Who's House? Remembering RUN DMCs 'Tougher Than Leather' 1988 .

I wrote this piece way before they were inducted into the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME earlier this year. In fact I wrote this for the great HIP HOP Magazine ELEMENTAL .....Check it out
   

The best part of being considered a wise ol sage of rap, is being picked to write liner notes for many re-issues upcoming to the marketplace. SONY-BMG has repackaged the whole RUN-DMC catalog for release since the summer of 2002.  complete with new pics and words. Good thing I have is a sharp memory, so enjoy this trip down hip hops lane, RUN DMCs underrated Tougher Than Leather album......

      On the intro to Run’s House, DJ Run’s fresh, fly, wild and bold proclamation  'We had… a whole lot of superstars on this stage tonight…' was the b-boy sound to be heard.


By the summer of 1988, I'd been an annual visitor to every New York-area arena that would host a Rush Production/Def Jam show, but this year, I was on the same stage and on the same bill with my idols, the legendary RUN DMC.


Back in 1984, Jam Master Jay followed through on a promise he’d made a month earlier, at the now legendary, college radio depot for hip-hop, WBAU/Long Island, and practically walked 3 tickets from backstage at the Philadelphia Spectrum—in the middle of a show. For that cat to do that opened me up further to everything RUN DMC was doing and was about to do. They earned respect. I'm not ashamed to say I became a male groupie that night --musically committed to RUN DMC (and I must mention Whodini, because their performance that night, really blew my cap back). 


But back to the story. On that night in ‘88 I recall Run, the obvious headliner of the evening, proclaiming that there were “a lotta superstars” on stage before them that night.  But truly, without any doubt, it was Run’s House, indeed.


Rewind to 1986:  I had --by way of endlessly promoting the greatest rap squad of all time,--gotten certain invitations and such, to the Raising Hell Tour that year. The Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Whodini and RUN DMC were making their third trek through 60 cities, across the United States—hip-hop: Lewis and Clark style. I happened to be invited the final show of the tour… at Madison Square Garden, no less. Watching 20,000 screaming fans putting their Adidas in the air was a testament to the power of this group and Hip-hop at large, for that matter. For the third straight year, RUN DMC ruled hip hop, with sound, fury, and a total dominance reminiscent of the LA Lakers at the time.  This was pure hip-hop. This was the house that RUN built.


Occasionally, as I was planning my dibs with Public Enemy, I would catch Run, D, and Jay, --fresh off some tour-- prowling the offices of Rush Productions. They were tight because the timing of their next album (which we now know as Tougher Than Leather) was being thrown off by cat-and-mouse games between Profile (their label at the time) and RUN DMC’s management. RUN DMC was demanding a better deal after the success of Raising Hell. And why the hell not? Not only did they create a super-group, and make a label, but they damn near rebuilt and upgraded the whole genre of music.


You could tell that all this drama was having a twisted effect on the group. In the raging wake of Raising Hell, how could they not feel the pressure?  Two years between hits is an eternity for the very radio-conscious rap market. They'd toured that record to the def. Anticipation was high all over. RUN DMC needed to make some noise.


I still consider Raising Hell, to be, simply, the greatest rap album ever recorded--because it raised the bar for all of Hip-hop. To me, that album was like Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game. What next? How do you top that? You don't.  Instead, you go another direction.


Tougher Than Leather was like coming back to score 97 points in a losing playoff game--a spectacular performance against all odds and expectations.


By the time Tougher Than Leather’s first single,  Run’s House hit radio, me and my guys had just wrapped up our second album, It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back. Our first album had been modeled after Raising Hell, but by the time we did this one, we’d had a full year to really find ourselves after bouncing off the influence of Eric B & Rakim, KRS ONE, BDP, and producer Marley Marl. It seemed that RUN DMC had also compiled all these influences. No matter how off-timed the release, the proficiency of Tougher Than Leather was amazing. When Run’s House and Beats To The Rhyme hit—they signified two things:


1.RUN DMC were back
2. They were ready to headline their 4th national tour.
By the summer of 1988, Run’s House was not only a song-- but the written theme for all of Hip-Hop, and now, the name of the national tour. Yours truly, and my crew, Public Enemy were chosen to perform on the Run’s House Tour, along with; DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, fellow Long Islanders EPMD, and the all-female West Coast crew, JJ FAD—produced by Easy E & Dr. Dre.  I can’t leave out the infamous Hollis Crew:  DJ Hurricane , Kool E, Runny Ray, and Davey DMX (who in terms of production skills, instrumentation, and bass playing remain another of hip-hop’s underrated performers). All in all, this was a powerful package. Run’s House was one of two tours put out by the RUSH Productions rap empire that summer. The other tour, (called the DOPE JAM TOUR) carried what seemed to be every other hot name at the time. To see it on paper, haters and speculators felt that the artists and albums weren’t strong enough to ride through the summer. How wrong they were.


First of all, RUN DMC had the unprecedented audacity to open their set with Run’s House. Oh, My God. The nerve--and the catalog of hits you had to have-- to take the luxury of blasting off with your hottest record 'first'! Traditionally, acts saved their hot songs for the end of the set, never the beginning. If that right there didn’t set the tone, what else could? The whole set was packet with beats, bass,--the “funky drummer” thing that was happening at the moment, and JMJ on some wicked, slashing cuts.  Whose house? No Question.


Still, with all this acclaim, the pressure had really gotten to Run. Like I said it’s hard to notice 97 points when you crushed the world at 100. And him being still a young cat, he was affected by the perceptions of some unmet expectations. I felt it was my place to give them the reality of the greatness they achieved with this record. Spittin’, cuttin’, and high-octane, funk-rock beats were born on that disc. RUN DMC commanded stages and cassette decks in ‘88. I personally went through three cassette tapes of Tougher Than Leather myself that summer alone—bought at record shops, during stops on that unforgettable tour.


Beats to the Rhyme — unbelievable classic—‘nuff said. One listen, and you get the sense that this record was chopped and assaulted with DJ’s sensibility and a surgeon’s precision. The rumor of a scratched-in a cappella verse by DMC on this cut remains one of greatest untold production mysteries in Hip-hop. Then you have, Radio Station. So underrated. Can you imagine the honor I felt when I heard my voice cut into the hook? This song had great stage playoff, and sported classic lyrics like: 'Run-DMC, goin’ down like a Bufferin/reliving all pain…’.


One night, somewhere on tour, RUN, D, and Jay answered a personal request of mine to put Ms. Elaine in the set---and J’s cousin Bobby Walker played the drums on the song. As I recall they kept the song in their set for a week or two. Then there was I’m Not Going Out Like That another, hot, up-tempo joint; a great song that jumps off from the start and doesn't let up till the end.


During a show in Albany, Georgia, RUN DMC shot a video for another of my favorites, Mary, Mary. On that song, JMJ and Run flipped that old Monkees cut “Mary, Mary” that was on all those jam-packed, breakbeat records that every DJ was using, and executed it with mastery.  I loved all of RUN DMCs rock-ish combinations (that they never receive proper credit for).  The album’s title track, Tougher Than Leather was itself, equal parts wah-wah funk and rock-guitar.


Before Tougher than Leather came out, DMC told me that I had inspired him to make How’d You Do It Dee ;  a serious, funk/breakbeat, get down, that is unparalled to this day. On this song, DMC works wordplays like a game of lyrical 3-card Monte. It’s funny, D has always said that I was his favorite rapper, while he, the “King of Rock” is part of my favorite group of all time.


RUN DMC is so thorough that they even showed mastery in the endings of their songs. Soul To Rock and Roll is a perfect example—the beat gives space for rhyme and DJ play, and then ends with the chopped-up vocal 'I’m the King Of Rock'.  Masterful. This was a lost art, swamped at the time by the laziness of a fade. Nobody, except Grandmaster Flash, five years prior, had enjoyed cutting up their own catalog and making new twists on it like RUN DMC did.


By the time August of ’88 rolled around, the Run’s House Tour had picked up much steam,
Everybody who saw the show went crazy. RUN DMC kept the party live and The Hollis Crew even furthered the fun by reflecting the Papa Crazy track, and another clever JMJ cutup, They Call Us RUN DMC. The few times these two songs played on stage, The Hollis Crew made sure there was a party brought to the hardcore “hat and black” look. Everything about the vibe of that tour was just fun, and party, and pure Hip-hop--from The Glen E. Friedman design and photography, to the blue background, the Adidas, the gold ropes, and the red and black, Adidas tour jackets we wore (those are keepsakes for life).


The tour ended in the middle of August in the summer of 1988.  The sense of unity the groups had on that tour was groundbreaking as far as rap shows went; and there hasn’t been a collective as tight as that one since. Many of the promoters who saw the tour in cities where we had stopped earlier, wanted to see it and promote it again. We had a whole lotta superstars on that stage every night.  But, that tour taught us that the only place for egos--was onstage, and out of all those superstars we all knew whose house it was.


Later, in the fall of ’88, Public Enemy and RUN DMC played side by side, this time
rolling through Europe and wrecking shows. There’s a picture from that tour that I will always cherish, of our two crews, chillin’ in a hotel lobby in Montreux, Switzerland.  The photo is a reminder of the power of the group at that time. RUN DMC is indeed “tougher than leather”, and they hammered the point home by creating one of the standout rap albums of all-time.


I’ve always said that “Run is the Mind, Jay is the SOUL and DMC is the HEART; of RUN DMC.” No past tense. There’s no 'was' when talking about Elvis or the Beatles, so I aint using it here. RUN DMC is the chief architect of Hip-hop. So when I say “Whose house?”—Y’all know what time it is.

chuckd@hiphopgods.com

McDaniels grew up in Hollis, Queens, New York.[1] He attended Catholic schools including St. John's University in New York City.

McDaniels first became interested in hip hop music after listening to recordings of Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. In 1978, McDaniels taught himself to DJ in the basement of his parents' home, using turntables and a mixer given to him by his older brother, Alford. During this period he adopted the stage name "Grandmaster Get High".

Later that year, McDaniels sold his DJ equipment, after his friend Joseph "Run" Simmons acquired his own turntables and mixer.[citation needed] After Jam-Master Jay, who was the best DJ in their hometown of Hollis joined the group, Run encouraged McDaniels to rap rather than DJ. Gradually, McDaniels came to prefer rapping to mixing records, and adopted the nickname of "Easy D". In 1981, he dropped the "Easy D" moniker in favor of "DMcD", the way he signed his work in school, and then to the shorter "D.M.C.". D.M.C. alternately stood for "Devastating Mic Controller" or his nickname since childhood, "Darryl Mac".

Hip-Hop culture from it's time of origin has made one of the biggest contributions to the advancement of self-knowledge and awareness within the last several centuries put together.

More than any other knowledge medium; be it an art form or academically.

However, "Hip-Hops" most "in-spirit-rational" time seems to have been infiltrated and replaced by the negative spirit of materialism and greed (Rap music) as we can all see has been happening from about the 90's------->.

*Not withstanding, the few who have kept up the good fight such as: (*Not in any particular order) * Chuck D (Public Enemy), KRS 1, Immortal Technique, Ras Kass, Can-i-bus, Jedi Mind Tricks, Ms. Dynamite, Dead Prez, Gangstarr, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Wu-Tang Clan, X-Clan, Killah Priest, Lord Jamar, Brand Nubian, and to the many others that should have been mentioned, I apologize.

*We are really in a sad state of affairs right now, people!

The Industry has succeeded (as they have, in all the other previous genres of music) in the manipulation the art form; for their own hidden agendas.

Music indeed does "change" and evolve like everything in life does; but "Hip-Hop" must now take it to a "higher level" if it is going to survive these clouds of ignorance and darkness that has presently overshadowed it.

Truly one of the good dudes man. As far as hard worked skill and what GOD gave him he really was in a zone by himself. He and PRIMO ventured beyond the conventional and still kept it 350% hip hop.

 Touring with him a few times and especially 1998 on the Smoking Grooves tour I always seen dude at a very even keel. A nice cat. 'YOU KNOW MY STEEZ' video was shot on a freezing day on Randalls Island back in 97 ....a crazy respectable relationship PE and the GANG STARR Foundation ...GURU name checked me in that rhyme, I often name checked

Even on a few ruffled times when I had to let the BAD BOY / BIGGIE situation know that I didn't dig or stand for use of my voice for Ten Crack Commandments without at least calling me. It was a bit awkward development during that process , BIG had passed and PRIMO was the producer on it. Finding that things were in motion between 2 major companies and lawyers trying to claim it and keeping both of us out the business mix regardless of how we planned to fix it, till I let let PRIMO know this wasn't a GANG STARR issue.  It was a crack first, my voice second , and notorious BMG situation not B.I.G.

Regardless of feelings , we were men about it. And GURU was a the chief feel good dude as with FLAV on the tour of 1998. And BIG SUGG ,FREDDIE FOXX, and FOX made like like family that tour.
We had a ball for real and in the 'Do You Wanna Go Our Way' video GURU  and PRIMO blessed us. Most recently as just a couple of weeks ago as well as the last few years PRIMO and I hug as soldiers we are in this game and we sincerely greet with love.

GURU made it always easy for everybody I felt.....I never knew him as well as PRIMO but I'm proud to have worked with alongside of him and the legacy those two cats manifested. No big pun intended with that last statement referencing one of GANG STARRs first hit records. To GURU in whatever spirit his place may be, stay cool soldier as you taught us all how to be.

As in the words of BUMPY KNUCKLES ....Salute...GURU, PRIMO GANG STARR forever.

Chuck D
ChuckD@publicenemy.com

I'm in Chitown for 5 more days ~Pow~Wow show went well last night!!!!!!!!!!

Show Tuesday March 23rd at Club Tonik ~

--- CHITOWN WHAT'S GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Always Love/Fearless & Yoyo.... Chitown Holla

All the best and godspeed to the recovery of GURU from GANG STARR. One of the best. A good hearted brother.

One of the ALL TIME greatest.

Chuck

 

November 24, 2009

These people in the corporate drivers’ seats of RADIO, TV, and RECORD COMPANIES, those in charge of distributing music and visual culture, neither care about THE PEOPLE or THE MUSIC over which they have control. And so my response has been to build some supersites and internetwork niches to filter out the nonsense and spread the best of what I feel is news and factual information. I truly don't know if you know that I’m writing much more than ever before. This past October marked the first month I didn't write a piece but I was in fact writing my Black ass off. Especially after accepting and taking on the new radio show on WBAI and the Pacifica network. ANDYOUDONTSTOP! Heard every Monday night EST 9p-11p on 99.5 in NYC and world web wise on www.wbai.org. At the same time I have expanded my ON THE REAL talk show usually heard on Sunday nights 11p-1a on www.AIRAMERICA.com. DOCTOR DRE of YOmTv, Who’s The Man and NYC HOT 97-POWER 105 fame will be splitting duties there with me as well as Janol MECCA Holmes and Cee Cee doing once every 6 weeks from Atlanta. So coupled with my writing piece with the new revamped SOURCE magazine, we are doing service to build better infrastructure on the HIPHOP and RAP planet.

Also, writings are now being projected from the new Supersite Internetwork www.HIPHOPGODS.com. It’s where CLASSIC rap music LIVES ON. Created by GARY G WIZ, building this engine was necessary. The inclusion of Artist profiles and information, the ability for them to add their music and video, and the connection to social networks like Facebook and Twitter make it an essential niche area within a galaxy of sites and portals on the Internet. The official launch is December 1 2009, 10 years after the ground breaking 'THERES A POISON GOIN ON' digital Internet first album by PUBLIC Enemy in 1999. The very same history makers were again making noise that will corral the demographic of people who need to get the detail on the first half of artists 1979-1994 recording wise. Eligibility for a HIPHOPGOD must be 15 years, and 2010 means 1995 and back. Also the other elemental contributors that have involved themselves in to Turntabilism, Graff, Breaking and Emceeing (which has been mainly the documenting and archiving through records, cassettes, and CDS). Fans can sign up and be a part of www.HIPHOPGODS.com and get a bead on a situation that has been less than properly known. The area I feel is most important is NEW songs and videos by 'CLASSIC "artists, these will be respectively projected on HIPHOPGODStv and HIPHOPGODSradio soon to join the great commentary written and managed by Baird FLATLINE Warnick, and contributed by OLD SCHOOL 76.

Also to emerge in MARCH 2010 -- Women’s History Month -- will be the amazing Supersite Internetwork www.SHEmovement.com. SHE stands for 'Sisters In Hip Hop Everywhere'. MC LYTE will be involved with this essential site that will niche the efforts of women in hip hop and rap music across the world to be heard AND seen. Again from the creator GARY G WIZ www.SHEmovement.com will host SHEtv and SHEradio. It will be incredible

UNDERGROUND? OR LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND?

This past September-October 2009 had been a packed yet hectic time for me and PUBLIC ENEMY in general. I have a myriad of thoughts based on what I see and hear. Yes I am sounding more like the cranky age of the half a century I nearly am, but I'd be foolish to be silent at this crucial time. I have written about the silencing of intelligence, which has much of society today saluting nonsense. We can talk about that BS all year long and I will always plan and attempt to keep on talking and calling when I see it. But most recently when keeping my focus on just talking about rap and rapping itself, I ran into some typed ignorance I couldn't ignore. I am a fan of all rap music. Even beyond the borders that are superficially endorsed. I understand SOULJAH Boy, but gonna state that he is not for me. Same thing for GUCCI MANE. Understand him but he ain't necessarily my cup of JAVA. I dig ALLHIPHOP.com and everything they do. Ran into Chuck Creekmur on the Red Carpet at the BET HIPHOP Awards SHOW in ATLANTA top of October. I told him that I had never seen so much Black media and Online Media in my life. I was really happy that these people were taking the technological first steps into creating their own internetworks. But Chuck and ALLHIPHOP.com blasted into the forefront and has held it down as a network head and shoulders above the many. Back to this scene in the ATL: it was out of the blizzard whirl of 'fake it till you make it politics. The blessing and the curse of the undertapped power of BET. I had only considered participating because I was chosen to give ICE CUBE his lifetime Achievement Award. So I decided to put my beatdown BET stick for a minute and participate. That night in ATLANTA was like visiting another planet, although I'd lived there the past 20 years as well. I really tried to understand how so many mid 20s to late 30 year olds were steering their entire thing into the viewpoints of young Black America. If I was out of touch my judgment was not upon the youth, but those adults that program them like robotic dogs. Backstage... it was a gang of silent older folks I thought were silenced by the check and the maintenance of their respective lifestyles that turned me off. Backstage I had solid conversation with BUSTA RHYMES, PLAY from KID and PLAY, FARNSWORTH BENTLEY, and for a quick minute YOUNG JEEZY. JEEZY and I were giving CUBE his award. I was given the chance to write what I had to say on my own; instead I suggested BET write it and I would repair and edit. My baddd: I should've known better. Upon getting their written idea, it was laced with a little too much heaping on NWA Gangster and not enough on how CUBE eventually made many see his ultimate vision. I read the tele-prompter without any rehearsal (because they couldn’t squeeze it in), and I had to kind of rush read a script beforehand. When it came time for me to read my part, looking into the audience actually startled me. It looked like a trillion dollars on the outside. But I could see that the insides were as plastic as the show itself. Being that they didn't change the reading, I damn sure felt I should say something but didn't want to have that KANYE WEST moment of hijacking TV. I stayed with the point at hand. So I edited as I read through a blizzard of terms I had already rejected in the script, terms such as ‘gangster’ (because I don't believe in such fairy tale). Anyway, O SHEA JACKSON grew up and away from those exact beginnings. That impromptu editing and the realization that I needed to be saying something entirely different all made me come across like a wooden hologram. I could've done better ad-libbing, looking ICE CUBE in the eye and telling him how I really thought. But I was thinking TV, when I should’ve addressed the live audience and 'damn the TV cast'. Watched some even further twisted footage with a voiceover by DRE. Afterwards when CUBE came onstage, and said what he said about me, it was appreciated but this was about his greatness. We spoke a sec. I told him I wished I could've seen him in the front row but I couldn’t spot him amidst all the fake ass blinging lights. CUBE is a dude where we catch up and pick up where we left off. Just like SPIKE LEE or BILL STEPHNEY. There are things to be done in this life. He continues to move forward.

THE MONIQUE SHOW

I was definitely pleased to be invited on THE MONIQUE SHOW by Monique and her producers who gave me the floor to speak right after the BET HIPHOP AWARDS. The awards were taped weeks before. I personally think that Monique will be on further fire in 2010 with her incredible part in the film PRECIOUS. Which by the way floored me with emotion a few times. On the show, Monique was very supportive as were her other guests. One shaky moment was when Ms. Monique asked me to get up and dance. I got up and kinda head-nodded (flashing back to the beatdown she gave Martin Lawrence in WELCOME HOME ROSCOE JENKINS). MONIQUE is 1505 real. She gives 3 shows in one taping. She's non-stop. Off camera is even more entertaining than on. And that's saying a whole lot. Her show is filmed in ATLANTA. I can't believe she and CHARLES BARKLEY are working down the hall from each other.

HIPHOPHONORS

Earlier in the month of October, NELSON GEORGE and FAB FIVE FREDDY did their annual VH1 HIP HOP HONORS. PUBLIC ENEMY was honored to be chosen to honor DEF JAM although RUSSELL, RICK RUBIN, LYOR COHEN we're in the shadows of LA REID, who I really think is part of the big record company illuminati. ... HIPHOPHONORS held at Brooklyn Academy of Music, this seemed to be a right venue for such an event. This year seemed right but I knew there were gonna be a lot of beef on the sides. I mean who wasn't appearing, who wasn't invited etc. Marketing producer Marjorie Clarke, publicist Leyla Turkkan, Tanisha Michelle of BWP I was able to get on my list. The building was large enough to handle the chaos. A dry salute to that. Tried to get my man Doctor (YO Raps) Dre on the bill. He helped build DEF JAM from the floor up. Promoting as DJ on WBAU college radio. A DJ for the Beastie Boys. Writing for RUN DMC’s Proud To Be Black. Discovering BASS music with his groundbreaking group ORIGINAL CONCEPT. Host of the seminal YO MTV RAPS. A founding host of 2 NYC radio stations. And a character in the movie WHO’S THE MAN. Aren't those enough credentials? I think so.

NOTHING LIKE HIM

SIR LEBRON JAMES giving up the number 23, and wanting the NBA to follow. More young superstars with less ability need to take note. It’s the connected interest of Lebron James that makes him very unique and special. Making a parallel comparison to HIPHOP, there's quite a few out there that want to pay homage to the foundation, but there are limited platforms to do it. www.HIPHOPGODS.com hopefully will be the site arena where the banners hang and the throwback means something.

GO WEST....

I use to say I had to go to IQ REHAB every time I left Hollywood. Now it seems the entire country has gone Hollywood. I have to leave the country sometimes to get my mind back. Seriously. I'm wondering in this age of technological opinion increasingly how much I say matters. Sht, there's a lot of voices out there colliding in many directions. I often don't want to add to the blizzard. Message boards have allowed the average person to be heard somewhere outside their own head. I knew this was coming and I braced myself for it. There are situations that are publicized that I fail to understand how it happened. I know I've promised to write shorter and more frequent T-Domes, but often my mouth is open in shock. And I chose not to say or write a damn thing. Listen and watch what I do instead.

There's this scene in a recent episode of my favorite (I don't watch much) TV show ENTOURAGE, where this woman runs into actor ZAC EFRON in a store with her daughter. She approaches him while he's on the phone and asks for an autograph. Come to find out that she tells him that the autograph is for herself not her 10-year-old daughter, who ends up telling her hot mom that it's enough and drags her away. This celebrity culture is the strongest drug yet without a rehab in sight. While I have benefitted from this culture, I have chosen to steer it into reality, respect, and reverence. Relevance is relative. I'll never play the fool to stand on the virtual roof of fame listing to the crowd of industry and public telling me to jump strictly for their entertainment. Nah. My daughter is a psych major in college; knowing what I know, I’m encouraging someone open up a chain of psychological rehab centers for weaning off the glow of fame, or lessening the quest of it. I think that it will be as big a treatment center as Botox and tanning, etc. The 15 minutes of fame thing is 60 seconds for everybody at any cost. People are not only losing their minds but also giving them away much less selling them. Negative news is the only news about anything here in the states. A bunch of mid generation wrekkked folk running the generation under it into the ground. I think that the 12-25 year olds have done well collectively considering the circumstances they're within. 28-50 done lost their minds. And so it seems. It took that generation to green-light a Flavor TV series, thus Flavor entertained for it. That generation had individualized itself and everything around it into a serious structural, financial, even need I say it moral hole, that the next generation can't build off of, unless they think the same selfish way with less on the table. Finally about the entertainment ...everybody's talking about how Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift. He was the talk of everybody the next day, invited on Jay Leno, and probably had a record sales boost. (Can't break or burn an MP3). Ok, the corralled public had a beef, but what power in the minds of these corps, do they really have? Hearing Donald Trunk put his hairpiece into this situation is a bigger joke. Enough of that world because I refuse to be a part of it. I dug the way the President made a comment, and moved on telling his surroundings that he has a lot of things on his plate and told paparazzi press to cut some slack. That was real: it shows he is in-tune to the madness. Gotta be in tune to fix it. Many grown folk in 2009 have been sucking their virtual thumbs waiting for things to just happen. Blogs and boards are stunning me with the amount of stupidity I sometimes read. All Hip Hop posted that Gladys Knight accused Hip Hop of not being responsible like it should. There's a blog-Thread a block long in response. Struck a nerve: a country nerve at that. I don't really buy that constitutional fact that everyone has a right to his or her opinion and voice. I would think you would have to have a brain first though. When I hear the music of Ms Knight I hear talent, skill and perfection. Something most people don't have. When she talks about entertaining she's talking about either the voice, dance, or musicianship used in a showmanship way all of the above. She a'int talking about the easy way out that many artists have taken based on their problems, issues, press releases, beefs, etc. Contrary ...the world is not a stage. The stage is. Cats doing more performance off it than on it. That’s a problem. Big problem. In the South Bronx back in the beginning of hip hop KRS ONE rhymed that if you was wack as a dj and MC, your equipment was taken and you might've gotten shot. While that's to the extreme as a outlaw shooting bullets at the floor for somebody to dance for his entertainment back in the wild wild west of the 1880s not 1980s, there's something wack about wasting peoples time and money in lieu of them getting entertained.

THE BEST RAP PERFORMANCE I’VE EVER SEEN

I saw the greatest performance in hip hop ever in JULY 09 at the Apollo at the Trecherous 3’s 30th year anniversary. Also with BIG DADDY KANE, THE FURIOUS 5, THE FEARLESS FOUR on the bill ripping it, DOUG E FRESH and the GET FRESH CREW did a show that left me in pieces unable to comprehend what I really saw. I cannot really describe it. Perfection it was though. Separated the crowd from the stage in the best way. Made you respond to the call cause you wanted to. Simple as that...perfection.

JAY Z

Irrelevance to hip hop may be many things, some idiot might consider that of me but I definitely know what I’m talking about regarding the art form. When I heard the GUCCI MANE comment about JAY Z not being the hottest rapper, my competitive fan nerve bomb jumped off and I made a comment on ERIC B’s new Radio show. I said if he's gonna compare himself to JAY Z, “he'd be better off jumping into a swimming pool with a plugged in toaster.” He'd be burnt by the skills. I couldn't believe some of the ignorant responses on ALLHIPHOP.com. One of them said I was encouraging a Black young man to kill himself. That was stupid. I also feel in hindsight that the young rapper regardless of what I thought about him didn't deserve those comments on radio blast. And on the top of it, there’s the swirling controversy stopping his shows in the south and his heading to the prison industrial complex for a year. He needs a hug from somebody if anything. I think that was his Grandma in one of his videos.

GLADYS KNIGHT VS HIP HOP

I saw a blog that tried to dis Gladys Knight after she put HipHop on blast. Some people tried to say Gladys and Ray Charles had drama going on in their lives as well, and she had little right to criticize what she sees today. They tried to simply say she was back in the day and wasn't in touch and was a hypocrite. Wow.... My answer started with this: that I think that the main difference in the 'Ray Charles' days was that there was never so many grownfolk issues in the street for all to consume.

Blaxploitation flicks never let kids in the theater the way that they’re allowed to see things now, and those things weren't meant to make it to TV. Also they were made 15 years before VHS, 20 before DVD, 35 before online, Netflix and so on....

The club ended at the curb with usually a cop telling all to 'take it home behind closed doors. Its a process of technology too, as with these boards 'everybody is exercising their US so called freedom of speech rights of voicing their opinion albeit electronically of course.

Back in the day (oboy) it took some effort, a mind, and some good penmanship to even get your letter opened much less read. Now the computer gives all access and does half the work. But the behavior and mindsets don't match in many cases, with the same effort that makes your projected voice possible in the first place.

Enough said, Hip Hop must always pay attention to it's past present and future for it's existence. BTW...Gladys Knight wasn't the writer nor publisher or master owner on many of her songs. Therefore it's not up to her really on the sample tip, unless she really wanted to sue for defamation.

HIP HOP LIVES worldwide but the USA intelligence can't get the GOLD, SILVER, BRASS OR WOOD if it was an Olympics. It has fell more than the dollar itself, in respect, revenue, and regard as far as the USA is concerned. But it can be rebalanced like old rims. You need old heads to tell it like it is, but be thoroughly informed.

On the planet Hip Hop Has never fell off, the classics have never fell on the planet. There is a balance of rebellion AND respect, that's all. It has to pay attention to what’s surrounding it.

Enough of me and my one opinion amongst 47,987,4873 heads, but 'As an old head if I couldn’t teach, I wouldn't dare open my mouth or pen to speak'.

Ima Go listen to some Gladys...musicwise ...she's perfection.

COLLEGE AND TOUR TREKING

Big Ups to University Of North Carolina at Pembroke and Chapel Hill respectively after speaking there. The beautiful travel from Nashville to Murray State Land Between The Lakes in northwest Kentucky. A rare unique high school and lecture at St Genevieve High School of Character in Southern California where my wife DR GAYE THERESA JOHNSON and I were homecoming people of honor, motorcade and all. Performances for the SLAMjamz label publishing extension KILLER TRACKS with DJ JOHNNY JUICE and PROFESSOR GRIFF at the VIPER ROOM in North Hollywood. Performances also in BANFF Canada with the baNNed, KENDO THE ALMOST FAMOUS and KYLE JASON.

ONE YEAR IN

This November 2009 marks the full year since President OBAMA was elected. I am disappointed hip hop and rap music has a hard time catching UP. Have some damn opinion at least. As usual the veterans have something to say like PROFESSOR GRIFF and KRS ONE. In a nutshell they are telling all to pay a very close attention to the world surrounding us. I'd like to hear some of the pro voices looking to sort our realities back on a right path. On a recent radio show on WBAI, in fact ROSA CLEMENTEs debut show HIP HOP State OF MIND, a caller asked a question of who did I vote for in the presidential election. I admitted yes I voted for BARACK OBAMA, but supported CYNTHIA McKINNEY and ROSA CLEMENTE for President and Vice President respectively. Two historical situations colliding made me vote for the situation that didn't run the vehicle off the road, which was McCAIN-PALIN. While it looked inevitable that the system was crumbling, I am also wise to guess that blackfolk and people of color could not defend against a barrage of western world overt racism. BOMBIN THE RADIO So again you can check the radio show ...ANDYOUDONTSTOP! on ...ANDYOUDONTSTOP! and on www.WBAI.org and 99.5 in the New York City area. 9p -11p Monday night Also the talk show extravaganza ON THE REAL The Socio Cultural often Political Talk Show with Doctor Dre and periodically with SLAMradio with Mecca and Cee Cee

These stations cover the show Sunday Nights 11p-1 EST
2 Los Angeles - Barstow KSZL-AM 7p-9p
5 Dallas KMNY-AM 10p-12a
7 Boston WKVT-AM 11p-12a
7 Boston WZBK-AM 11p-12a
8 Atlanta Green 1640 11p-1a
9 Washington DC WZAA-AM 11p-1a
11 Detroit WDTW-AM 12a-1a
14 Seattle KPTK-AM 9p-10p
15 Minneapolis KTNF-AM 10p-12a
18 Denver KKZN-AM 9p-11p
19 Orlando-Daytona Beach WPUL-AM 11p-1a
22 Portland-Astoria KKEE-AM 8p-10p
28 Raleigh WCHL-AM 11p-1a
44 Albuquerque KABQ-AM 9p-11p
44 Albuquerque (Santa Fe) KTRC-AM 9p-11p
44 Albuquerque (Taos) KVOT-AM 9p-11p
65 Huntington WRVC-AM 11p-1a
75 Spokane wash KPTQ-AM 8p-10p
79 Columbia SC WOIC-AM 11p-1a
85 Madison WI WXXM-FM 10p-12a
110 Reno KJFK-AM 8p-10p
121 Santa Barbara KIST-AM 8p-10p
144 Palm Springs KPTR-AM 8p-10p
166 Missoula KMPT-AM 9p-11p
177 Rapid City KYTI-HD3 9p-11p
181 Charlottesville WVAX-AM 11p-1a

WWKB-AM (Buffalo) and WRVC-AM (Huntington, WV).
Some current PENDINGS include: WFYL-AM (Philadelphia) station launches in January

Chuck D
chuckd@publicEnemy.com
www.Publicenemy.com
www.HIPHOPGODS.com
www.SLAMjamz.com

IT WAS SATURDAY NIGHT THE MOON WAS BRIGHT IN NEW YORK NEW YORK. I WAS REPPIN HARD @ THE 36th UNIVERSAL ZULU NATION ANNIVERSARY 2009. AS SOON AS I WALKED THRU THE DOOR I SAW AFRIKA BAMBAATAA & I GREETED HIM WITH A PEACE AHKI & WE TOOK A FEW PICS. THAT NIGHT I RIPPED IT UP...THE CROWD WAS LOVIN MY NEW MUSIC I DROPPED ON THEM 'WE R KNOWN AS THE PIONEERS' & LIVE SHOW PARTY YO!..I BROUGHT MY RAP PARTNER FROM THE B BOYS UP & WE BLAZED THEM WITH OUR CLASSIC 'GIRLS'. B4 WE GOT INTO THE SONG DJ CHUCK CHILLOUT CAME UP & SAID WHAT UP 2 US. THEN I HAD MY RHYME SYNDICATE FAM KID JAZZ COME UP & FLIP SOME FREESTYLES. SCRATCH MASTA JAZZY G HELD IT DOWN 4 US ON THE TURNTABLES. LAKIM SHABAZZ SET OFF THE NIGHT...THEN THE FANTASTIC 5 DID THEIR THANG...IT WAS GOOD 2 C THEM & HEAR SOME OF THEIR CLASSIC ROUTINES. AFTER THEM IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE CAME THRU & BLESSED US WITH HIS MESSAGE IN HIS MUSIC.THEN BLAST MASTER KRS1 HIT US WITH THAT BOOM BAP RAP & TOOK US WAY BACK....SPEAKIN OF GOIN WAY BACK KRS1 BROUGHT JUST ICE ON & HE TOOK US DOWN MEMORY LANE....THEN KEITH MURRAY ROCKED THE MIC. YO A BIG UP 2 KRS1 FOR SHOWIN THAT HIP HOP LOVE & GIVIN THE ZULU NATION & FANS FREE COPIES OF HIS NEW BOOK 'THE GOSPEL OF HIP HOP'....YO KRIS THANKS 4 SIGNIN MY BOOK. THE NIGHT COULD HAVE ENDED THERE, BUT IT DIDN'T, BECAUSE THE DC LEGENDS TROUBLE FUNK HAD THE PARTY SWINGIN WITH THAT GO GO MUSIC. THEY DID ALL THE CLASSIC I GREW UP ON, AND 2 ADD MORE FLAVOR IN THE MIX MELE MEL & GRAND MASTER CAZ GOT ON WITH THEM & DID THE MESSAGE. MAN I WAS HAPPY 2 C ALOT OF PEEPS THAT I HAVE NOT SEEN IN YEARS. YO I'M SENDIN A BIG SHOUT OUT TO ZULU KING EXCELL & FAM (AUSTRALIA ZULU CHAPTER) & TO THE ZULU CHAPTER IN SEATTLE. I WILL BE BACK 2 LET YA'LL KNOW HOW THE SHOW @ S.O.B's TURNED OUT....PEACE!

On the crest of October 2009 is the 30th anniversary of arguably the first complete rap record. I say arguably because King Tim III dropped that July  of 1979. Thus it is time for a new Renaissance again. I have no ulterior motive for launching HipHopGods.com other than the fact that I want to see some infrastructure to the form. Hell with the credit , it needed to be done.

  My 18th year of doing college lectures and starting the fall semester at Murray State far to the west near Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois,Indiana and Tennessee, a mostly young audience of collegians of mixed background equally aired their displeasure of raps latest direction. They wanted to know and learn more. There wasn't a place really to get it.

  Upon meeting some of the students a couple passed me their cellphones to talk to their parents. One father asked the typical ' why did you stop? As with a black woman police officer the next morning flying out of Nashville, saying that she was old school rap and that she wanted to support but really couldn't find a place. Not that I am ever bothered personally about the comment but I feel for my peers who may not have had the answers for such questions. These artists are still recording and getting down. Just like the forefathers of rock and roll Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis still are today, one would be Ill informed, shortsighted and naive to think Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five , MC Lyte,  Whodini , Dana Dane and Hammer are not. Not only that but they're still recording and are in diversified areas of the entertainment business.

 Most Americans are lacking proper attention of history and geography. Unfortunately many Americans don't even travel or comprehend the beauty of the states within. It's a big world, period. Hip hop wise it's already been all over the planet intact and strong on the fundamentals and elements. But somebody sitting at the television and radio would never know , waiting for segregated limited programming to inform them. HipHopgods and later HipHopsisters is built to let none of this be in vain.


      As for Public Enemy and myself we have prospered in our own way on the web. 66 tours 65 countries in 22 years. Yes we are still performing and still together. Terminator X and S1Ws James and Roger retired from the group 10 years ago but Brother James is still active behind the scenes. Publicenemy.com was formed in 1998 connecting us to the planet better than any major record label could do . We have released about 7-8 albums since 1999 and will release a TINBOX set come March 2010.

    And a new album through SELLABAND North America is coming. It's a new revenue model to finance recordings. I write as much as I can releasing 2 books over the past 10 years and working on 3 others. My label SLAMjamz has tinkered at the forefront of digital distribution. I have headed up my radio show On The Real on Air America the past 5 years as well as ....Andyoudontstop which will be like the NPR-60minutes' of hip hop and rap culture and music.

    Upon writing this blog there are some ironic tragedies that have taken place almost simultaneously alongside such rap events that have been benchmarks.
R.I. P to the godfather of rap radio Mr Magic who passed away first week of October 09. Just 10 days before founding father of the DJ crew the Xecutioners,  DJ.Roc Raida had passed. It's the more important reason for Hiphopgods to exist. So these artists and contributors won't pass away in vain and into black music obscurity.

    Immediately my closest peers who reside in my iphone like MC Lyte , DMC, Kool Mo Dee, and Kurtis Blow said they were down. From there Krs One, Big Daddy Kane,  and Whodini nodded in approval. The launch is Nov 1, but the plan is to encompass and empower the classic hip hop nation by March 2010. Out of this union challenges on collective health aggrements, royalty and publishing issues ,  name and copyright retrival ,etc will take place. This Supersite Internetwork will boast of the ability to access Twitter and Facebook from the artist home page account. Music and video uploads will be indeed a part of the artists individual programming but also automatically loaded into HHGS radio and Tv for internetwork webplay.


While it may seem cumbersome at first the general simple  fuctionality of it all makes myspace only seem like good for getting the word out about HIPHOPGODs .
Glad that we can get together in this manner. My job and intention here is to put my foot forward in this technology to have the hip hop community get and keep a hold on itself and connect the legacy.

Chuck D

Public Enemy