Chuck D says “Public Enemy were harassed by the police more than anyone in music”

Chuck D has said Public Enemy were “harassed by the police more than anyone in music”.

The politically charged hip-hop group rose to fame in the late 1980s with hits like ‘Fight The Power’ and ‘It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back’ alongside NWA who were also periodically in conflict with law enforcement due to their own uncompromising lyrics tackling police brutality and racism.

Now, in a fan-led interview with The Guardian, the rapper said 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,” he added. “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.”

When asked why hip-hop engages with politics so fleetingly today, Chuck D said: “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.”

Meanwhile, the rapper recently sold a huge stake of his back catalogue to his longtime publisher.

Reach Music acquired 100 per cent of the rapper’s writer royalties along with half of his copyright interest as a publisher.

The sale didn’t cover the entirety of Chuck D’s output, but it included over 300 songs including Public Enemy’s most formative work released between 1987 and 2012.