Quote

Rap is supposed to be about keeping it real and not relinquishing your roots in the community. Without that, it's just posturing. Somebody who claims to speak for the 'hood don't need no private jet.

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
Without
Keeping
Need
Claims
Real
Roots
Needs
Supposed
Posturing
Private
Relinquishing
Somebody
Jet
Community
Hood
Speak
Rap

More quotes by Chuck D

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Ever since I was a teenager, I was always kind of, like, checking myself. You know, like, Come on man, don't get your head all swollen. Life and time itself will give you perspective on what you're doing. So, that's actually what's always been a reminder in my own head.
Chuck D
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Music and art and culture is escapism, and escapism sometimes is healthy for people to get away from reality. The problem is when they stay there.
Chuck D
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Today, a young person that doesn't know themselves will totally be sold some other situation. Let's do your avatar. You know? And young people are going out, spending what little they have to try to buy themselves when they don't have themselves, or they feel like they don't have themselves. To me, that's like a damn pimp tragedy.
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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I tell each artist they have to grow toward a revenue stream.
Chuck D
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When you travel the world, you have to watch and you have to listen. We're not going to come in to Ireland without an understanding that there's a history that's very sensitive.
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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My advice to young people is ask older people questions and don't be afraid.
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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If I can't change the people around me, I change the people around me.
Chuck D
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The truth has no form, you know. It's not like walking around trying to actually ask for favors and to be acknowledged, it is what it is.
Chuck D
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If you want to be an artist, truly try to write what you believe, and if you write when you don't believe then you should try to become an actor.
Chuck D
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I wanna go to the clubs and actually have a good time too, but at the same time, when the party's over, I have to go back to the real world and try to figure out who I am.
Chuck D
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A visit to the hood through a record, or through a video, or through a film, is a lot safer than actually visiting the people in real life. It became a business model. It became a revenue engine that, you know, you can get to the hood without ever going there.
Chuck D
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To live a life you love, you must Love the life you live.
Chuck D
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What made me want to become a recording artist I was the first artist that was repeatedly asked by a label to record with them. That label was Def Jam Records.
Chuck D
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In the past, people were going to record stores and buying albums or CDs. And the label was exposing their artist as much as possible and maybe getting them picked up by a major. Now I tell people to cut a good tune and have it up in the marketplace the next day. You better be prepared to give it away, and people will come pay to see you.
Chuck D
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I think traveling the world has helped to keep Public Enemy alive. We've never solely depended on the United States.
Chuck D
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Share and enjoy the fruits of this planet.
Chuck D
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I totally hate when somebody takes a classic and desecrates it. I like Jimmy Page and P. Diddy, but what they did to 'Kashmir' was a debacle.
Chuck D