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Chuck D

Biography

Chuck D

Edit

Overview

  • Born
    August 1, 1960 · Roosevelt, Long Island, New York, USA
  • Birth name
    Carlton Douglas Ridenhour
  • Nicknames
    • The Voice of Power
    • Public Enemy Number One
    • The Hard Rhymer
  • Height
    1.75 m

Biography

    • Both as a solo artist and as the leader of the ground-breaking hip-hop group Public Enemy (which was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013), Chuck D helped pave the way for political, social and culturally conscious hip-hop. Public Enemy's albums remain among the most critically acclaimed works in the genre, including 'It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back' and 'Fear of a Black Planet'. He is on the road three weeks out of each month touring with Public Enemy and his supergroup Prophets of Rage which includes members of Cypress Hill and Rage Against the Machine. Or you can find him speaking at tech and music conferences around the world. A visionary in digital entertainment, Chuck D helped lead the file-sharing movement, launched one of the first online entertainment websites, Rapstation, and digital-only record labels, the SpitSlam Record Label Group. Public Enemy was the second act to ever release an album in MP3 format. Chuck D splits his days off among Long Island, Atlanta and Southern California.

      On March 1, 2020 Chuck D had a dispute with Flavor Flav over endorsing Bernie Sanders without his permission and as a result fired Flavor Flav from the Public Enemy Hip Hop group. Later on it turned out to be a hoax.
      - IMDb mini biography by: Lorrie Boula

Family

  • Spouse
      Gaye(? - present) (3 children)

Trivia

  • In 2000, became one of the foremost public supporters of MP3 and file-sharing technology, much to the music industry's chagrin.
  • Worked as a bike messenger in New York City before he and his group Public Enemy were signed.
  • Member of the pioneering rap group Public Enemy.
  • Public Enemy were voted the 44th Greatest Artists in Rock 'n' Roll by Rolling Stone.
  • Attended Adelphi University in Long Island, New York.

Quotes

  • Fight the power!
  • As a musicologist, and I consider myself one, there was always a great deal of respect for Elvis (Elvis Presley'), especially during his Sun sessions. As a black people, we all knew that. My whole thing was the one-sidedness like Elvis' icon status in America made it like nobody else counted. My heroes came from someone else. My heroes came before him. My heroes were probably his heroes. As far as Elvis being "The King", I couldn't buy that.
  • Eminem is the new (Elvis Presley') because, number one, he has the respect for black music that Elvis had. I think he's courteous and sympathetic to black music and, unfortunately, he's more sympathetic to black music than many black artists themselves.
  • Rap is black America's TV station.
  • [on getting permission to enter Canada] We've had heavy security problems at the border since the 1990s. It's the roughest border on the planet. To me it resembles the Berlin Wall. I experienced having to be searched by cops and dogs coming through western Germany to go back to Berlin, and I'm here to tell you that that seemed more humane.

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