Читать книгу Freedom Facts and Firsts - Jessie Carney Smith - Страница 28

Carlton Douglas Ridenhour is the given name of the innovative and socially conscious rapper known as Chuck D., who once called rap music “the black CNN.” According to a review of his 1996 solo album, Autobiography of Mistachuck, “no one artist in hip-hop’s history may have ever been simultaneously more well-respected and misunderstood.” Ridenhour was born in Roosevelt, Long Island, New York, and graduated from Roosevelt High School and Adelphi University with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design. He founded Public Enemy in 1982, which achieved critical acclaim as well as commercial success in the late 1980s and early 1990s with recordings such as “Yo! Bum Rush the Show,” “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back,” and “Fear of a Black Planet,” which sold over five million copies. Public Enemy helped rap and hip-hop music become a major force in the music industry. With William “Flavor Flav” Drayton, Richard “Professor Griff” Griffin, Norman Lee “DJ Terminator X” Rogers, and DJ Lord, Chuck D. as front man, lyricist, and lead singer, created “Fight the Power,” a song that became an anthem for the hiphop community. Chuck D. also defied the stereotype of rap and hip-hop artists through political activism offstage, including testifying before the U.S. Congress on music technology issues and serving as keynote speaker for the National Hip-Hop Political Convention in June 2004.

Fletcher F. Moon