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Chuck D Talks Hip-Hop Legacy & "Radio Armageddon" 🔥 | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
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May 30, 2025
Hip-hop icon Chuck D sits down with Sway In The Morning to discuss his incredible legacy, the evolution of hip-hop, and his powerful new project, "Radio Armageddon," presented by Enemy Radio. This exclusive interview dives deep into the cultural impact of hip-hop, the importance of preserving music history, and Chuck D's journey as a pioneer in the music industry. From sharing untold stories about Malcolm X's influence to shining a light on the complexities of the music business, Chuck D delivers thought-provoking insights that every fan of the culture needs to hear. Don't miss this powerful conversation packed with knowledge, history, and raw truth. Subscribe for more exclusive interviews with legends like Chuck D, and stay connected with Sway’s Universe for the best in hip-hop, culture, and entertainment! #HipHopLegacy #RadioArmageddon #SwayInTheMorning #ChuckD #SwaysUniverse #groovepadbeatshiphoplegacy #chuckdinterview #chuckdonhiphop #krsoneteaching #radio CHAPTERS: 01:33 - Music Curation and Caretaking 04:02 - Artist Management Importance 05:02 - Music Industry Budget Differences 06:15 - Chuck D and Def Jam Relationship 06:54 - Understanding Music Terminology 11:28 - Significance of Malcolm X 14:32 - Fight the Power Analysis 17:47 - Record Labels and Their Messaging 28:30 - Chuck D's Def Jam Decision 30:30 - Early Days of Hip Hop Radio 32:10 - The Currency of Our Age 35:17 - First Time Caller: Chantey Jackson 38:01 - Final Words
View Video Transcript
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voice of power citizens Since 1987 when that first album came out I've been
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rocking with this man Citizens he's been steadfast and consistent He does not
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bend Citizens his integrity is impeccable Citizens he is who he is and
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he says what he says And he got a new project Chuck D presents Enemy Radio Radio Armageddon I want to welcome my
0:24
brother back to the show Give it up for the legendary the iconic one himself He won't tell you that but I can stand an
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ovation for Chuck D Absolutely Absolutely That that that voice came on It sound
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like somebody that had far less brain fog than I have today
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Brain fog is real yo Man that was only last year Chuck come on Far less brain
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fog than in 2025 yo And have you seen Have y'all seen all the stuff that's
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happened in the last year oh my gosh bro It's been great Oh my god I know right it's been What what what out of all the
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things that's happened what what what stunned you the most what yeah What singular thing yeah What What What thing
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made you just hit you in the jaw the hardest 45 becoming 47 That's it Huh
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that's a big fat fat Fato Yeah Fafo Yeah Yeah That's it F around Find out I mean
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you know I mean those that know don't tell and those that tell don't know
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That was deep I'm going let Chuck kind of sip that coffee we sipping on before he explains what he meant by that and
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how does that relate to for No no Thanks for having me come on Thank you man Come on Yeah man You know I'm hanging around
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with you know my man EP and the Death Jam people and and yeah we had the project radio Armageddon and and and my
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my partner in Spit Slam Records [Â __Â ] he's the Brian Eno Okay A lot of people
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like Brian Eno and I you know I've done rock tours I've been incorporated with rock people and you know some years ago
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um um we working with Def Jam trying to figure out what to do with their archive
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departments how to curate and caretake um the music's better Mhm Um you got to kind of like separate the music cuz like
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it seems that the audience that's out there are fragmented you know in the
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classic like what they do you know with what y'all you know actually you know hold up in high regard and there's
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things in the middle and there's new and current things and Def Jam is a part of all of it with Universal But these
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companies which is down to three Universal and also Warner Brothers and Sony they got so much of everything
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Uhhuh They don't know what to do They don't know what to do They need curators They need caretakers They need people
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that come out and be able to look at product and say "It's not just product These are foundation cornerstones." And
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if you ask many artists across the board who have 15 20 years careers their stuff
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is scattered all all over the place And with no help in sight and and it's only
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but so much lawyers could help untwist it like if they had a sample that never get cleared it might not ever be out Now
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you got streaming out there So uh me and my team are are probably looking to see
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if how come we can't have um hip hop catalog in the same regard And I ain't
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even saying Led Zeppelin Beatles Rolling Stone I'm saying at least Sticks Uhhuh
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Frampton Uhhuh Uh Ario Speed Wagon What's Foreigner death Leopard I mean
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and they play heavy in this building Yeah And if if you try to mess around with any of those masters or any of
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those companies you probably you get the dirty done to you You get the dirty But when it comes to hip-hop and rap really
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when it comes to black music black music and period ask the funk bands of the 80s like about their masters or where their
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music goes and stuff like that and it disarray Anyway how many Look y'all did No no I like this conversation You've
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been doing interviews up here for like years right How many administrations have you talked
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to presidential administrations Well no no no no Keep it to the culture of music To
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the culture of music All right Let's say man how many black managements can Can you give me a top five black management
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uh Quality QC uh Rock Nation two Uh help
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me out guys What does Steve Stout do is that management united Artist The United Artist Masters Troy Carter has Does Troy
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Carter have Troy Carter trey Carter has a man Okay Three How long they been flavor unit See that's somebody that's
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been around a long time Yeah Yeah That's four And and my man um Larry Jackson
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they had a deal with uh Apple doesn't he sexy Red And but but Larry's a CE He's
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[Â __Â ] Larry's the man He's I don't know if they got a title for Larry but he's just there But the point is
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struggling to name that You're struggling Yeah And and you don't really know the detail of these companies Are
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they management companies are they in a agents agencies are they sub companies underneath a layer of another company
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what does it what does it do compared to the world i was in the rock band four years man Yeah There ain't no no
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comparison You know the difference right you've seen it Budgets everything Night and day on two different planets Really
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budgets travel venues You know in hip-hop we used to always say well
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listen this is the model on touring Uhuh Spectacle gets you in the building
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Spectacular keeps you coming back for more Ah when a promoter is
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putting you know one of those acts up in the building they already looking at it returning next year or two years later
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already booked Mhm When it comes down to black music and rap music it's it's like we hope the building is going to be okay
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Hope we got a dressing room right spec spectacle gets you like noticed and you
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got bells and whistles for a day Spectacular You got it coming back for years Chuck D is here man
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8887423345 Well so you working with Death Jam Well you know I'm like like Tom Hayden Coniglier I like Tuni is over
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there Okay Salute to that brother I want to see him win And when he came in you
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know um I wanted to see him win too And we found a match of you know just go
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over there do some work It wasn't about releasing a project over there but my catalog is there H how does what are
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your thoughts on when you bring up the big three you said Universal Sony seven
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when I started yeah it was seven right and RCA is Universal Sony and Warner
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Brothers And Warner Brothers How does this when you look at this uh defamation lawsuit that's going on with Drake and
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Universal uh oh Um what are your thoughts of that slope that slope is is you you got you ain't
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got enough lawyers to to untangle it So therefore projects could be held up for about two to three years and you know a
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thousand days for a project You know by the time you get it it ends up being McDonald's codfish You know what I'm
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saying like they caught it four years ago and they sell it as a as a filt of fish 3 years later I mean after a while
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it doesn't have it has diminishing returns on your health So our nutrition and and and our cultural health is
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always on some processed stuff three or four years down the line First it was like let's clear the samples and get it
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out or let's get to see if this is infringing musically upon something and they didn't have enough lawyers to
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handle that Now you got infringement on lyrics and defamation you know which is a whole
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another problem because it's like you know it's now what I mean how what is what now you got to go in every song and
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says it impeded on something else Even years ago when when I was caught in the Biggie lawsuit people thought it was me
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It was my songwriters from the 10 cry commandments being used One two three four My songwriters was like "Chuck you
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better handle." They got they up there bragging about their money We want our money too No let it I'm like let it go
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They say "All right we're gonna come after you for it." I'm like "What do you mean by songwriters though producers?"
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The No no Producer A producer Listen this is hip-hop twisted I'm sorry Heather Hip-hop twisted terms that make
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no sense today A producer is somebody who by default ends up putting the the
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the record together They take the song of music and lyric You copyright music
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and lyrics right that's 50% on the music side 50% on the lyrics side That's what
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you call a song But then somebody has to produce that song into a record Now it could be somebody It doesn't mean
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somebody that made the music is the producers just by default because it's their studio They made the beats Rapper
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goes in there they get production by by default But really you know if you
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record the vocals somewhere else somebody else produced the vocals right but they never give the vocal producer any credit I mean we do So so this thing
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like whoever make the beats is the producer That's that's a lazy evaluation
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a lazy determination for a lack of better word So we got to get the terminology straight because after you
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determine the terminology you got to turn it into a lawyer anyway who will make that determination who is what and
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and where and why they pay So you know getting all this clear So I forgot your
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um No cuz I was you said your songwriters but you wrote the song You're talking about 10 crackments Yeah
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the sample I Yeah I wrote the lyrics I didn't write the music So that's what
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Okay The people did Got it You You married to them I'm married Who me a horse got money
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Marry baby You married baby No No You married as a songwriter
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Yeah I'm like wait a second What did Okay Horseman money Horse money Like is a check coming in my house I don't know
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about Chuck Going to start a fight You mean money all these years wait Well Heather Heather you've made records No
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no I know that I understand Are you married to the other song writers no absolutely I Yeah some of the
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songwriters you might not like 100% Because Well I tell I tell people all the time so just take for All Glocks
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Down for instance there's seven songwriters on that song Yes I wrote the lyrics but I sampled Linda Creed and Tom
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Bell Then I sampled Buckshot So I had to pay Linda Creed and Tom Bell I had to
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pay buckshot and then whoever did the music for the stylistics people make the
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world go round So by right by right since you did the lyrics that's 50% of
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the copyright Right Absolutely But because it wasn't done in the beginning then it ends up being a particle of
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whatever comes and say nah we ain't settling for that We want this So that that's what they call it It ends up
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being in what um legal jail before it's released or whatever when we did it in the beginning So it's but the my most
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popular song I make the least amount of money from in terms of writing to to
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Chuck Yeah Okay Yeah Cuz it's a sample And you know what your other songwriters are there with you forever for life
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Chuck D is here man Um this is interesting conversation here Well it had to be different from the last one
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Well yeah it's different You know what it's different Um we were celebrating
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Malcolm Xund years today would be the day Big up to the royal family uh of the
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Shabbaz family The Shabbaz family What when did you discover Malcolm X Chuck cuz your your teachings and your music
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is of that lineage you know of a Malcolm X When did you discover Malcolm X and how important was Malcolm X to our
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culture well I was born in this city So when I was four I remember hearing his name more I was 5 years old when he was
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assassinated So I remember hearing his name Yeah But I became cognizant of of
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Dr King when he got murdered in Memphis in 1968 but then I'm seven and eight
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years old Yeah So you know I'm hearing Dr King on the radio So I'm hearing these people in real time Yeah So I mean
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yeah it was like a no-brainer It was not only Malcolm X but it was a lot of you know leaders and and and you heard them
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on the radio You saw them in TV They wasn't liked by every you know like fast forward you know people oh Dr King
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statues and even Malcolm X Um they wasn't liked back then They weren't liked back then No man 1960s man I I was
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born Listen I got negro on my birth certificate Negro N E G R O I remember
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by the time of six to seven years old we were calling ourselves colored By the
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end of the 60s remember I my whole lifespan is the whole 60s from 1960 to 1969 we were black and beautiful Mhm Uh
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Stokeley Karma Michael later onqwame to he coined black power Yeah Or a bunch of
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you know a whole bunch of folks that that wanted that movement to be respected You're going to respect us for
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that Out of you know you had Black Panther Party started in the Bay Area U Newton Bobby Seal Eldress Clever Um
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Angela Davis was a a a a student at UCLA A lot of movement in California a lot of
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movement in New York City and a lot of these names forced their way into the
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American scope by saying "We demand respect and this is Young Energy." Yeah So the young and the young energy forced
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the the musicians and the culture to respond to the movement It wasn't the other way around Okay The move you know
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uh Toré aka Stokeley Carmichael said "We was on James Brown ass every day."
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And then he comes over black and I'm proud I'm black and I'm proud He said "Yeah we was on his ass like for two years." Like "What's up?" You know and
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also in this city this city because it's a melting pot and and pressure you know bust pipes it's always compressed you
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know like last Friday stay away from Madison Square Garden you know because of the Knicks right yeah So it's
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different you know and so there's always been this this you know quick fast
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talking Let's make this happen Movements happen quick Everybody comes in convenes
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It's a different energy So um yeah New York has always had it cultural push but
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it's also had it socio political push too because people are pressed together And that's why in
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1989 a lot of people you know might know Fight the Power Fight the Power Of course as we go on younger people don't
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connect it to the movie Yeah They don't connect it to the X movie I mean do it
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right there I'm sorry Right there Yeah Yeah Yeah They don't connect it to the movie Mm- because I mean it's it wasn't in their cultural window The song
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permeated and and went in a in a different direction cuz it represented a lot of things I mean I was in Serbia man
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You had Serbians you know and Croatians you know fight to power in their own way
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you know and they you know it was a a total and you go to Africa it's okay And
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I tell people all the time that's the second fight to power right the first fight to power was the Aussie brothers Yeah And that came and you know what and
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that came in a period of dire stress in the United States cuz United States was
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in a very shaky situation then And black folks still you know we still persevered
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because we like "Yeah yeah now the country going down the Nixon went down Y'all got Jail Ford He's you know he
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goofy and y'all don't even know who the next president is." But we still was able to to to speak out and that's why
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and you know speculated but then again you could just check the facts and put it all together yourself In the
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mid70s you know we might have been broke but we wasn't broken Yeah Mhm So where
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we just wasn't connected We were connected through TV shows and Soul Train like Soul Train But well if you in
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New York you ain't getting to Cali like that You don't even know what's going on in Chicago except for Good Times or
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whatever or you know what's happening in California So you now you're getting cultural connections and then Jet and
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Ebony magazine So you got these loose connections So we had a voice that was
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starting to form together really like in this city starting to form no matter how
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broke we looked or how much we didn't have and what we had ourselves So as soon as we start coming together in this
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city even right they don't take care of the city The city's crumbling We at the bottom of that right especially in the
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Bronx where it's down to ashes and all that And as all these things are kind of
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forming together then comes R&B Reagan and Bush
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and then comes Co-intel Pro on the second level cracking guns See back in the in the 70s it was straight out you
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know you could squab up you know and got fighting skills where you still you you might be a friend you know at the end of
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the day after a fight Yeah Once you throw in the game of of of drugs first
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it was cocaine and it was bumped up to crack They took weed off the streets you know which you know people say ain't no
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drug whatever cuz I don't that you had their weed and had their beer and they're good right and try to figure out
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how to handle their thing But once they took that away and then cocaine came in then they came in with the guns Yeah And
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then you had you had little heads making big money and then you might have had a
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old head that might have went away for you know for for a year He coming back on the streets He ain't got no power M
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cuz little head got money he got guns and at the same time it's like yo ohhead So that at the beginning of that I
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remember clear as day the year seven you talking 7879 you can remember that So you you mentioned crack you mentioned
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guns some would say hip-hop the music business record labels perpetuating the wrong messaging really standing by That
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was the echo way later cuz you had the 80s and and and the first thing that hip-hop and rap did was speak loud
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against what was happening that wasn't even our fault Exactly You know it's like guns out of where what all of a
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sudden you start right pop I got my my brother you know Pop Pop What up Pop Diesel over here What's up Pop Diesel
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diesel over here You know we we in the same category same age and all that And we we all of a sudden you know cuz he a
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martial artist and all that fighting And then the next year you find out that cats could get guns easy like out of
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nowhere Yeah You talking 78 right about 78 79 78 So what let's talk about that
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echo though because there's a lot of conversations about the record business uh being a part of a a movement to to
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the detriment of the black community by only pushing certain kind of messaging And once you come together and you're
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powerful then then here comes the next layer of the enemy that happened maybe in bits and pieces in the 90s You feel
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so you agree with that agree with what like record companies being galvanized
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and only pushing mostly certain kind of messaging to our community Well I take the exterior lay off and name
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individuals like and then then they start running like cockroaches when you turn on the light Oh [Â __Â ] You can't say
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corporate when you have whenever you say company and corporations That's the same thing that lawyers use to protect the
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individuals You you know and I'm not saying you could blame an indivi individual All you got to do is turn the
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light on them and then okay we just want to watch your actions Did you make that decision uhuh You know with us we come
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out as individuals When I make a statement I got to sign Chuck D next to it Yeah When somebody makes a statement
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out of nowhere and you be like "Well who made that statement?" Oh the corporation made it But but who in the corporation
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the black community will always go further when you start to identify the individual Forget the company or
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corporation So there was a lot of individuals that were complicit because in the name of business they were like
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you know we going to do you know and you know we would make excuses like well you know what money talks say all kinds of
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stupid [Â __Â ] that don't apply to us Well you know that's business Yeah Well say don't take it personal That's business
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right I mean really 18 1841 what do you think Anthony Edwards or
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Michael Jordan would have been doing getting the highest bail of cotton on the highest shelf Mhm They could jump up
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there and grab that hot you know So we got to always put time and sorry about the if I if I went past your quota but
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you know and the n word is a curse word but in the context you got to use it just make people like "Oh damn." So so I
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I speak this I'm speaking today cuz it's 100 years since Malcolm X's birth Yeah
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And and in his lifetime of 39 years and also Dr King I don't separate the the
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two there's many you know people with voices And and other day in a conversation on another show you know
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they they've reduced it down to people making choices of great people I said "All this is a toolbox." You know Dr
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King would have been a flathead screwdriver Malcolm Phillips head Like what do you got in your toolbox to
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protect yourself so fast forward to what you said Sway You know all right we're in an industry A lot of us get into
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industry because we love the music and culture but now you get into the business of the industry and you really
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don't know what it is or nobody around you know what it is even when you're making a lot of money Okay But is money
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the currency that will make you totally content and satisfied with yourself yeah
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We're finding out Will Smith has spoken highly on that It ain't right According to his journey it was 100 years since um
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Malcolm X turned 100 today It's been 50 years since the Knicks won a championship Um it's been 45 years since
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I did this this college portrait of Malcolm Wow 45 years And and just to
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tell you that he he he he was killed at 39 So when I did this 45 years ago he
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would have only been 55 Yeah That's crazy right wow He would have been 55
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when I did this which was you know um like some 16 years after he was killed
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Wow Shak D here Um I like how you skated that Knicks thing
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though You know 50 years since the Knicks won You You don't need to say nothing man You spoiled You got four
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chips You got chips falling out of your pocket Yo I got so many chips It almost It almost would have did it this year in
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the West if Steph didn't have the injury You hear that Heather oh please sway Oh
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you're just saying that's Chuck D the voice of power Yeah there's nothing Hey man it's
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nothing like a system And that and look Steve and I'm only talk this much about sports We in the building You got sports
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shows and all that Listen all the time But um Steve Kerr got his style off of
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Phil Jackson and Papovic And Phil Jackson gets his style off of Red Holtzman All that pass and move the ball
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around ball movement and all There ain't still been a team They There still ain't been a team in the NBA that move the
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ball around like the Championship Warriors Nah I agree Chuck They get They get away from it They get away from it
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They They be like "Yo man we just don't want to see next year way." Okay You think the Knicks the Knicks got a chance
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Chuck of course they do because they they probably the most survivalist team
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I've ever seen They just learning number one who they are They got a lot of new players and they just learning a killer
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instinct They never was They this team never had a killer instinct They had a survivalist instinct Last year they had
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like four players and they survive and they scratch your eyes out man under Tib system This year like the last game if
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they do get a killer instinct Yeah they could be up They could be up there I don't make no predictions but you know
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I'm a Nick fan since 1967 and that's older than old Chuck D is here man Chuck
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D presents Enemy Radio Armageddon I mean they they played know his arc
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didn't they yeah they play a long time Chuck tell me about this project man What was your objective for this project
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i know it's taken a couple of years to put it together Yeah Cedock is is is highlighting Seed Do and I have a label
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called Spit Slam and I have a radio network that we formed and put together just like Sirius that does all hip hop
24:18
all the time called Rap Station You go to rstvapp.com I've created two apps wanted
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to bring noise app which works like it works like Tik Tok for 35 and over And
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uh it's it's done very well Now we need uh I'm going to go over to your area and see if I could get some you know money
24:36
support from Silicon Valley Okay You know as soon as they take care of Oakland first Yes they got man Barbara
24:42
Lee in there Salute the Barbar Lee Come on We rooting for you Barbara Lee And Rap Station is part of that And out of
24:49
this activity that we've had and I do a weekly radio show for 16 years in a row
24:54
you know it's like make something that that compiles these efforts these great
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artists like Miranda Wrights and and Daddy Oy Schooly D on it and it's and
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just put it together in the radio It's like a radio station dipped in acid but also it it is um Seed Do's prowess Like
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I said he's like Brian Eno like that That's a great comparison for him And um
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it's just like kind of like getting to a style or reinventing a style that we
25:25
weren't able to do a long time since the early 90s maybe the late 80s with Bomb
25:32
Squad because um you had the area aerial samples coming in Yeah So you couldn't
25:38
make beat changes and gear and gear switches You know people got conventional was
25:43
like I could take one sample and ride that and pay that Yeah Bomb Squad is known for putting like you know 80 songs
25:50
into one song You know what I'm saying and we we created the But you know what let me tell you let me tell y'all this
25:56
When we we didn't re we didn't create beat switching and flipping and all that
26:02
It was just taken from what they did in this city and DJing in the 70s Like if
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you rhying on the mic like Melly Mela Curtis Blow there could be like four joints underneath you and if you the MC
26:15
you got to ride the pony You know what I'm saying so they could put I can't stop under it then catch a groove then
26:22
good times And if the MC gets thrown Yeah All all while you rhyming So as
26:29
soon as a beat per minute come in if you thrown off you throwing off the pony You supposed to ride the transition
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Yeah that's a lost art They they and so we did that just kind of in records Okay
26:41
And so you might hear like four different you know forms of music coming across but the music is changing
26:48
underneath you Nobody did that after we did that because you couldn't clear that and yeah too many samples We got
26:55
attacked We got attacked by the lawyer So So you know we changed up a lot of different ways Um um the bomb squad
27:02
morphed into different things and and and I'm like saying uh in 2024 2025
27:09
the secret that that C do had come up with was actually not just reminiscent
27:14
but studied where there's beat flips and changes again Yeah And and and the
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lawyers can't say anything about it They can't say nothing All right Chuck D is here We the first song we played after
27:26
Can't Trust It was Super Bad Um that's featured on the brand new album Man you got a lot of people online But in that
27:33
song you put "You rob me of sanity vanity and calamity Ushered by possible crimes on humanity Russia UK US say they
27:41
are family Stole that silver back out of me Why you be crowding me judge yelling
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loud at me I'm too old not to be proud of me." That was a bar right there I
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don't know I I That was done so long ago I got wrapped Alzheimer's man
27:58
No you don't Chuck That's why Look look I never was good at freestyling cuz I I'm a performer of rap
28:06
and an MC but I can't man I I I wrote it man I never had writer's block ever I
28:12
could write volumes of everything Like art I can't remember the next sentence man I never had that ability for me to
28:19
learn a song When you when you hear me say your lyrics back what come to mind damn
28:27
I I did I wrote that So now you write it Look God can't give you everything Yeah
28:34
I watch people freestyle like Ice Tea and Kane They can remember songs from like like 80 years ago I can't remember
28:41
last week or you know I know I wrote it In order for me to perform it I got to
28:47
practice it I got to go to rehearsal And and number one they'll tell you back in
28:53
the day my my attribute I I was the first person to like it wasn't a bidden war but I turned down it's it's it's
29:00
sort of like full circle I turned down Death Jam for two years Turn down Death Jam I was the first one that well not
29:06
the first Beasty Boys LL CoolJ original concept And then Rick wanted me cuz what
29:13
we were doing on radio and I used to make promos for the radio station WBAU out on the island So Rick was like
29:20
"Y'all got to get Chuck." Cuz they he thought I would be
29:25
like a Melly Mel piece inside I'm not making no solo records I'm at a radio
29:31
station I ain't making no records I got to categorize eight books or excuse me
29:36
eight rooms of records So I we already had our plans of what we want to be
29:41
radio jocks man Well Rick hired Bill Stephanie and he told
29:47
Bill "You got this job here as president first black president of record label on Def Jam." He said "You got this job here
29:54
but your job also is to get Chuck Chuck or I'm firing you." Wow So they would
30:01
ask me Rick would call my crib and I'd be like telling my mom like "Nah tell
30:08
them I ain't here." So I abucted for two years I didn't want to make records I
30:13
wanted to I wanted to be I wanted to be what if we if we had a show to get on BLS or KISS at the time we would we
30:20
would have or changed the whole format of the station We would have been KMEL before KMEL was be it would have been 83
30:28
84 but we in this city they had so much of a blockade and they couldn't stop rap
30:34
and hip-hop but they fought as hell to keep it from from from leaking in Red Alert and Chuck had the weekends you
30:40
know women right they had the They wouldn't let them talk No it was just music Yep Magic had
30:46
WBLS for three hours and that was it And then other stations was like "Yeah we'll
30:52
touch rap but we ain't messing with it." This was in the 80s This is in ' 80s So not so long ago rap was hard to get
30:59
played And then personalities couldn't even talk Right in this in this city the
31:05
city and when I mean the city you're talking Jersey you know Connecticut Long Island and the metropolitan area million
31:12
MC's been here this is why whenever I go out there my respect in New York other
31:18
day I did a radio show I brought Curtis Blow with me because we're part of the hip-hop alliance you know you can go to
31:23
hip-hop alliance.org and that's the hip-hop that's first union so when people talk about oh man needs to be a
31:29
hip-hop union and all that Curtis Blow Uh Caris One is a chairman you know MC
31:35
Light is is with it Sparky D I mean um Chub Rock now So it's a union that's
31:42
tied in the SAG after So it's a real thing Yeah So it's like oh you need some
31:47
health benefits Well you're not in Hollywood cuz every time y'all y'all mess with Hollywood they take care of
31:52
themselves The the Hip Hop Alliance seriously is a serious union that
31:58
members need to also go and check out and and be a part of But anyway long story short my respect in in this city
32:05
this city has had a trillion MC's y'all So every time I have to do something I
32:11
have to make you know understand that I've been hearing MC's in this city since 1975
32:16
And here's another thing I want to leave you'all with When I say things like "I've been your age you never been mine." We have to say the currency
32:24
of our age is years Yes That's the ultimate gift This is why when will find
32:31
like all right I I I've peaked you've peaked as far as a career maybe as far
32:36
and you think of fame which is a fake construct Yes for another four-letter word you know fake fade and then fu ck
32:45
they're all the same because if you believe that fame is not does not fade
32:51
and is fake then you're you know what I'm saying you're [Â __Â ] Right Exactly
32:57
You already said [Â __Â ] Chuck Why you right if you Yeah So those are all fourletter constructs that go with fame
33:04
So it's a construct So whatever comes up out of fame if you think that's going to be nutritious you got to keep it to
33:10
yourself because it only is what it is The currency that that we want to look at is the currency of revolutions around
33:17
the sun Yeah And also not take that for granted cuz we say like you know a lot of times we say things from another time
33:23
that might apply and our melanin is great and we say oh yeah black don't crack Yeah but it can die
33:30
when we don't take care of the five fingers of black death is hypertension you know heart attack cancer stress uh
33:38
you know um diabetes Diabetes you know what I'm saying Punching us punches us more than ever So the point I was saying
33:45
right is that when I say I was your age you wasn't mine You wasn't mine right is
33:52
a clear line to say is that you know current that's our currency and and and aging is something that you attack that
33:59
you should be able to enjoy the journey and try to live well and these things will come at you and especially after
34:06
40s capsizing people Yeah So I would say like a lot of times in hip-hop we have
34:12
these separations but I be telling heads all the time it's like bro I was there
34:17
in 75 and I'm right here now You don't think I hear what you got right now to judge what you got right now Yeah So
34:23
they can't say yo oh hey you don't know what I'm doing I'm looking right at you and I'm listening what you're doing Now
34:29
what you have to do is compete against your peers to see whether that's [Â __Â ] or not Yeah You got to compete
34:34
against your own peers You got to have your own dunk contest against your own peers and see if you can win that out
34:40
Promoters know that You know why promoters know that and Heather you know this right promoters you don't have to
34:46
pick your you can pick your best whatever A promoter going to tell you what the best is They going to pick the first act and they're going to pick the
34:53
one that's going to close the building And the one that closed the building is the
34:59
[Â __Â ] if we play Oh you know no no no ll and all It's going to be one
35:05
act that closes the building Yeah And the one that closes the building is the one that hold the building That's how
35:11
they do in rock Yeah Chuck D is here man Getting this game Get this game It's for
35:16
free today Coach Jackson you want to say something to the icon what up coach he in ATL What up coach coach Hey guys I'm
35:23
a first time caller Wait hold up We got something for you Hold up man
35:31
Welcome to the meeting I just gota I tell you I just got to tell you Chuck
35:36
probably doesn't remember me but we grew up in a same circle I'm from Hemstead Um
35:43
of course you know me by Chanty Oh yeah What's up man chanty Johny Jackson right
35:50
yes sir Basketball player Yeah Damn Chuck know a basketball player Basketball star from Long Island Chanty
35:58
Jackson What's his story chuck Chuck know every basketball player that came from the street Yeah Long Island was
36:03
nasty Or look we grew up in the same town as Dr J That's right You know Dr Jay went to Roosevelt High man So right
36:10
there and from himstead and Roosevelt so right there you know when people talk about whoever Jordan to LeBron we had
36:18
Doc Doc was That's right Yeah Dr J Dr J period Yo yo Chanty what was Chuck like
36:24
when y'all was growing up well let me tell you I remember see Chuck probably don't remember this but
36:30
when I was hanging out at Lincoln Park playing ball and everything he was up the street right down the street from
36:36
the youth center that was named after my brother Percy Jackson Percy Jackson And he was in a studio um 510 on 510 South
36:45
Dr Gant Dr Gance building There you go There you go And he was he
36:51
was he was doing his thing And I remember seeing him at the at the youth center at Roso Youth Center at the uh at
37:00
Centennial Park you know it's man it's just love and I love that you're doing
37:05
what you're doing Um I mean it's it does my heart well to see you doing well and
37:12
still keeping a pulse to what's going on in the community Yeah You know you know
37:18
I got our guy Doug Mills passed last year You know Doug yeah Yeah That's our guy
37:24
Well you know me and his brother best friends I know That's that's that's Yeah Steve used uh be president of the Knicks
37:30
Steve Mills Okay Steve Yeah He had another Roosevelt dude And him and Doug and uh Yeah And Chanty played ball out
37:36
with Steve and and you know Yeah He was a big superstar Looked up to you Chanty Hey Chanty check this out man You know
37:42
Chuck got a new project Tell them the name of it Chuck It's called Radio Armageddon It's it's on Death Jam I'm
37:48
coming to be like a consigier to the godfather Tunzi over there at Def Jam And we got E big up Shout out to EP in
37:56
the house Got to give EP love EP a lot EP love man That's EP Coach Jackson
38:03
thank you for your call You're a super citizen man In the morning you always got a platform As long as we got a
38:08
platform you got a platform brother I love having these conversations with you man I enjoy it tremendously I want folks
38:14
to check out the project Yeah Radio Armageddon on Death Jam and and and how great are y'all i mean how great are
38:21
y'all i mean look look look I mean consistency is another thing that we don't we don't salute enough Yeah And
38:28
the fact that that y'all been so you know consistent kind great you know gracious
38:35
Thank you We should be grateful when we even get the chance to talk you know and and and I try to tell a lot of the young
38:41
artists and that's another reason why I'm over there too to give that a little bit of advice is that yeah whatever you
38:48
doing you want to do that for a long time Yeah Because you take care of it And also the most important pe uh thing
38:55
I want to say before I leave service people that's what I meant by administration Yeah service people are
39:01
very or or everything in this industry like e EP has taken us around and and
39:07
the fact is that often I think that we we can also open the industry up by even
39:13
interviewing people like that because people want to know how can I get in the business and they want to hear from
39:19
people who've worked in the business but they don't know the occupation is there Yeah So we was kind of having that
39:24
conversation today Chuck D thank you for your words man I appreciate it Thank you Yeah we out here Chuck Yeah Yeah we
39:31
still here Chuck And I'll catch you I'll catch you on either coast Catch us on the LA next
39:37
time I go back and coastal Chuck days Yeah man We do it everywhere man Look at
39:42
us Chuck Look at he look how happy she look I know right i'm always happy Well that's what I'm saying It's like this is
39:48
this is the nutrition that people want to be able to be part of It's infectious
39:54
and they can't explain cuz they ain't got nothing So how much you getting over there you getting that you getting that paper over there and it ain't got
40:00
nothing to do with that It got something with there You cannot get this when you are in tuned into yourself walking in
40:07
purpose with the path of your art and culture too And you can do that too Most of the world are consumers and very few
40:14
are producers Yeah And y'all happen to be curators and caretakers and producers
40:19
of culture and creativity That's a movement There it is Chuck D said it So in the morning that's a drop Shave four
40:25
five Yep We just finished this man Get up for Chuck D man Thank you brother for coming through
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