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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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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
Older
Questions
Advice
Afraid
Asks
Young
People

More quotes by Chuck D

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I'm envious of the way that electronic dance music has organised itself. It has been able to understand what it ain't rather than what it is. And I think that slipped away from hip-hop as soon as the DJs lost the majority of the say so in the direction of the music.
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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Comin' from the school of hard knocks, Some perpetrate...they drink Clorox. Attack the black, cause I know they lack exact The cold facts, and still they try to Xerox.
Chuck D
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I came from a mother and father who always made me secure in my beliefs, and that's where the love came from.
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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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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You should be a person inside the world with knowledge of your terrain. And if you lock yourself into the 2,000-by-3,000-square-mile, lower-48 box of the United States, you're going to be frustrated by its limitations. You gotta think outside the box.
Chuck D
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Being positive is like going up a mountain. Being negative is like sliding down a hill. A lot of times, people want to take the easy way out, because it's basically what they've understood throughout their lives.
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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The best American is one who considers themselves as a citizen of the world.
Chuck D
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I never live alone, I never walk alone. My posse's always ready And they're waitin' in my zone.
Chuck D
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The biggest thing that has happened to hip-hop is the clinging on to the corporation as the all-mighty hub of the music.
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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As black people we were out to further our equality. I don't pay attention to the controversial connotations put on by media and the undermining labels they place on us. We pay attention to what our community situation is and what we need.
Chuck D
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Burn, Hollywood, burn, I smell a riot goin' on, First they're guilty, now they're gone!
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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When somebody greedily comes along and thinks that they gonna snatch everything, and you have so many people that have not, the passion that drives me is trying to make them understand that they have to share. So, my art reflects that the whole reason I do what I do reflects that.
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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Truth is truth no matter what I think.
Chuck D
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Culture is this thing that we can exchange among ourselves as human beings to knock aside our differences and build upon our similarities. Cultural exchange is the ultimate exchange.
Chuck D