, Aaron and McCovey? Really its stupid, ever since MLB built about sixteen ballparks like Wrigley Field it was expected homers would rise. Anyway the racism comes in based on the awakening of old school mid America, probably the same ones that voted Son Of A Bush in. Bitter writers, who will try to keep BB out. BB would've hit 500 homers and stole 500 bases at 185 pounds yall. Granted I personally knew Mr Bonds could be a pain back when he asked me about 100 times for my 1992 MTV Rock N Jock jersey (in fact Flav split the MVP with Jose Canseco lest we forget) I wanted to keep it. He wanted everybody's jersey signed for a Michael Jackson charity function he was part of. After I was asked for the 99th time , I gave it to him, and I really wanted all the players to sign mine for me. I stayed in the locker room trying to duck dude, and he didn't forget. Sht, as I reluctantly turned it over. Saw on his Bonds On Bonds ESPN show and I saw where he's saved every jersey, every broken bat, glove, he's wore played with etc. I see why. That's my personal Barry Bonds story, anyway if MLB keeps him out, possibly the HOF will not include the all time hits leader , Pete Rose and HR leader. How wack is that when cats like Joe Tinker , and Richie Ashburn are in. w -aaaaaaaacccccckkk.

gone mrchuck@rapstation.com