He's Down With The Digital Revolution p.4

Chuck D: I think the Internet breaks open the potential for different album configurations and formats. The majors, they might take 12 cuts, they're promoting one record, really. I used to always say this about rap: Why make fuckin' 12 cuts if you really have the ability to make three? You're just doing another nine as a contractual obligation, which is bullshit. You can only do three; you have the ability to do three because the other nine sound just like the first three. You have a situation where you give away three, buy seven if you want; or give away three, buy three for $3. If you went to a fruit stand and had 70 cents in your pocket and saw a banana for a dollar — that's an expensive-ass banana, ain't it? — but you really wanted that banana, would that guy sell it to you or not? If he works for somebody he probably couldn't make that deal. But if he works for himself, he could. So you, as a consumer with 70 cents, and he, as an owner with a banana, will probably agree to say: 'Hey, let's make a deal.' 'Cause he's looking for a potential consumer in the future. But, in the music business, what you have is a schism between creative ownership mentality and job mentality. Many people in the music business have jobs. So, when the creative person hooks up with this person that has a job, it's just two different philosophies. Those deals couldn't be made. The artist says, 'All right, I made this thing, let's sell it to the marketplace and have the albums go for $2.' The record company says, 'Oh, fuck that, buddy, we got your album and goodbye.'

ATN: When you look back on what Public Enemy has done over the years, what do you see as the band's biggest accomplishments, its legacy?

Chuck D: That we gave people their own individualist trend of thought, for people to think for themselves and not be programmed ... I think I'm in the highlight of my career now. And a lot of cats that can't see it, they will see it. I try to let them see it now so they can participate instead of being an audience.

ATN: Can you foresee life after being an artist? Do you think you will always rap in some fashion, whether it's in the music industry or in a political arena?

Chuck D: Contrary to popular belief, I've studied art. I have an art degree. So, Chuck D knows about [16th-century Italian painters] Caravaggio and Titian and [blues legend] Leadbelly as much as I know about [rappers] Common and Ol' Dirty Bastard. I look at art the same way Picasso would look at art. I don't know if I'll be jumping around on stage. You're talking about artists dealing with art. It has nothing to do with trying to be the hip, new thing.

ATN: You said in "Fight The Power" that most of your heroes don't appear on stamps. Malcolm X is on a stamp now.

Chuck D: Most of my heroes don't appear on a stamp.



	Photo: Michael Goldberg
(( D believes the Web will help empower artists. ))

ATN: Do you still feel the relevance of that song now, as you did when you wrote it?

Chuck D: Yeah, most of my heroes still don't appear on no stamp. I try to get the Malcolm X stamps when I can. Now I want to see a Nat Turner stamp, but I don't think ... [laughs]

ATN: I know you worked with the Artist recently.

Chuck D: We call him Prince. We have license to. I don't think you guys can call him Prince. [laughs]

ATN: Had you ever met him before you worked with him? And what did you teach each other? What did you learn from each other? Do you feel any sort of kinship with him [because] he has also had his run-ins with major corporations?

Chuck D: Prince and David Bowie are the template. I share a lot of my ideals by watching how Prince has dealt with situations himself. 'Cause they're trying to clear the way for artistry and when it came down to working with him it was an artist-to-artist type thing. When I saw Prince put "Slave" on his face, I didn't think he was crazy. Like I said, the public might have thought he was crazy. Why? Because the public is controlled and programmed to be naive of the whole musical process. People like to say: 'Well, the public only cares about what gets churned out as music.' Then why would there be "Entertainment Tonight"? There's an appetite for that. There is a lot of information about the processes of the industry that people want to know. But then again it's like, is it beneficial for an industry to turn its audience into participants? That's what this whole Internet is about. Interactivity. If you checked out art in 19th-century Spain or France, the audience were participants and the community interlocked with each other and things spawned out of that. I've got four studios. My guys can make, cut and put something out the next week like Stax or Motown. If I got an artist that's feeling it, he goes in the studio, cuts the track and we get it out to the world. That's the process we're going to do with [my label] Slam Jamz Records and also the MP3 versions on Rapstation. CONTINUE >>