Chuck D

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Chuck D

Carlton Douglas "Chuck D" Ridenhour (born August 1, 1960) is an American rapper, composer, actor, author, radio personality and producer. Chuck was born in Roosevelt, Long Island, New York, USA. He helped further 1980s political rap music as the controversial and influential lead rapper of Public Enemy.

After graduating from Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School, Chuck went to Adelphi University in Long Island.

Public Enemy

After hearing the demo track "Public Enemy Number One", fledgeling producer/mogol Rick Rubin persisted on signing Ridenhour to his Def Jam label [1]. However, Ridenhour viewed the music business as a step down from the design job he had at the time. Although Rubin would continue calling to the point where he would have his then-girlfriend (later his wife) answer the phone as not to have to deal with him. Eventually, he relented, insisting to Rubin that he also sign his friend William Drayton, explaining to Rubin "I don't know what he does, but he adds something."

As the lyricist and main vocalist of Public Enemy, he was the focal point of two seminal and controversial rap albums - Fear Of A Black Planet and It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back.

Ridenhour also contributed (as Chuck D) to several episodes of the PBS documentary series The Blues.

In 1990, he appeared in Sonic Youth's "Kool Thing", a song for their album, Goo.

In 1996, he released Autobiography Of Mistachuck on Mercury Records.

In November 1998, he settled out of court with Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G" Wallace's estate over the latter's sampling of Chuck D's voice in the song "Ten Crack Commandments". The specific sampling is Chuck D counting of the numbers 1 to 9 from the track Shut Em Down.

In September, 1999, he launched a multi-format "supersite" on the web, Rapstation.com. A home for the vast global hip hop community, the site boasts a TV and radio station with original programming, a slew of hip hop's most prominent DJs, celebrity interviews, free MP3 downloads (the first was contributed by multi-platinum rapper Coolio), downloadable ringtones by ToneThis, social commentary, current events, and regular features dedicated to empowering rap artists with the knowledge to turn their craft into a viable living.

Since 2000, he has been one of the most vocal supporters of Internet music file sharing in the music industry.

Chuck has been increasingly involved politically. He co-hosted Unfiltered on Air America Radio, he has testified before Congress about Peer-to-peer MP3 sharing, and was involved in a 2004 rap political convention.

He continues to be an activist, publisher, lecturer, and producer. He is the co-writer of the essay book Fight the Power: Rap, Race, and Reality, along with Yusuf Jah (ISBN 0-385-31868-5).

He also acted as narrator in the short film Bling: Consequences and Repercussions, shot by Kareem Adouard, which explains how diamonds in bling fashion can be conflict diamonds, fueling wars and killings in Africa.

He loaned his voice to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as DJ Forth Right MC for the radio station Playback FM.

Chuck D narrated and appeared on-camera for the 2005 PBS documentary "Harlem Globetrotters: The Team That Changed the World".

"Bin Laden"

On June 5, 2005, Chuck D returned to Air America Radio with a new show, On The Real. Later that year, he particiated in the remix of "Bin Laden", a controversial song that blamed the Reagan Doctrine's funding of the mujahideen in Afghanistan and U.S. President George W. Bush for the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In anger at the New Orleans Hurricane Katrina disaster, Public Enemy came back with the song 'Hell No We Ain't All Right!' and a new album New Whirl Odor. In 2005, he also released a remix of the song "Bin Laden", along with Immortal Technique and DJ Green Lantern.

TV appearances

  • Chuck D appeared in an episode of NewsRadio as himself.
  • He appeared on The Henry Rollins Show
  • He was a featured panelist (with Lars Ulrich) on the May 12, 2000 episode of the Charlie Rose show. Rose was discussing the Internet, copyright infringement, Napster Inc. and the future of the music industry. Chuck D offered a pro-file-sharing argument, as a counter to Ulrich's critique of filesharing.
  • He appearaed on an episode of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast with Pat Boone. While there, Space Ghost tried (and failed) to show he was "hip" to rap, saying his favorite rapper was M.C. Escher.

Discography

With Public Enemy:

In addition, before the 2004 Presidential Election, Public Enemy released the highly anti-Bush EP SON OF A BUSH that contained the songs "Son of a Bush", "Get Your Shit Together" and the song featuring Fine Arts Mililia (featuring Chuck D) entitled "Twisted Sense of God".

He also brought out a very soulful 1996 solo record, Autobiography Of Mistachuck (on Mercury Records) and founded the record company Slam Jamz.

With Fine Arts Militia:

Remix song releases:

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