At 50 years of age Chuck D is still the booming baritone voice behind seminal hip hop group Pubic Enemy, the pioneers of hard-hitting, political hip hop in the eighties.

Back then, Public Enemy and their forward-thinking production team The Bomb Squad mixed classic funk with the sound of urban crisis and the politics of black youth in America's cities to great cultural and commercial acclaim. Straddling the divide between commercial success and real counter-culture music, they were an anomalous US chart success. Chuck D's politics and his gangly offsider Flava Flav's street humor delivered a deadly one-two combination and, much like West Coast act NWA, despite being violently outspoken, they inspired a new generation of rap fans across the world with bulletproof hits like 'Don't Believe The Hype', 'Shut 'Em Down' and 'Fight The Power'.

I stole their 1988 Def Jam platinum-selling album It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back from my friend Sam when I was 13, and it turned me onto hip hop. Thirty years on, Chuck D and Flava still make for an unlikely, inspired vocal partnership, and despite having parted company with Terminator X some years ago, Public Enemy are still touring.

In the wake of today's announcement of a Sydney sideshow at the Metro on January 4th 2011 to perform Fear of a Black Planet in it's entirety (they're already confirmed for a sold out Melbourne show as well as Falls, Field Day, Southbound and Sunset Sounds festival appearances), we spoke to Chuck D about his voice, talking youth culture and the direction of hip-hop.

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I'm a big fan, and your voice was one of the reasons I got into hip hop, so thankyou for that.

I appreciate it, man. Thankyou. (phone rings) Oh, sorry. I'm just multitasking here...

That's fine. Your voice is significant, in that it draws on a wide range of influences. In fact you got a start as a presenter on college radio...

One thing led to another out of the clear blue sky. I ran a show at WBL, the station at the college I attended. It was also a community station for the neighborhood. We helped bring about a focus on rap and hip hop, with which I was already involved with as part of a mobile DJ contingent.

What were you like as a kid at that stage?

I was an art school kid. Art school kids have to express themselves higher. I loved the technical aspect of hip hop, and as a sports fan I thought we could bring the same type of organization and respect for competition to hip hop, which was a new and exciting art form and genre.

You modeled your rap vocal on the basketball callers of the day, isn't that right?

Oh, I wanted to be a sports announcer for sure... But the music bug bit, and I couldn't do both. There wasn't really wasn't anything that was set up to do it the way I wanted, which was to bring a certain urban quality to sports announcing. In that sense, rap music caught my fantasy. It's use of words, it's speed, it allowed you to really express yourself.

Looking around you, what was the urban environment like? This was 1986?

Well, in New York... a lot of things were cut back from young people, and stereotyped. The music needed a thorough explanation, and thorough interpreters. That's why I got into the radio side of it.

No-one was talking about youth culture in the way you wanted them to?

It was happening, but there wasn't much light being shone. It was certainly something that the mainstream viewed as confrontational. We're talking about when Ronald Reagan was president...

We're kind of back in those times again, to some degree.

Well, in some places in the world. There's a condition of world poverty on people that have a democratic point of view, because there's the sense that you have to share. When people have to share, rich people have to give up something. Therefore, people who are in privileged countries will try to protect their holdings, and that gives things a conservative tint.

You're a political guy by nature. Back in the eighties, you were signing to Rick Rubin and Def Jam as one of the only really political hip hop groups in existence. Why do you think Public Enemy appealed to Def Jam at the time?

I just talked to Rick the other day... Back then the label was brand new, and we were organized to do things in a way that would push the genre forward. The label was trying to figure out a piece that would add diversity to their lineup. They already had LL Cool J and The Beastie Boys.

Apparently your first album "Yo, Bum Rush The Show" didn't really sell. Did success seem like an unlikely proposition at the time?

We didn't pay that any mind, we just wanted to go forward. You want to go forward with what we believe the art form can give. A lot of people were really into heavy metal and rock and roll, just because it was established. (phone rings)

Oh, it's my wife... (answering call) Oh, hey baby. I'm saturated. I'm in the middle of two hours of interviews. I'll have to call you back... Huh? I'll call you back on the number up the road when I'm done, but I'm talking to Australia now... Ok... Ok. (hangs up). Yo, I'm back...

You were associated with KRS One and other artists like Big Daddy Kane and Ice Cube; people we think of as the founders of modern hip hop. Did you hang out as friends?

ou're trying to do something progressive, so you're not really hanging out as friends. Hanging out doesn't achieve anything. KRS One had a plan, and when Scott Le Rock was murdered, the Stop The Violence movement came out of that. Anything that KRS One has done, I'm aligned to as a peer, friend and ally.

Was there a club scene that was fueling the music too?

There was, but I was already x amount of years older than everyone else, and didn't want to go just for the sake of it. There's only so much you can do by going to clubs. You want to do something progressive in the clubs, and move up out of there. What you goin' do? My thing was about the music.

Do you think that modern hip hop has a bit to answer for in that respect? That there's too much focus on clubbing and money now?

No, that's what it is. Somebody's twenty years old, and that's what it's all about. Partying. But Public Enemy is more like, at every party you've got to have some security at the door, you know? This is music, so it's supposed to make people feel like they are free and having a good time. But sometimes people just want to take things and run them into the ground...

Are Public Enemy still here so that we're reminded of what we're running down?

Yeah, you gotta take care of what's there allowing you to do your thing. Don't run it down entirely.

I know you are a human and animal rights activist. How does that continue to affect your music?

Hold on.... (long pause) I'm back. I'm not really a vegetarian, I do eat fish. My thing is this - everything has to be able to be done with some kind of commitment and passion, and some reason that isn't blown out of proportion and taken for granted.

Are you saying 'Things have to be sustainable'?

Yes.

Well, it's an attitude that's served you well for 30 years thus far. How do you manage to stay relevant for that period of time in pop music?

Two things - you have to pay attention to the genres that have existed before you, and why they fell to the side. You have to look at the organizational aspects of them...Also, it's important to be able to travel across the world, and not staying in one place. That's what's offered Public Enemy longevity. The important thing for you as a human being is to experience people, places and things. Public Enemy was the most travelled group ever once we got our passports and could fly. But even the fact that you have to get permission to travel the world is kinda bullshit. The new world order being so totalitarian and trying to get a gauge on human beings all the time is ridiculous.

That's why I like culture. Culture unites human beings via their similarities, and knocks their differences to the side. Governments like to split people up and control them.

Ten years down the track from 911, and we see that still happening.

There's a whole bunch of things that are off-balance right now, and being songwriters gives us an interesting perspective.

Public Enemy records like 'It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back" and "Fear Of A Black Planet" sound like acts of sonic terrorism. Your production team The Bomb Squad were pioneered a hyper-aggressive style of DJing. How did you meet them, and why did that relationship click?

I was actually part of the DJ contingent. It wasn't like I had to find the guys... we were the the guys. It was different to what was going around, because we were a team.

Did the other guys have a similar attitude to you?

Public Enemy came from the Bomb Squad, and any ideologies that were picked up along the way... they were secondary elements.

Do you mean Flava Flav?

Ha ha, no we met right at the beginning, at the radio station too.

Jake Stone

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PUBLIC ENEMY - AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES 2010/2011

Performing Fear of a Black Planet
with special guest - Ozi Batla
 
December 29, 2010. The Corner Hotel. Melbourne - SOLD OUT
January 4, 2011.  Metro Theatre, Sydney - Tickets on sale Thursday November 25 at metrotheatre.com.au

Also appearing at:

Southbound Festival - WA
Falls Festival - VIC
Field Day - NSW
Sunset Sounds - QLD