Quote

Many have forgotten what we came here for, Never knew or had a clue, so you're on the floor. Just growin' not known' about your past... Now you're lookin' pretty stupid while you're shakin' your ass.

Chuck D

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Chuck D
Age: 64
Born: 1960
Born: August 1
Composer
Journalist
Musician
Radio Personality
Rapper
Record Producer
Singer
Television Producer
Writer
New York City
New York
Carlton Douglas Ridenhour
Stupid
Pretty
Growin
Knew
Lookin
Came
Clue
Known
Floor
Past
Ass
Many
Rap
Never
Forgotten

More quotes by Chuck D

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Rappers should just be able to perform what they create and satisfy the people that like and love them.
Chuck D
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Black folks are judged by quantity, not quality. It's a decimal point or figure. How different is that from slavery? There's no moral code, it's just about successful business for America.
Chuck D
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Where else can you go with respect to the work, lyrics, and message of the music? If you are past high school age, you can get by with saying very little the first or second time around. However, after a while you know you are going to have to say something beyond high school stuff.
Chuck D
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Oh, America is slipping away from the rest of the consciousness of the planet - slipping away.
Chuck D
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You have to wait for people to program you. The only difference is the amount of people that you're going to reach but that's going to even out in the next two or three years anyway. Computers are being bought faster than televisions right now.
Chuck D
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I don't believe that everybody is out of some kind of cookie cutter, so the thing that protects me is always being level with myself, even to myself.
Chuck D
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As a late teenager, the punk movement pushed me further. In particular, the Clash, which happened to leak through the time of disco, showed me that there was this cross-cultural sound that could cut across genres and audiences. Like punk was to disco, rap music was a rebellion against R&B, which had adopted disco and made it worse.
Chuck D
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If I can't change the people around me, I change the people around me.
Chuck D
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You're always going to sound like yourself, but you can make really strong attempts to keep some similarities, but move away from what you did before for popularity's sake.
Chuck D
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Getting on the road and driving along a road at night, or even in the daytime and seeing the oceans or whatever, is always liberating.
Chuck D
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No matter what the name, we're all the same pieces in one big chess game.
Chuck D
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Young people are having a hard time with what's reality and what's fantasy these days...We created discussion. It wasn't to create controversy for sale's sake, but rather it was my obligation to use the medium for discussion. Nobody's discussing the grown-up topics they are faking and fronting.
Chuck D
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I have to be conscious of what I'm sayin' because people are gonna come at me about this sh*t.
Chuck D
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I always remain optimistic. There are three levels of music production: the majors, indies, and what I call inties, music distributed via the Internet. The Internet is one area that I have used pretty effectively to break free of corporate control.
Chuck D
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Every time something tries to create respect with a machine it crumbles!
Chuck D
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There's people who feel that, Well, if I could profit off of sellin' sex to an eleven-year-old kid that comes through some kind of virtual portal, then I'm not really doin' it in actuality. I'm just kind of co-signing or fostering it, 'cause it can't be attached to me. I'm like, Yes it can, 'cause people are livin' through their avatar.
Chuck D
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Rap comes from the humble beginnings of rebelling against the status quo. Now, rappers have become the status quo themselves. You can't rebel against the Queen and then become the Queen yourself. I attribute much of the blame to testosterone-male dominance and patriarchy.
Chuck D
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Men have periods they're called wars.
Chuck D
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Why would twenty-six-year-old teenagers care about political ramifications if their backs are not up against the wall? But if their backs are against the wall they may be plucked to fight in Iraq, and all of sudden they become politicized real quick.
Chuck D
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I let go usually by talking to many people in different areas, in different realms of life that make me look at what I'm dealing with as being small fries stuff, you know?
Chuck D