CHUCK D is humble about his contributions to Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World - the expansive, four-part PBS and BBC series where he joins other hip-hop icons, from Melle Mel to Eminem, as well as executives, journalists and academics, in unspooling rap's history as a social movement. "My work is as an initiator and giving the platform," says the Public Enemy MC, who executive-produced the project. "I know how to cut, edit and design audio, but when it comes to film and TV ..." Still, his voice and perspective are unmistakable as Fight the Power explores the symbiotic relationship between rap and sociopolitical struggles over the past 50 years. He was even more hands-on in crafting his new coffee-table book of fine art, Livin' Loud. "You make art for nobody but yourself," Chuck says. "The arts have set me free."
Where did Fight the Power start for you?
A lot of things in the narrative about hip-hop [have] usually been covered from adolescents' perspective, and I always railed against that. I first got involved in hip-hop at [about] 27, so it was always a grown-folks dialogue to me. I wasn't a kid, and I wasn't speaking to kids. It's music for past, present and future; for ages as young as single digits up to 70 years old. I'm a big Ken Burns fan. So I was like, "Why couldn't hip-hop follow in the same form?"
You like to emphasise that hip-hop is a global phenomenon. Is that why it was important to you to partner with the BBC?
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April/May 2023 من Rolling Stone UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April/May 2023 من Rolling Stone UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Back to the Grind - The Clipse broke up when a spiritual path called to one of the brothers from Virginia. Now, one of the greatest duos in rap returns
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The Scream Queen Next Door - In just a few short years, Hunter Schafer has gone from small-town North Carolina to global runways, Euphoria stardom, and her first lead role, in the horror flick Cuckoo
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The Mix - String Theory - On new album Odyssey, Nubya Garcia conducts sweeping strings over her innovative saxophone playing to mark herself out as a unique star of the UK jazz world
There are clichéd 'difficult second albums', and then there are those where you start almost from scratch. The difficulty with jazz prodigy Nubya Garcia's second LP, Odyssey, came when she decided that this new batch of songs she had written needed the sweeping majesty of a string section, before deciding to learn how to write and conduct it all herself.
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Sounding the Alert - The UK music industry is calling for the new Labour government to make essential changes to rescue British music - from halting the closure of venues to providing essential opportunities for new talent
To quote one Bob Dylan: "the times they are a-changin." After 14 years of Tory rule, 4 July saw a changing of the guard in British politics as Sir Keir Starmer stood on the steps of Downing Street to mark the start of a new Labour government and - according to the man himself - a decade of national renewal.Not that the result was ever in doubt, however. A cursory look at polls over the preceding year showed that a Labour landslide was very much on the cards, and it seemed like those aforementioned Dylan lyrics were about to ring true.
Staying Power- As they gave their first performance in the UK for five years, Rolling Stone UK caught up with Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, HAN, Felix, Seungmin and I.N, who together make up the record-breaking K-pop phenomenon Stray Kids
As they gave their first performance in the UK for five years, Rolling Stone UK caught up with Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, HAN, Felix, Seungmin and I.N, who together make up the record-breaking K-pop phenomenon Stray Kids. Here, they open up about the bonds they share between themselves and their devoted fans, as well as their common goal of super stardom
JAMIE XX WAVE AFTER WAVE
Nine years after his decade-defining debut album In Colour, Jamie xx returns with In Waves, a darker and broodier follow-up that saw him fall back in love with making music
"You can feel trapped when people perceive you as one thing"
On their career-best fourth album, Fontaines D.C. have shed their skin of old to deliver something more fantastical. Grian Chatten tells us the story behind their evolution
