EXCLUSIVE: Chuck D Remembers Being Shocked By Prince’s Paisley Park “Yard Sale”

Chuck D, the inimitable voice behind Public Enemy, released INTERFICIAL ARTelligence: The Moments That Met Me earlier this month via Akashic Books/Enemy Books.

Through a series of Chuck’s illustrations, the 240-page book details his encounters with a myriad of musicians, entertainers, politicians, athletes and public figures over the course of his career. From Prince, The Notorious B.I.G. and Harry Belafonte to Quincy Jones, Michael Jordan and Madonna, each drawing captures the “moment” Chuck crossed paths with him.

Chuck includes two instances with late music icon Prince, which doubles as peek into their senses of humor. In one drawing, Prince is standing outside of his Chanhassen, Minnesota estate, Paisley Park, holding a yard sale. (Yes, a yard sale). Chuck writes, “Prince, yes that Prince, had an actual yard sale on the Paisley Park grounds. I met Prince in 1999 and it was truly a cool bond in like mindedness.

“Prince also requested I do a song for his coming Rave Until the Joy Fantastic. The song ‘Undisputed’ was an experience in itself but again, the mind blowing story when we got t Paisley Park Mr. Purple was having a yard sale on its front lawn! Amps, guitars, Prince swag and memorabilia complete with tags, and his highness himself giving deals to folks…Like I’ll give you a bargain on this keyboard. Crazier than Charlie Murphy’s pancake basketball story.”

Chuck D looks back fondly on that day, seeing such a tour de force slinging merchandise like a used car salesman.

“You’re not talking tchotchks here,” Chuck tells AllHipHop. “You’re talking about really cool stuff. We’re talking going over to amp. turning the tag around and Prince telling the woman, ‘Yeah, I’ll give you $15 off on it.’ The whole lawn was just full of gear. I didn’t expect this. It’s not like he was advertising his Paisley Park yard sale. He was coming out there and negotiating with people. I was like, ‘What the f###?’”

The other Prince encounter was almost as random. As Chuck explains in the book, “Times Square NYC finishing a Town Hall event I hear a voice say ‘hey Chuck D’ I look and it’s Prince and actress Lynn Whitfield in the back. I get in…well I was like wow Lynn Whitfield I’m at a loss of worlds. She says ‘well keep it in your mind’ I said a couple of words to Prince and was out into the streets, 42nd Street area.”

The Moments That Met Me is packed with interesting anecdotes from Chuck D’s life, giving a glimpse into what it’s like to be one of Hip-Hop’s most revered MCs. Whether he’s looking back on eating chips and guacamole with Quincy Jones, presenting an award to David Bowie, being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Belafonte or attending an editorial meeting with John F. Kennedy Jr., Chuck effortlessly illustrates his life is anything but boring.

Chuck, who was originally a graphic design major at Adelphi University and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts, has been drawing for years. In fact, his style began to evolve in college but was perfected while on tour with Prophets of Rage, his former group with Cypress Hill’s B-Real and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk.

“The speed was developed while being on tour of Prophet of Rage,” he says. “I really worked on my speed. Most people really don’t understand that about touring. Your goal is trying to figure out what do you do with all that downtime. It’s easy to figure out, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna do a two-hour show, we’re gonna prep, we’re gonna eat, we’re gonna break it down, we’re gonna get rest and all that.’ But your downtime, what do you do? This is a big problem. This is what makes people go to the bar at the club, especially if you’re in the town three days in a row.

So I’ve turned my room into an art studio and I pursue to go about working on courtroom speed. Courtroom speed is where you used to see the illustrators and they would go and they wouldn’t allow cameras in the courts. In fact, Diddy’s law case doesn’t allow cameras in the court so you see a lot of illustrations of Diddy in his court case. So courtroom speed is what I worked on. It keeps my style. Then I’m not afraid to make a line go the wrong way because I think mistakes are the signature that AI cannot beat.”

The Moments That Met Me is available here. Check back with AllHipHop soon for Part II of the Chuck D interview.