Chuck D says Reagan era is precisely why he started Public Enemy

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

He just said that on Unfiltered. Man I love him!

[robbedvoter]

1. Their intro was great! Big news of the weekend: Sopranos finale,

J Lo's wedding - America mourns that she is not single anymore - and they talked around the national obsession for 10 minutes...

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

3. It was great. I thought they were going to do the whole show ignoring

rayguns demise. It was funny when Chuck went off on the NBA playoffs!

[Joanne98]

2. Good for him

Reagan devastated the black communities. It was awful. He also devasted the upper mid-west. You could say Reagan created Michael Moore too. Everyone should re-watch "Roger and Me".

[mark414]

4. Public Enemy

is one of the greatest musical groups in history.

hands down

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

5. Agreed. And Chuck was and is the greatest figure in hip hop history

I think it was a GREAT day that Air America signed him. As far as I'm concerned he's the biggest asset on the station, IMHO!

[AP]

6. Reagan used the fiction of the Welfare Queen to, as HoDean says, "divide..

...America by race."

He also tried to convince people that black people's problem wasn't that their government wasn't doing what it could to make their lives better. It was that they couldn't keep their pants on. Oh, did white America ever like that! Yes, poverty was because of sex.

Don't ask your government to stop fucking you over. Stop fucking your boyfriend without protection.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

7. And the prison industry went into overdrive during Reagan's reign

The era of the war on drugs and the spike in drugs in ghettos and black on black crime started when Reagan was the boss.

[AP]

8. America's response to people at the bottom trying to demand

a better America was to put them all in jail.

We could have just given people more opportunities, and made investments in communities that were hurting.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

10. What you're talking about is socialism to the Reaganites!

Thats pinko talk to them. We make more money incarcerating folks than giving them opportunities.

[AP]

11. The shocking thing is that money, if invested into hurting communties,

would have returned dividends 100s of times the investment. The investment into law an order LOST money. And the opportunity cost!

Damn, what we could have done in America if we could start all over again in 1972 with a different strategy and a different agenda.

'73 was the end of the Golden Era of American economic development. We've made so many mistakes.

[rumguy]

9. Reagan inspired a lot of people to get motivated against fascism

Thanks Ronnie!

[AP]

14. And we got Public Enemy out of it.

Hey Chuck, we got some non-believers out there

Yo, we gotta do somethin' about that man
Yo, we gotta get stupid
Yo, we gotta let 'em know what time it is

You go ooh and ahh when I jump in my car
People treat me like Kareem Abdul Jabbar
No matter who you are - when I'm up to par
I betcha go hip hop - hurray or hurrah
But the ahhs and ohhs is my kind of news
Pop your tape in - put your car in cruise
I never heard the boos - I never drank booze
Cause I just rock the rhythm - left alone the blues
The L.I. mystique - you sneak to peek
A look and then you know that we're never weak
I know you can't wait - it's never too late
No fear I'm here - and everything is straight
Cycles, cycles - life runs in cycles
New is old - no I'm not no psycho
The monkey on the back makes the best excel
The people in the crowd makes the best rock well
The people in the back lets you know who's whack
And those who lack - the odds are stacked
The one who makes the money is white not black
You might not believe it but it is like that
When you come to my show - watch me throw
Down with the other brothers toe to toe
When you make a move - new not used
And watch the bro here just bust a groove
A fat lady soprano - loads my ammo
Hear my jam - with a funky piano
Easy on the wall but hard on the panel
A fool smokes Kools cause he chokes on Camels
In effect - the crew's in check
Run by the posse with the gold around the neck
Homeboys in heat - lookin' for sweet
Ladies in the crowd so they can meet
Somebody to body - makin' a baby
Givin' it to grandma an' makin' her crazy
I'm a MC protector - U.S. defector
South African government wrecker
Panther power - you can feel it in my arm
Lookout y'all I'm a timebomb
Tickin', tockin', all about rockin'
Makin' much dollars while the crazy one's clockin'
The rhythm - to shake the house downy down
Bounce to the ounce is sound the crown
The man - the enemy - Public King - no thing
All fall to the force of my swing
Like Ali - Frazier - Thriller in Manila
A pinpoint point blank microphone killer am I
No need to lie - got the Flavor Flave
To prove I'll win and if not the save
I'll pick up, rack up - put your whole shack up
Just choose to lose the bet - emcee stick up
This is the wiz - but the mike's not his, it's mine
One time let the star shine
And I'm tellin' you - yelling at you you're through
Don't think you're grown cause your moustache grew
I'm number one - you know it weighs a ton
And I'll be the burger - you can be the bun, girl
Surroundin' - my steady poundin'
Get on down to my funky sound
And rock the rhythm rhyme - one time your mind
Rhythm roll - two times control
The mauler and the caller of your doom
And when I'm ready to leave - you're gonna know I go boom
Three times y'all - rhythm rhyme and rock
Then you'll that the D is on the block
Four times y'all and never ever the whack
It's the hour to the minute - time to blow BLACK

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

19. Refuse to lose!!!

Welcome to the Terrordome!

[MallRat]

12. "Elvis was a hero to most...

...but he never meant shit to me."

What a great line. In one sentence, he pretty much summed up the entire black-white cultural disconnect in America.

Fight the power... we got to FIGHT THE POWERS THAT BE!

-MR

[Feanorcurufinwe]

13. Wha?

Elvis never meant shit to me either. Does that sentiment inform you in some way about my race or racial attitudes?

:wtf:

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

17. Many in the black community resent Elvis for, in their view, getting filth

rich off their music, all the while being a rascist republican.

[AP]

23. I have a tape of Elvis in the recording studio and it's hard to hear the

chat between song, but I'm pretty sure that you can hear him drop the N-bomb a couple times. The musicians he's working with don't sound to impressed. (I think he was trying to make a joke about one of the musician's styles, and it didn't get a laugh at all.)

So, not only was he making a lot of money off of ripping off black musicians he grew up listening to, he didn't seem very gracious towards them.

[MallRat]

21. Yes, I know Chuck D is making a generalization.

Don't get me wrong. Are there African-Americans who like Elvis? Sure. Are there white Americans who couldn't care less about Elvis (like me)? Sure.

What he was railing against was the primacy of traditional, myopic, homogenized "white" culture.

Here's another line from the same verse:
"Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps.
Sample a look back you look and find
Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check.
'Don't Worry, Be Happy,'
Was a number one jam
Damn! If I say it, you can slap me right here."

In short- what Chuck D is really lashing out against is narrowmindedness and ignorance. People who open themselves to new ideas, new thoughts, and new cultures are not the target of his rant.

So, Feanorcurufinwe: don't worry, be happy. You're part of the solution, not the problem. :-)

-MR

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

15. "Man he's straight up rascist, that sucker was simple and plain

motherfuck him and John Wayne!"

:)

[noonwitch]

16. Reagan's policies inspired me to become a social worker

People suffered so much during his presidency.

[Walt Starr]

18. Reagan and the Moral Majority

is why I have voted in every election since my 18th birthday.

[bicentennial_baby]

20. I got a letter from the government the other day

I opened and read it
It said they were suckers...

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

22. They wanted me for the Army or whatever

picture me givin' a damn!
I say never!