Quote

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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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
Free
Remain
Distributed
Three
Areas
Effectively
Used
Internet
Optimistic
Music
Levels
Area
Always
Control
Production
Pretty
Productions
Break
Corporate
Call
Majors
Indies

More quotes by 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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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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If you go get a passport, it might encourage you to at least consider the world around you.
Chuck D
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Downloadable music is the biggest musical phenomenon since the Beatles, and the music industry is slow to come to grips with that.
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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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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Corporations have steered the industry into what it wants, and a lot of times they will make artists record what it wants or to make songs talk to who they want to talk to. But sometimes the heart and the head have to be able to talk and deal with a situation that's evident.
Chuck D
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We don't see the people who are doing real things getting enough props. We often see politicians who are everywhere but nowhere at the same goddamn time. You know the kind of person: You see them everywhere on television but nowhere in front of your face.
Chuck D
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I tell each artist they have to grow toward a revenue stream.
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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Americans are not sharp. You can be sharp in your own area, I guess, but in this world you gotta be conscious of everybody else in the world too. You just can't be drunken with constitution and hear, okay we're gonna do this and then you hear well, we're gonna go kill this guy 'cause he's a terrorist and you keep gettin' it.
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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The powers that be are trying to meld, shape, and corral the culture of hip-hop into another speaking voice for the government.
Chuck D
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Eminem has talent, and his talent is the thing that influences many young people who would have never gone anywhere near rap. White kids in different parts of the world use him as a barometer and the standard to live up to. In some ways, Eminem is an artist who has ushered in a new movement.
Chuck D
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Truth is truth no matter what I think.
Chuck D
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Find like-minded people and try not to be individualized to the point where you try to fight it all and think about it all on your own.
Chuck D
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Men have periods they're called wars.
Chuck D
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A lot of the post-1977 dancefloor disco sounds had their place at one time, but you can't bring them back unless you bring back a floor.
Chuck D
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The Internet was a saving grace for promoting and exposing, and even creating. It's a parallel world to the music industry that already exists, and I'm glad to be a part of it.
Chuck D
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When culture is created in boardrooms with a panel of six or seven strategists for the masses to follow, to me that is no different than an aristocracy. It's not created from the people in the middle of the streets, so to speak. It is created from a petri dish for the sake of making money, and it is undermining the longevity of the culture.
Chuck D