On 5/27/01 1:31 PM, Chris K wrote:

To Chuck D,

I'm Chris and I'm studying for a degree in Sheffield, England. I've been a hip hopper since 93 and a big fan of PE. I recently read your article in HHC where you spoke about modern day recording contracts being in another language so to speak and spanning over 50 pages long. I was just wondering how does this compare to the first contract Public Enemy signed with Def Jam. It's just out of interest so it's not vital that you reply but it would be good.

I hope to hear from you soon,

Cheers, Chris

THE FIRST DEF JAM CONTRACT WAS DEFINITELY THAT ....A PAPER DISASTER ONE SIDED FROM THE CBS SIDE OF THINGS...THEREFORE THE ARTISTS GOT A THIRD GENERATION BS CON-TRACT CBS LAWYER STYLE.....PEACE CHUCK

*****

What's up Chuck:

I'm JP, a 22 year old Catholic bi-racial student at UC Irvine majoring in biology. I remember first hearing you when you told the world "Don't Believe the Hype." Well, who would have said truer words were never spoken in this day and age? I frequently check up on the Terrordome commentaries as you have very interesting points about our society.

I want to thank you for what you have contributed to hip hop and our culture. I pray that we can have more people like you to exploit the problems of our greedy and materialistic world. Your influence certainly goes beyond the realm of hip hop culture, as you are one of the voices that positively uses music as an avenue to wake people up and realize the shadiness in perceptions, politics, and power. I feel for ya on issues in music and the industry. I honestly believe that the garbage out there on the radio is put there by the labels for fools to suck up without stopping to think rationally about the message. PE is a breath of fresh air, where one can stop and THINK about the message and apply it to what is happening in the world. We need more Public Enemies to balance out the "thugged out" or one-hit musicians. In 2001, we still shouldn't "believe the hype."

No need to respond, as I can imagine you have your hands full between lectures, answering other e-mails, and other work.

Peace and God Bless, JP

PS I didn't know you too were a Mac user...lol...

YUP, I SLAPPED THE MAC BACK IN TERRORDOME ...THE RECORD...CHUCK

*****

On 5/26/01 7:51 AM:

Greetings Mista Chuck D,

I was wondering what you think about the tragedies of crossing the border. What do you feel about the Mexicans that were scorched to death in Arizona's Devil's Path? It hurt me so much when I heard about another attempt to cross that fucken border end like this. Your words and way of thinking strongly effects me and the speeches you put out there are so correct and on point. Keep on doing your thang, it feels good to know there is a voice like yours out there that stands up for the people.

I love you, VIVA PE!!

ITS RIDICULOUS FOR ANYONE TO PROHIBIT HUMAN BEINGS FROM MOVING AROUND THE EARTH... AIN'T IT?

*****

On 5/26/01 12:26 AM, Darlene M wrote:

Dear Chuck, It was good listening to you, Wise Intelligent (who also is from Trenton, NJ), KRS-ONE and DXT on the 19th. I thought that the town meeting went well and, as usual, the preaching/teaching was to the converted. While talking on the way home, it occurred to me that you and KRS-ONE and some of the other conscious HipHop people might be interested in the World conference against racism that is being held in Durban, South Africa the last few days of August into the first week of September, 2001.

Check out http://www.unhchr.ch/html/racism/00-objctv.html and many others under the search topic of World Conference against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. You guys have been to the UN for the signing of the HipHop declaration of peace. Are you registered as an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization)?

http://www.igc.org/igc/gateway/arn/worldconf/ad1.htm will give you the Declaration of African Descendants, dated December 5-7, 2000, Santiago, Chile which speaks to the deploring imbalance in power and wealth, created by 500 years of genocide, slavery, etc. I am sure that some very serious issues will be raised and, hopefully, some equally serious solutions will be adopted. I hope to be in the room when it happens. I thought that this might be of interest to you. I still want you guys to come and speak to the youth of Trenton, possibly sometime in the early fall about how they are being hoodwinked, Bushwhacked and Colin-ized to their detriment. Keep up the great work, stay strong, and may the ancestors continue to guide you. Let us keep in touch. Peace and blessings. Sister Darlene M

THANKS FOR YOUR INFO SISTER... PEACE CHUCK

*****

On 5/25/01 5:08 AM, Eric wrote:

Hey Chuck,

I can't say much that hasn't been said already. But I just wanted to say thanks and that Public Enemy has been a great influence in my life. And as music moves into the future, PE's message remains more important and relevant as ever. Public Enemy's dedication to tearing down walls and opening minds is an inspiration in itself.

I'm Oriental and as a minority, I confront a lot of the issues and difficulties in a world with a one-sided culture and your music has remained a torch of strength for me. I'm only 18 and I got into Public Enemy in around late 1999. I admit I bought "Fear Of A Black Planet" on sheer hype and critical accolades but it has become an album close to my heart as with the rest of your discography. My only regret is that I remained so close-minded to hip-hop until so late in my life. I was a little punk and at that time, alternative and hip-hop were at the opposite ends of the spectrum.

But I think I speak on behalf of a lot of youth, that Public Enemy remains a profound influence in shapes and forms of music. Public Enemy has inspired me to start experimenting with drum machines and samplers as well as look into politically progressive issues. Even now, in the new modern quick-fix age, our generation still has an incredible amount of problems. But we can never give up the fight. One day Chuck, one day we'll make them say (damn) this generation. Thank you so much.

Eric

THANKS ....I TRY TO SHOW FOLKS THAT DIVERSITY IS SPECIAL AND CATS TODAY SHOULD UNDERSTAND COMMENTS LIKE YOURS ARE PRICELESS... PEACE CHUCK

*****

On 5/24/01 7:49 PM, Steve wrote:

u alway's talking shit man

jawara

YUP SINCE 1960

*****

On 5/24/01 3:21 PM, Lev A wrote:

Dear Chuck D. Dope MC, I am writing for several reasons but most of all to thank you for your music and you're tireless work in trying to make the world we live in more Just. I have listened to rap music and been politically active since I was young. My father introduced me to Grandmaster Flash, Schooly D., Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Afrika Bambaata, Fishbone, James Brown and all the reggae greats at a young age. My sister and I rapped "The Message" with each other before I got out of elementary school. My father passed away around the time your UZI weighed a ton, but I am sure he would've have loved the music you went on to make. I've been down a long time. And my love of music has been coupled with a hyper-political awareness for as long as I can remember. My parents were both political activists (my mother once shared a cell in DC with a young Marion Barry). I have been in tune since, in a strange way, I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X as I coped with my father's death. I think it had to do with realizing that nothing comes easy. I hope I dont sound like the awe struck white boy. I say these things only to let you know where I am coming from. I now live in the Bay Area and I am working to launch a nonprofit organization that will, someday, become the base for a bigtime alternative media outlet. I hope to to build an organization where people can access real news, commentary, music and art instead of reading The Times or watching CNN. I truly believe as you do, that real change can only come through ownership of the same media that conditions every citizen in this country. My organization is called Claimjumpers. It is about jumping the claims of the corporate elite-- claiming language and power back for the people. Foucalt is a big influence along with PE, the Blastmaster, The Cuf, Blackilicious, Fishbone and many others. I have a plan of how to achieve success with Claimjumpers, but it will take a little time. I just wanted to let you know that there are a lot of people that understand what you and your music has been about for all these years. We got your back, always. Soon we may be able to collaborate and I would appreciate any suggestions or encouragement you may want to provide. It is still half dream, but it will happen. That's all for now. Again, thank you so much for your music. I know you think people are insane for "treating you like Coltrane" but this Polish artist I knew once, when hearing your words on Welcome to the Terrordome, immediately compared your poetry to the great sax man. I think it has to do with that tireless search for truth and spirituality grounded in Justice, it's just us. Till next time, Lev A the Chilly Bird MC

THANKS LEV....CLUE ME IN OF YOUR EFFORTS...PEACE CHUCK

*****

On 5/21/01 8:45 PM, Skywalka wrote:

I've been down with PE since '88. The criticism of the Mess-Age album when it dropped seems to me to have been caused by people not getting what they expected. That album has grown on me so much since it's release, I listen to it more than the earlier stuff. It must be difficult to bring in a fresh approach and still maintain an intimacy with the original formula. If an unknown act dropped that album they would have been upheld as the saviours of hiphop.

I wondered if the criticism got to you cause the next album, Got Game, seemed to be going off in another direction yet again and although you got more critical acclaim I personally thought it was a bit dissapointing (though I loved Resurrection and Unstoppable). I thought it was a little less adventurous musically (I didn't like the James Bond sample style). I hope I'm not offending you cause I want you to know PE was such a big part of my life and I grew up listening to you and that is something that I now realise will never leave me.

But that brings me to the reason I decided to email you, I didn't mean to get so deep and stray from the point, guess I got carried away. I just had to tell you that when I heard the Poison album I was really proud of you and the crew. After all this time to drop another great album like that makes me wonder if the best is yet to come. I am baffled as to how everybody else has eventually fallen off the map. I believe those with the oppurtunity, to do what you do, owe it, to those who don't, to make the most of it. ps Thanx for raps that inspire me to do the right thing. There aren't enough leaders on this rock.

THANKS... WE GIVING MP3S GALORE ON SLAMJAMZ... JULY

*****

On 5/19/01 5:38 AM, wrote:

Just a quick note to thank you for your music and teachings through your lyrics. I am 37 years old and have been a fan since Yo Bum Rush The Show. I enjoy your web site and have to remind myself to visit more often.

Its been a while but in either 88 or 89 you toured with Heavy D., Chill Rob G., Queen Latifah and Kid and Play. Unfortunately it was the tour that trouble Tee Roy fell while dancing and died if I’m not mistaken. I seen the next show and it was at the Miami Arena. This show was also at the same time the 2 Live Crew explicit sh*t with the local DA was going on.

As usual PE blew the place up. The show was tight but the most impressive thing about the show and what I still tell friends is that you had everybody chill out for a minute and you went into this speech about our local politicians wasting our money fighting a freedom of speech issue with 2 live crew but yet doing nothing about all the homeless people you seen while driving to the arena. You told us those clowns need to come down here and see what is really important and wrong with Miami and quit wasting our money. To me this was just another example of how real and true you really are.

Just two quick questions for you. Your solo album Mista Chuck was solid, will you be doing another one soon? And the 2nd question is why was P. Daddy allowed to do that to PE Number One? I just think there are certain songs that should not be touched, no one better ever touch Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos. Once again thank you for making me search and finding out the real story not his.

COOL... AND THANKS. BUT I ALWAYS AM APPRECIATIVE OF A COVER ...AND UK ARTIST TRICKY COVERED BLACK STEEL... BACK IN 1997...

*****

How you doin, Chuck.

My name is Patrick and I heard you speak at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh recently. I wanted to talk to you about the whole "turning a word around" thing and how you feel a lotta young people are misusing the word nigger cause they think they can "turn the word around," or disempower the word. Thing is, I think a lotta educated, older people feel the same way, regardless of whether or not the young people are using the word for good or ill intentions.

I understand what you were saying about how Jewish people are never gonna be able to turn the swastika around and wear that as a tattoo or whatever. But thats only because its never been done before, whereas the word nigger is so prevalent in today's society through music, tv, or whatever. I'm not sayin we should go out and just forget all the symbolism and the history that's attached to these words and symbols. But I think it would be a worthy goal to acknowlege all the pain, suffering, and death that these words and symbols invoke and STILL declare that, you know what? We survived that and because of it, we're a stronger people.

I mean, truth is, a lotta people wear their people's violent history or past as a sign of pride to show how strong they are. It's kinda like what Spike Lee was talkin bout in "Bamboozled" (I never seen it but i read about it so i can't say too much) about how a lotta black artists use their people's history of oppression to enrich their own images. So I think its the same thing. If the word is used respectfully and properly, then its no longer a word of hatred but of power and dignity.

Obviously, it can still be abused but some people are always gonna be ignorant. I mean, I can't come up with a parallel in relation to my own ethnicity cause I'm an uneducated motherfucker (I'm chinese, by the way. Taiwanese, if you wanna nitpick but its all the same to me) so I guess people could say i got no right to say anything but I still think I know enough to recognize progress when I see it. And I think thats an important step we as a species need to move forward - to recognize that words and symbols only have as much meaning as we place in them, that the education and thought behind these things are more important than the things themselves. So, word, I may be a "chink," you may be a "nigger" (excuse my language, I'm tryin to make a point) but we's still people before anything else, aint we?

Peace, Patrick

IT'S IMPORTANT TO HAVE EVERYONE HEAR THIS... I RESPECT AN OPINION, BUT THE COMMERCIAL OVERUSE OF THE TERM HAS DISTANCED IT FROM ITS OPPRESSIVE BACKGROUND... OPPRESSING PEOPLE IN A NEW WAY... PEACE CHUCK

*****

Yo,

While reading your list of artists I noticed you left out mad heads that would put all of these weak fugazi groups like Lil Lame Money and the white dawg Be Real to shame. Do you want a list? Where's Aceyalone and the Free-style Fellowship? Where's the Living Legends? Where's Atmosphere? Where's Quannum? Where's Anticon? Where's Battle Axe? Where's Binary Star? Where's Company Flow? Where's the Infesticons? Where's Sum City? Where's the Coup? Where's the Arsonists? Where's Sage Francis? Where's Non-Phixion? The list goes on and on and on. Are these artists too independent for yall? The fact that they did it by them selves with out the "guidence" of any pimp a&r must of really pissed some fools at this site off. @!#$ signing on to some latch and wishing mtv would play your video. Make @!#$ happen your self, distribute and promote it your self and who gives a @!#$ if you cant afford platinum jewels embedded up your ass. How usefull is a pink pt crusier when you die?

Damn Chuck, get with the program. Peace...

I WROTE SOMETHING TODAY AND POSTED IT CALLED THANKS FOR YOUR CONCERN. CHECK IT OUT WHEN YOU HAVE TIME. PLUS RAPSTATION HAS 7000 SUBMITTED SONGS I DIG BEYOND ANY KNOWN LABEL CATS...

*****

On 5/30/94 5:39 PM, Chris M wrote:

Ayo, whats the deal, Chuck?

My names M.I. and first of all, I want to thank you for everything P.E. has done for me personally, and the HipHop community as well. A few years ago my crew and I performed at a press conference for HipHop Expo. Anyway, after we got off stage we were approached by DJ Camron, as he expressed interest in working with us. He gave us an address & phone # to contact him at Headspinnerz (I think thats what it was called). By the time we had some good tracks together to send him, the contacts were no longer valid. I was just wondering if you know of a way I could get in contact with him. I was just watching House Party 2 and seen him.

Anyway, much respect to you, and I think Flava Flav needs to do a track with D-Stroy (formerly of the Arsonists). Also your articles in Elemental are a refreshing change from all this iced-out bullshit. Mainstream HipHop sucks now. I miss the days of PE, BDP and when rap was ill. Thanks for your time-

ONE LOVE-EMCEE.M.I.

I’LL FORWARD THIS...AND GET YOUR IDEA TO FLAV.....

*****

Chuck-D,

I'm writing to you not just in reaction to yr piece on the 'niggro' but also to the situation in Amerikkka as a whole. I'm a white man. I hate to say that 'cos it ain't how I classify myself, ever. At the moment, I'm deep into Malcolm X's autobiography. It's fascinating and I agree with a lot of what he had to say. I'm not sure where you stand on issues like the Nation of Islam and the call for a separate state for black people.

The thing is, reading this book, in which every page is filled to the brim with racial vilification of white people, I never flinch. And that's 'cos I look at everything that went down in those days very objectively. I'm so disassociated from all this racial hatred shit that it makes it all much clearer to me. Yeah, the whites were devils, I say, not thinking for a minute that I am myself white, and that, while I'm here respecting (most of) Malcolm X's views, he wouldn't have had a bar of me simply 'cos of my skin colour. Like that 'little white college girl' he dissed when she wanted to know what she could do to help him out.

I dunno about Amerikkka, but as far as I can see, things have changed immeasurably since the fifties and sixties. Now black is cool. All white boys wanna be black, act black, talk with black slang, listen to black music. The evolution of man is a constant development, mentally and spiritually much more than physically. The last fifty years have seen us embrace ideals that were unheard of not so long ago. Changes are happening at an unbelievably rapid pace. Sadly, technology is killing our spirits.

What you wrote about 'niggroes' is damn true and it's something I didn't realise till learning about X and reading yr essay. But, man, maybe you're trying to resurrect a kind of man who doesn't exist anymore. White culture and society has wiped out the black soul. Like you say, you look at most blacks, the so-called 'niggroes', if you look inside them, you'll see a white heart and a white brain and a crumpled-up and baton-beaten black soul, bleeding, hiding deep down inside. It's dead in most, I reckon.

But it's not just the blacks. Whites have also changed heaps in the last few decades, too. Only change is changeless, as Herodotus said. With globalisation, every culture, every race is now losing its identity, including the whites. While black people have much more to lose and have indeed lost more, I believe it is getting to the stage where you can no longer see it as a specific problem but as one which is beginning to affect everyone.

The two things that have fucked up the world the most and caused genocide across the globe are POWER and IGNORANCE. This is what turned the white man against his dark-skinned brothers. It could have happened any other way but the whites saw opportunities for great wealth. Greed and a lack of education have devastated us all.

I also appreciated how Malcolm X brought up the subject of Jesus not being white (though nor was he black, just a healthy middle-of-the-road brown, I'd say). It's true that we have all been brainwashed, whites as well as blacks, to believe certain things. Would white Christians ever worship a black Jesus? Yet the blacks were willing to follow a white Messiah. It's amazing just to look at it from a different perspective.

And tell me, what is all this fucken bullshit about black and white, anyways? It's as if we're two different species sometimes. We're merely at opposite ends of the race spectrum. CLIMATE. It's that simple. That's what determines our colour. Nothing else. People say 'blacks' and 'whites' but where's the line, the boundary between these supposed adversaries? If you walked from, say, London to Nairobi via Cairo, you'd see a gradual progression from white to black. Where does a white man stop and a black man begin? It's all crap.

Maybe I'm just lucky that I live in a multicultural society where we don't have to put up with racist shit. Here in Canberra, the capital of Australia, there aren't many Amerikkkan blacks yet, but there are a lot of Africans, come directly from African nations, relatively unspoilt by the hand of the colonial white man. I have quite a few African friends, mostly from Botswana and Mozambique, and they are not integrated as such, they are not 'niggroes', not yet anyway. But they have to be a part of white culture and society if they wish to live here, they have to live by white laws, same as in Amerikkka. Fortunately, the people here, white or whatever, are much more willing to embrace them and take them in as friends and colleagues rather than interlopers and crims.

I remember a story a workmate told me. He used to drive for the Zambian ambassador and he heard how one of the Zambians broke down along the road one day. This Zambian was so surprised and taken aback at how the locals, whiteys the lot of 'em, stopped and assisted him; how where he came from it was unheard of for a white man to stop and help fix a black man's car along the road. So I'm fortunate to have been born and brought up in this kind of environment.

By the way, you aren't a Muslim, are you? I don't mean to disrespect you, but you're talking it up about all this 'niggro' shit yet you wear a white man's cap, you speak a white man's tongue. It just shows that it's too late to try to draw back from a culture that has enslaved you for so many centuries. Man, you're free in that you can go wherever you like and say whatever the fuck you want, but the shadow of the white man still stands over you.

Unless you Rastafarianise yrself and actually travel back to yr roots in Africa, you ain't never gonna resurrect that true black soul and have that feeling of black pride. I don't even pretend to profess to know what it's like to be black and what black pride really is, but I do know what it's like to be a human being who has trouble identifying with those around him and who has searched for his own identity among the faceless millions. Look at my name. Yeah, I'm white but I thank fuck I ain't got a history of black subjugation in my family tree.

Mr D, I dunno what I'm really trying to say. I s'pose I just want you to know how I feel, though what a white Australian of Dutch origin can tell you about the 'niggro' situation in Amerikkka is a good fucken question!! :-)

Anyway, keep up yr commentaries 'cos you're a voice I listen to and respect, unlike so many others who just talk empty shit. I'm interested in these problems and would appreciate hearing what you think about what I've written.

Thanx Maurits Z

PS Have you ever heard the song 'Nigger' by the (white) rap-metal band Clawfinger? It's an awesome song for what it says and I definitely recommend you listen to this white perspective on how the white Amerikkkan government is (still) fucking over the blacks.

PPS I dig how you spell Amerikkka.

*****

A yo chuck whats up

I'm an industry insider who has recently decided to leave it alone because of the current (cointelpro) activity that has invaded it. I am affiliated with Dead Prez and this is a bulletin I created and intend to circulate through out the community Guerilla style. I am interested in doing some writing for your site and related endeavors you have created. My inspiration comes from the brilliant way you used the currupt and evil music industry as a vehicle to launch your blow for our freedom. The way you seezed the time and opportunity reminds me of James Carlos and tommy smith at the 68 olympics BRILLIANT my brother thank you. Anyway please check this out.

"RAPRIMAND"

You rappers have failed us! Understand that when you elect yourself to speak publicly on behalf of or "representing" us you bare the responsibility of leader. To attempt escape of this title, and responsibility is a cop out, and furthermore grounds for an accusation of treason on your part. Understand that when you make the decision to step in front of that mic, and project your voice on to any medium of recording or broadcast device you influence the thought and moral of your intended recipient. You therefore are subject to criticism concerning your report of or influence on the condition of your audience.

In Rap's formative years the music served as a report on the condition of our people, and the world at large. Through their analysis of our state early rappers offered opinionated testimony on what they saw and experienced, thereby presenting a forum for social thought and improvement. This trend by all means did not begin with rap music (though the genre does seem to be destroying it) but it is absolutely imperative to know that from the beginning of recorded history music was a vehicle for the articulation of a peoples triumphs and failures. This form of expression served as a reminder of good and bad things past, as well as motivation for the pursuit of a secure and prosperous future .

You have deviated from the path layed by your predecessors, and have spent the greater part of the last decade saturating our collective conscious with your Euro imposed, capitalistic mentality, and simplistic grandiose boastings. Your relentless praise, and advocating of substance abuse, deviant sex and self inflicted violence, has nurtured a generation of youth that is completely unproductive, degenerate, and self consuming. Rendering us ripe for the picking , while delivering our souless bodies to the feet of our enemies who harvest through our calamity.

Your vocal and visual tribute portrays the black woman as the whore of the earth existing solely to be objectified, ravished, and discarded by anyone at will. You have assisted in an on going campaign to strip the black woman of her womanhood. Furthermore you have waged a war on her sanctity. Your actions are validating the common opinion of the American black male, and you are performing this buffoonery in witness of the global community, and justifying the system that enslaved your foreparents and opress you today. (see' modern slavery).

You have been so preoccupied with purchasing platinum from "Jacob" and fitting you rides with "dubs" and mindless organs for felatio that the government has fortified it's existing system, and created an apparatus for neo slavery right under our noses, and you being in position of speaker have said nothing. Instead you have only concerned yourselves with keeping us spending in a hostyle economy, and relentlessly, boogying, and partying our black ass into another 400 years of cruel exploitation. You should know that every generation that ever existed is an extension of a past legacy. We leave records on our time and era for future study, and your contribution has been duley noted. OUR BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS!!!!

-Elijah "Rage" Green

*****

On 3/20/01 1:49 PM, Erik Å wrote:

Hey, how's it going?

Just wanted to let you know that I really dig your style. Without any doubt are you not only one of the best but also one of the smartest artists I've ever heard about.

Went to your concert here in Sweden...it really rocked! You (and the rest of PE too of course) are very good live. Anyways, I took some pictures of you at the concert. So if you want to admire yourself, go and take a look at: http://users3.50megs.com/meracl/bilder/vol4/

Oh well, keep up the good work and keep it real!!!

Erik