Chuck D Tackles Ageism In Hip-Hop On “Radio Armageddon” Album
Chuck D needs no introduction—at least not to anyone well versed in Hip-Hop history. His roots run deep, and he’s among the most referenced MCs in music.
From A Tribe Called Quest’s “Show Business” and Ice Cube’s “Only One Me” to Kendrick Lamar’s “B#### Don’t Kill My Vibe” and Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Mack Daddy,” the Public Enemy dynamo routinely comes up, tangible proof of his seismic impact and influence.
On Friday (May 16), Chuck D returned with his new solo album, Chuck D Presents Enemy Radio: Radio Armageddon, a 14-track lyrical smack in the face. Comprised of fiery mini-symphonies of sound crafted by David “C-Doc” Snyder, the record harkens to Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad days while simultaneously bringing something fresh and innovative to the proverbial table.
The lead single, “New Gens” featuring Stetsasonic’s Daddy-O, provides a loose thesis of the project—ageism. Unlike rock ‘n roll, which embraces its elders, Hip-Hop often shuns its pioneers or dismisses them as washed up and “too old.” Meanwhile, the Rolling Stones and The Beatles’ Paul McCartney are touring in their 80s, and still command the kind of respect they got in their prime.
“Call me a dinosaur/And prestigious but I’m far from the class pack,” Daddy-O raps. “No baby king I represent the first team.”
But what some people might not grasp is that Hip-Hop is young enough that there’s no blueprint for how to age with the genre.
“Besides Ice-T, Flav and I are some of the only Hip-Hop sexagenarians, and there’s no precedent, really,” Chuck D tells AllHipHop. “Just like we did in our 40s and 50s, we are leading the pack.”
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Radio Armageddon, which Chuck D describes as a “compilation of voices,” includes guest verses from gangsta rap pioneer Schoolly D, Philly legend Phill Most Chill, Universal Zulu Nation’s Donald D and Jazzy Jay alongside burgeoning acts like 1/2 Pint, ULTRAMAG7 and Miranda Writes.
“It’s tied together in the one sonic template, like a rug,” Chuck explains. “C-Doc was able to supply something that I’ve always heard in my head all my life—and that’s just noise and friction and all kinds of discombobulated sonics.”
Radio Armageddon also spotlights an epidemic in Hip-Hop—artists dying in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, when they should be living well into their 80s. Whether it’s violence, drugs, cancer or another health ailment, rappers are dying at an alarming rate.
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Like on the song “Black Don’t Dead,” Chuck points out, “We losing them once or twice a month.”
“It used to be Black don’t crack,” he says. “We got a certain skin resiliency, but we’ve been being killed on the inside out for a century or more now. But where we are right now, it’s so many things that’s creating early death for Black folks and it’s going under the radar, so yeah Black don’t crack, but it could die.”
The topic of ageism continues throughout the project, and Chuck—who turns 65 on August 1—was very deliberate about that.
“My theme this year is to attack ageism,” he says matter-of-factly. “I have to battle the ‘I don’t give a f### about some old rappers’ and this and that. That’s unfortunately behind the wall of venture capitalists who could invest money into this. They get deterred by reading everything about rap, like ‘Man, I don’t want to be involved with that s###, talking about b###### and shooting people and all that.’ Every time I turn on the news, that’s that element that’s getting projected over what it really is.”
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Public Enemy has been fighting the power for nearly 40 years—and Chuck isn’t going to stop now. The group heads overseas with Guns ‘N Roses next month but first up, they head to Napa Valley on May 23 and then to Boston on May 25 for the Boston Calling music festival.
Find the album below.