Halftimeonline: Haha, that’s bad.

Chuck D: If a black kid is asking or it’s a white kid what’s the difference. We came out to tell everybody this is where we are. The white kids looking from the outside in were curious about it. Our goal was to take the chains off of people’s necks and hang an African medallion. We started seeing that the black kids were mad that white kids wanted to start to learn black history. I was like that means you have to step your game up. The minute somebody knows more about you than you do that’s opening yourself back up to new slavery. I wasn’t a kid making my first record gentleman. I was 26-27 years old so I was seasoned and I wasn’t looking for love in all the wrong places. I came from a background where I knew my family loved me so I wasn’t trying to impress nobody. This is what it is you can take it or leave it. One thing we’ve lost out on today is that people don’t necessarily have to accept what’s thrown at them. There’s also nothing wrong with telling people none of your business.

Halftimeonline: What are your thoughts on Michael Richards?

Chuck D: That was white guilt putting him all on TV parading him around. Why should we as black people be alarmed because a white dude was on stage in the middle of The Comedy Store with guys heckling him and he pulls out nigger, nigger, nigger? I’m not saying we shouldn’t be upset but why should we be amazed when Snoop and everybody goes around calling themselves niggers. It’s a word but it’s all this I can use the word but you can’t. That’s just stupid.

Halftimeonline: Exactly.

Chuck D: That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard that it’s exclusively our word. We didn’t even make up the word. The first time it was used was when some Cracker, meaning the person who cracked the whip, said, “Nigger get off that boat or I’m going to kill you.” So when people say we flipped it and now we’re gonna use it as a word of love I’m like you don’t command no vocabulary so how are you gonna flip a word. First off your command of the language is low so now you’re going to flip a word that’s derogatory to everybody else and try to command the language in their life. That’s derogatory to the rappers who understood that vocabulary is their artillery. Now if he was black and saying it everybody is laughing, especially white people but since he’s white all the white people are like he crossed the line! Everybody needs to ask Paul Mooney what he thinks. It’s just a mass distraction making a whole whoop about nothing when clearly there are a lot of [other] issues that affect black people. They still yelling nigger to us without even saying it. All that Vote or Die and Bush got a second term like, “What niggers? What!” We just gotta watch ourselves because we are always gonna have cats in our lower dynamic. Black is the hardest thing to be in this country because you are always being pulled from both sides. A lot of times we as a people get comfortable based on white folks that have the legacy, the history, and the land therefore in America black folks think that we’re better than other black folks on the planet because our white folks are stronger. America got the most power in the world and we’re their niggers so we’re good. No. America is being dumassified to not understand that there is the rest of the planet. There’s a world out there but only 18% of Americans have a passport. That’s terrible for a country when the United Nations sits right here in N.Y. It’s damn near an obsolete building. But that’s enough politics for now.

Halftimeonline: I saw you were in the movie Anchorman with Will Ferrell. How did you get down with that and do you have any more roles coming up?

Chuck D: Nah, I don’t really act I just do scores and soundtracks. I [work with] four studios and our job is to license music. That’s what my Slam Jam label is for. When you license music you have to be a diverse artist to really cut across different genres initially. That’s what I like to do, be behind the scenes and add scores and soundtracks and stuff like that. That was offered to a certain extent by Will Ferrell and this guy Adam. They sat me down and we had a dinner meeting in California and they basically asked me if I could be in the film. Initially I said nah I don’t do film but they was like we’d really like to have you. To tell you the truth I was kinda like “That’s Will Ferrell!” I didn’t know how big he was until I started checking him out more. So that was a cool experience. It ended up on the cutting floor and they felt kinda bad. They didn’t know how to tell me it didn’t make it in and I was like I’m glad. It was neither here nor there. I don’t do movies and I’m not trying to have an acting career. I guess I can act and I come from a theatrical background with my mom doing plays but I never took it seriously. I have too much respect for thespians. Just like Burn, Hollywood Burn, I threw that in because we had the score and the soundtrack. So if somebody wants me to use my celebrity and go into an acting zone that I don’t think is too crazy then whatever but that’s not my thing. I think as far as rappers doing movies I feel if the rapper ain’t 100% in it then they should leave it alone.

The only thing is I want rap music and hip hop to be structured and have more discipline to some degree. You look at all the cats who want to wild out and do whatever but when you do a movie you have to arrive on the set early, conform to the script and learn how to work with everybody else. Why is it so hard in music? Cats ain’t on time, they don’t give good interviews, and aren’t used to working with somebody but when they do movies they do all of that. Even the wildest dude has to do that. They have to be on time and have their stuff together. You have to learn how to work with people because nobody is doing a solo movie. None of this is young people’s fault. It’s because they took out the development passages in music, art and also in school. If young people don’t get developed how do you think they will all of a sudden be good? Development has gone out the window since R&B, Reagan and Bush. Young lives are fleeting quickly. We gotta develop our young people and everybody looks at it like it’s this big task. Grown people just have to carry themselves better. People say it’s about the parents but what do you say when you in the club with 36 year old fly grandmothers. You can’t say it’s about the parents when the parents don’t know anything. Is it the parent’s fault? Nah they went from 10 to 18, had a kid at 15 and got a job when the kid was three year’s old. Their parents are in their 30s and the kid is 16 and if it’s a girl they both can get in the club.

All I know is when we talk about music at least the older cats have to create a standard so the young cats know they can do it for a long time. That’s the beauty of our music. You can do it for a long time as long as you pay homage to the history of our music and skill. It’s about feeding others. If you feed others it will come back to you. Cats always want to come in and make a killing rather than make a living but if you’re killing how many cats can make a living? If one person makes a killing that means maybe 100 people can’t make a living. If that person is making a living at the top then maybe 99 people below them can make a living. If you’re in the fishing industry and you have an apparatus and boat to grab all of the fish in that particular vicinity that doesn’t mean you do that because the fish have to replenish. That’s what happening in the salmon industry. Certain companies are doing that and that’s why they are saying all eatable fish will be outta here by 2050.

Halftimeonline: What?

Chuck D: You gonna have to really learn how to get into the soy thing. Salmon they say 2020.

Marcus: Man I’m a salmon freak. I’m gonna have to eat some gold fish or something.

Chuck D: Haha. Cats are competing so they are loading their boats up and 30%-40% of the catch won’t even be eaten. If fish ain’t kept right it’s through. You have the same thing here because you have culture strip miners. That’s what’s happening in hip hop. You have cats that go in and make a killing and then it’s useless for anyone else to come into the climate with anything healthy or prosperous. That’s why Talib or Mos can’t sell more than say The Game because the environment for something healthy is not conducive to that style of music to do those particular numbers. That’s alright because that doesn’t mean Mos Def, Talib, The Roots or Common don’t do what they do. Stop dealing with numbers that come from another time and deal with the numbers now until you can grow an audience. Jay-Z had other sources because the record company couldn’t promote him at the level they need for him to move product. He had to get Budweiser. Budweiser is going to have commercials anyway. They sell 55,000 cups of beer at every event. They aren’t trying to get a new audience. They are going to sell regardless they are just trying to keep product awareness.

Halftimeonline: I’m a big fan of Ice Cube and I know he came through and recorded Amerikkas Most Wanted.

Chuck D: Ice Cube is like a younger brother to me.

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Posted by Jbutters on Sunday, March 25th, 2007 and is filed under HIP HOP ICON SERIES.