American rapper Chuck D says his politically charged hip-hop group Public Enemy were “harassed by the police more than anyone in music.” The group rose to fame in the late 1980s with songs like “Fight The Power” and “It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back.” Public Enemy were occasionally on conflict with law enforcement due to their lyrics tackling police brutality and racism.

In a fan-led interview Chuck D discusses why he believed his band faced the worst of the backlash. “I don’t know about intimidation, but, yeah, probably more than anybody in music,” he said when asked how much “police harassment and FBI intimidation” Public Enemy received. “It’s nothing to be annoyed by. It’s what it is. The most I could do was to make songs about it. On Public Enemy’s first album, ‘Yo! Bum Rush The Show’, we said the governments are responsible. Governments plural because governments like to split up human beings, but music likes to unite people.”

The rapper also discussed why he thinks hip-hop so scarcely engages with politics today: “Because the revolution can’t be sold. It can’t be marketed the way other music is marketed; it has to be given to the people. We had the blessing of right age, right place, right time. I was the right person with the right thing going on: Black music in New York.” (NME)

Photo Credit: Marv Watson