Chuck D Quotes

If you want to be an artist, truly try to write what you believe, and if you write when you don't believe then you should try to become an actor.

Let the voice be the voice of the voiceless and let it come from the world of rap music to keep the stereotype and the peace at the same time.

I'm recording freely, and if I make a song, I release it immediately, so I'm more likely to believe in one song at a time as opposed to albums.

If you go get a passport, it might encourage you to at least consider the world around you.

If you have no soul you can gut it out. You know, like a marionette, you'll just follow what seems to actually give you whatever you ain't got.

So, rather than trying to humbly mix with the rest of the world, we are forcing ourselves upon it. We seem to create conflicts with everyone.

I've signed with major labels, and I haven't had any control over the money.

I like Rick Ross as a person. I like Jay-Z and Kanye West as people. But I hate the companies that they record for.

I don't have any exteriors that would actually put me into some kind of different air that would actually intimidate somebody to stay away from me.

Knowledge, wisdom, and understanding don't come out of the microwave. You got to keep moving forward because the evil doesn't sleep.

The Illuminati is just the evil, 'nameless' people who are behind governments.

You can't master time, but you have to work your hardest to manage it.

I think right about now we have to beware of marketed Malcolms and Martins. Real people do real things.

The truth has no form, you know. It's not like walking around trying to actually ask for favors and to be acknowledged, it is what it is.

Find like-minded people and try not to be individualized to the point where you try to fight it all and think about it all on your own.

I know I am judged unfairly by my physical characteristics and ostracized because of that so I say, "Yes, I'm a black man."

You can't take anything with you. So I don't understand this whole psychotic area of greed, I don't get it ...

The powers that be are trying to meld, shape, and corral the culture of hip-hop into another speaking voice for the government.

Bigger doesn't mean better unless you really understand what bigger is.

Every time something tries to create respect with a machine it crumbles!

These days you can't see who's in cahoots,
Cause now the KKK wears three-piece suits.

If you empty, you can be filled up with anything. It could be water or it could be gasoline.

Music used to cause revolutions and I'm not seeing much revolution anymore.

I like to drive and I like to travel. When I drive on the open road, it's like sometimes the car turns into a pen and the road is a piece of paper.

Our freedom of speech is freedom or death,
We got to fight the powers that be!

Music should be some kind of nourishment.

My mother went to university, my father didn't. But they are very educated, very wise people. My father went to the military, so he's worldly.

And when I say it, they get alarmed ...
'Cause I'm louder than a bomb.

It's not about what you get out but what you put into hip hop as a genre.

DJ culture always made us aware that the best records were going to come from the small shops

Public Enemy is the security of the hip-hop party.

If I can't change the people around me, I change the people around me.

Truth is truth no matter what I think.

Nothing has more words and performance than rap music.

I always remain optimistic.

Once you think bigger than yourself then the cause becomes the issue if you think on a higher plain you can come together to work on our problems.

I'm a multi-tasker. I was down with that stuff before they invented the term.

Government and culture are two diametrically opposed forces - the one blinds and oppresses, the other uplifts and unites.

Oh, America is slipping away from the rest of the consciousness of the planet - slipping away.

I think the Internet was the saving grace for Public Enemy. Before that, travelling the world saved Public Enemy.

Cause I'm Black and I'm proud
I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped
Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps

To live a life you love, you must Love the life you live.

My thing is, the older you get you gotta stand up for what you believe in, and keep bashin' away.

Burn, Hollywood, burn, I smell a riot goin' on,
First they're guilty, now they're gone!

My work throughout my life is always representative of the time we live in. It's all about keeping it in order and keeping it in gear.

I adhere to the philosophy, "I don't care who writes the laws, let me write the songs."

I don't believe that everybody is out of some kind of cookie cutter, so the thing that protects me is always being level with myself, even to myself.

Money is created by a machine ... but you can't really create respect with a machine.

I encourage more blacks and people of color to get a passport. That's one way to help put people on an equal platform.

Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and when people start getting it confused, that means they need to sit down with some real people.

Minds are the real estate of the 21st century.

If they can send you to war at 18, maybe it's beneficial for some people to think that most of us gotta go to war for our own existence.

Getting on the road and driving along a road at night, or even in the daytime and seeing the oceans or whatever, is always liberating.

I think hip hop should be a living word. And what I mean by the living word is like yo, you gotta have the words that provide life.

The best way to boycott is to build your own

The minute I get swelled up about something, something has always brought me back down to earth ...

The best American is one who considers themselves as a citizen of the world.

I think traveling the world has helped to keep Public Enemy alive. We've never solely depended on the United States.

I think a good thing that needs to change is that people should be at least fearless about expressin' themselves.

Downloadable music is the biggest musical phenomenon since the Beatles, and the music industry is slow to come to grips with that.

Rappers should just be able to perform what they create and satisfy the people that like and love them.

All I want is peace and love on this planet.
Ain't that how God planned it?

The biggest thing that has happened to hip-hop is the clinging on to the corporation as the all-mighty hub of the music.

I think governments are the cancer of civilization.

Try to do your best to look people in the eye and talk to them without a gadget being in between you all the time.

You know, I've written many of my songs while driving - which is against the law in many cases.

My advice to young people is ask older people questions and don't be afraid.

No matter what the name, we're all the same pieces in one big chess game.

The real thing is the heart, you know the heart shouldn't be covered with concrete.

I came from a mother and father who always made me secure in my beliefs, and that's where the love came from.

I'm most passionate about, you know, making everybody understand that we should all have equal access on this earth.

Reflect each day on all you have to be grateful for and you will receive more to be grateful for.

One side of the street is a Church; across the road is a liquor store. Both of 'em keepin us poor.

Try to master technology instead of it mastering you.

I think too much of the music industry is for the lawyer and accountant mentality.

My daughter's 19. I'm not asking her to develop as an artist. I'm just asking her to develop as a full person, human being.

I totally hate when somebody takes a classic and desecrates it. I like Jimmy Page and P. Diddy, but what they did to 'Kashmir' was a debacle.

I got a letter from the government the other day
I opened and read it ... it said they were suckers.

Share and enjoy the fruits of this planet.

I tell each artist they have to grow toward a revenue stream.

Minds are the real estate of the millenium

I never live alone,
I never walk alone.
My posse's always ready
And they're waitin' in my zone.

Excuse us for the news,
You might not be amused;
But did you know White comes from Black?
No need to be confused.

I'm not a U.S. citizen. I mean, I'm an earth-izen. Borderline policies are crap to me.

I'd rather be hated for what I am than to be loved for what I'm not.

It's weak to speak and blame somebody else
... When you destroy yourself.

There's nothing worse than a good video and good song, and you see a band and hate them because they can't perform. That's wack.

Men have periods; they're called wars.

With black people, there are 50 Hitlers over the course of history.

Music and art and culture is escapism, and escapism sometimes is healthy for people to get away from reality. The problem is when they stay there.

Your closest and your most dedicated fans will be your ultimate test. They will test you.

People aren't going to support an artist just because they have an audio file. They have to feel a real connection.

Never try to make the same record twice, even when people are screaming for the same sound.

A lot of the post-1977 dancefloor disco sounds had their place at one time, but you can't bring them back unless you bring back a floor.