He's Down With The Digital Revolution p.2

Chuck D: It's a complex question. The state artistically is better than ever. The co-opting and undermining of the art form by lawyers and accountants has twisted it and jaded the public's perception and the artist's perception of what it should be, instead of pushing the envelope. Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock are rappers rapping over rock tracks. Rap music is rap over music that's already been here. You might take a guy like Heavy D, who might choose to rap over a R&B track. You take Kid Rock, who might choose to rap over a rock track. The traditional structures might say: 'All right, Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock, they're the new rock bands.' Cool. But let's say a black group does it over a rock track? Let's say Run-DMC does another thing over a rock track. What are you gonna call them? A rap group or a rock group?

There's a lot of racism still and stigmas going on in traditional areas that want to determine groups and artists under the old template. In the new template on the Internet, we're going into a whole new, different definition of terms and that's what's really making it interesting. What is Rage Against the Machine? What is [singer] Zack [de la Rocha]? Is Zack a rapper? He's rapping to me. In the next two years you won't be able to put a finger on an artist and say 'This is what he is,' and Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock are examples of how you really can't put your finger on what they are. But I would say they're spawned out of hip-hop and rap. And to me, it should be no difference between [Limp Bizkit singer] Fred Durst and [hard-core MC] DMX; they rappers.

ATN: Do you think that those bands have the appropriate respect for and understanding of the genre?

Chuck D: Yes. They have to. Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock can't front and say they made it up. I don't think the traditional structures have the respect for the genre as much as they do. That's why they throw those bullshit terms on them.

ATN: Do you think kids understand when they listen to a certain Limp Bizkit track what they're really hearing?

Chuck D: I think kids are only programmed to know what they're told. The power mediums like MTV and radio stations have a tight control over their minds. They say they're reflecting on the kids. They're really dictating to them how they should act and how they should think. Even when they say, 'Well, a white kid wants to dress in a hip-hop way,' you gotta understand he's exposed to that hip-hop group. So, the kid's going to go and say: 'I'm gonna be just like this hip-hop group that I see on MTV.' So, they're being presented these images by super-corporations and they're influencing how young America should act and think. My whole thing is to build up on that and maybe give people more freedom of choice and to say: 'All right, it's cool to think you wanna be like Jay-Z one week. But, here, check out [underground rap crews] Dilated Peoples or Swollen Members. Or check out this group here that's brand-new.' Giving them more of a choice. 'Cause the trick of America is to say 'OK, you have freedom of choice,' but giving you the choices at the same time. You gotta understand that young peoples' heads, all the way back to "American Bandstand," have been manipulated by big business. Very few things in modern times start from the streets because the streets are definitely controlled. The minute something sparks on the streets, it's taken, packaged and mass-merchandised as a mass movement.



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ATN: It seems like it even happened to Public Enemy, back in the days of "Fight The Power." There was that whole Afrocentric thing with people wearing the medallions and the "X" hats that sprung up everywhere.

Chuck D: It became an aspect of pop culture. But we pushed the envelope and forced the issue because it was against the grain. We forced the issue because we thought it was necessary for black folks to know about themselves and also for everybody to know about us. But this is also a pattern that I don't think big business relished because they got it confused with nationalism and racism. Therefore, if they could somehow adopt or endorse another situation that happened to be even more counterproductive to what they was dealing with — like gansta rap — it would take the heat off them, you know, gunplay. If the gun is pointing at them, then all of a sudden you could endorse a situation where they point the guns at each other ... You could make twice as much money and the heat is off you. Now, it was a great deal for the businessmen that sat around the conference table of the music industry. So, gangsta rap did not affect nationalist rap. It probably affected them [the corporations] because it kinda itemized them as a potential enemy, bottom line. People say: 'Well, it's about the green at the end of the day.' If your daughter gets kidnapped because it's an aspect of the music, is it about the green at the end of the day? Should anything be said?

ATN: My experience with corporations has been that within certain limits they don't even care whether it's this or that, as long as they're making money off it.

Chuck D: Well, if you kidnapped their kids, they would care. They do draw a line when it's really personal.

ATN: What about something like [the controversial 1992 rap song] "Bush Killa" from Paris? CONTINUE >>