Musician and Artist Chuck D Comes to NCC!

Chuck D., an American rapper and Public Enemy frontman, encouraged students to respect scholars and learn everything they can while in college. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Grammy® Lifetime Achievement Award winner was the keynote speaker of Northampton Community College's (NCC) 2024 Humanities Endowed Lecture, A Conversation with Hip Hop Legend Chuck D. , at the Bethlehem campus Arthur L. Spartan Center on April 16. 

The theme for this year’s Annual Humanities Program is, “50 Years Down the Line: A Celebration of Hip Hop History and Culture,” led by Sociology Professor, Andrew McIntosh. It explores and celebrates Hip Hop culture’s dynamic mix of influences and styles, how they came to be, how they evolved, and how they continue to be practiced and thrive in American culture. 

"Artists are always going to tell stories about real people," Chuck D. said. He later compared himself to a prism that allows light to bounce off him and onto ordinary people. 

During the event, Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, known professionally as Chuck D, shared the stage for about two hours with event moderator, McIntosh, while hundreds of students, faculty and community members watched and listened. After his talk, Chuck D. answered questions posed by four NCC students.

Chuck D. urged students, "Learn to respect scholars. We want smart people around us all the time. Engage in conversations with older people, professors and administrators." 

Chuck D. said attending college and spending time with scholars is "a big opportunity." Scholars spend time reading subjects that some of us wouldn't want to study, and even sometimes what they don't enjoy reading so that they can benefit other people. Professors are scholars willing to share their knowledge with students, so get as much as possible from them, he added. 

In Long Island, NY, Chuck D. attended an almost all-white high school. Growing up, he knew everything about white culture and watched TV shows like The Brady Bunch  and I Dream of Jeannie, but his classmates knew little about Black culture, which gave him an advantage.  

He attended Adelphi University to study graphic design but was "kicked out." He later returned, however, newly motivated to succeed and learn from professors and fellow students, including William Jonathan Drayton Jr, better known as Flavor Flav.  

"Everything I knew I was going to share with my homies, and they were going to do the same for me."  

Chuck D. loved to dance and started attending parties with disc jockeys (DJs) at colleges throughout the area, such as Hofstra University and Nassau County Community College. "I just wanted to dance with girls."  

At that time, "DJs were fly," playing records using more than one turntable, creating a new sound. "I didn't know how to do The Hustle, but then The Freak came out, and we were into that." 

However, the DJs sometimes talked too much and interfered with "my game," Chuck D said. So, he got on the microphone to "shut them up."  

"I could make a $2 mic sound like a million dollars. I knew how to rock a party for real," he said. Hip-hop grew out of the party culture. 

While at Adelphi, Chuck D. co-hosted the hip-hop radio show the Super Spectrum Mix Hour  for radio station WLIR. A graphic arts major, he was a cartoonist for the school newspaper and created flyers to draw people to the dance parties.  

In 1985, a year after he graduated from Adelphi, he and Flavor Flav formed Public Enemy,  which rose to prominence for its political messages on racism and other topics. Music producer, Rick Rubins, signed the group. Among Public Enemy's  most well-known songs is Fight the Power,  released in 1989. 

Fight, the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World  is the name of a documentary Chuck D. co-produced. Airing on PBS in 2023, it narrates struggle, triumph and resistance brought to life through the lens of hip hop—an art form that has chronicled the emotions, experiences and expressions of Black communities.

Chuck D. said that to understand Black people, you must study geography, migration and immigration and their effect on Black culture. After the development of the interstate highway systems in the 1940s and 50s, Black people in the southeast headed north up Route 95 for better-paying jobs and to be free of Jim Crow laws. They settled in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City.  

"People in the melting pot usually get melted, but out of that, like a Phoenix, you have art," he said. "At the bottom of the melting pot is the Bronx and Harlem, too." There, the apartment buildings weren't taken care of, and there were rats and roaches in the buildings.  

Chuck D., who calls himself an "earthizen" (citizen of the earth), urged the audience to visit other places in the world to appreciate "beautiful" Easton, PA.  

"Everyone should get a passport," he said. “Everyone should visit the world. When you travel, you have a new perspective, which means a lot. If you can't afford to travel, you can visit the world through the Internet and books.”  

During the question-and-answer segment, Chuck D. said his life was filled with peaks and valleys, but art has always been his refuge. During the last few years, while on tour, he has turned hotel rooms into his personal art studio and produced 20,000 illustrations. He recently published a book of his drawings.  

Chuck D., involved with Rock the Vote, also encouraged young people to vote and become involved in government. "I believe politics is for young people," he said, adding that brilliant young people should be given a chance to gain government roles and improve our country's future.  

He left the students and youth in the audience with a final thought. Measure your expectations. “Start with yourself as the axis of your universe, and be confident and willing to ask questions.”