Public Enemy's Prophetic Frontman Chuck D On Milestones, Going Independent And The Future Of Hip-Hop.

At the end of "Pirate Radio"-the 2009 feature film about a '60s illegal rock'n'roll radio station in Europe's North Sea-an array of albums is displayed: iconic symbols of musical independence that bucked the status quo. Among the albums on display is Public Enemy's 1990 treatise, "Fear of a Black Planet."

In a country still wrestling with the election of its first black president and ongoing racial tension, economic strife and war, "Fear" remains just as relevant in the 20 years since its release, alongside its three seminal singles: "Fight the Power" (immortalized in the Spike Lee film "Do the Right Thing"), "Welcome to the Terrordome" and "911 Is a Joke."

And still sounding that clarion call is Public Enemy and its dedicated frontman, Chuck D. Embarking on what will be its 69th, 70th and 71st tours this year, the pioneering rap group is as busy as ever. Through its SLAMjamz digital label (SLAMjamz.com), Public Enemy recently released the benefit album "Kombit pou Haiti," with proceeds donated to the Lambi Fund in Haiti. Coming in the spring: a "Welcome to the Terrordome" three-CD/three-DVD boxed set comprising the last 12 years of PE music including live tracks, videos and documentaries; a Chuck D solo album, "Mistachuck: Don't Rhyme for the Sake of Riddlin',"; and "It's Back to a Million of Us to Hold a Nation," by PE backing band, the baNNed. The forthcoming instrumental set reinterprets PE's 1988 classic, "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back."


Video Interview: Chuck D. talks to Billboard.com about hip-hop's past and present.

That's not counting a radio show launched last November on WBAI.org-"AndYouDontStop!"-with plans to expand across the Pacifica Radio network, a podcast on iTunes and work on three other key ventures. Those include SellaBand, a Web site that allows the general public to invest in artists (PE has raised more than $57,000 for its next album from investments in $25 increments); the Chuck D and Gary "G-Wiz" Rinaldo-created Web site HipHopGods.com, an archive site focusing on the history of classic rap; and FightThePower.org, a nonprofit company established by Chuck D to continue to fight for artists' rights in terms of publishing, copyrights and masters ownership. In an interview with Billboard, Chuck D reflects on the creative climate that spawned "Fear," PE's early global stance, the Internet revolution and the evolution of rap and hip-hop.

So paint the picture: What was the industry climate like when "Fear of a Black Planet" was born 20 years ago?

There were six major record companies; Def Jam was with Sony [CBS] at that particular time. And it was the beginning of creating different techniques in how to present rap to a world marketplace through a major. My biggest thing-in using Def Jam with the Sony machine-was to market to the world, not just the U.S. This was totally new at that time. Everything to that point was about how to handle things domestically. But my thing was if Sony is all over the world, there's got to be some kind of viral way that we can introduce what this thing is about.

And this thing was breaking down Dr. Frances Cress Wesling's color confrontation theory about race and compressing it into the previously adolescent space of rap music and hip-hop. As a concept album, "Fear" challenged the purity of race by stating the world was a planet of color that was not inferior to the Western status quo. Before we started "Fear," we had one song, "Fight the Power," put out by [then-Motown chief] Jheryl Busby, and had to make up our minds to go to work. So the next single we did was another stand-alone, "Welcome to the Terrordome," in October 1989. Then the rest of "Fear" followed that thought-provoking vein. We began working on it in January 1990; it came out in March.

Musically, this was a bold challenge, especially from the bowels of rap, which was scorned and considered controversial with its presentation. Even down to the album cover for which a NASA space designer illustrated a black planet with the famed Public Enemy logo eclipsing the earth as we know it. In hindsight, people say, "Wow, OK, that was deep." Back then-given the audacity that a rapper could see that deep-there were people who would look at us and say, "There go them smart niggas." We were like, "Yeah, we're smart niggas who will bust your ass." That was our attitude and still is our attitude.

In terms of rap itself, who were your contemporaries then?

It was the golden age of hip-hop in terms of diversity and balance. Queen Latifah, N.W.A, Big Daddy Kane had all made their mark during what was probably the most diverse three- to five-year period. Artists carved their own niches, strove to be different from one another by creating their own molds. They weren't affected by the marketing and promotional protocol of record labels that said, "In order for you to make the charts and get on TV, you have to be similar."

When we toured in 1990 it was with Kid 'N Play, Heavy D & the Boyz, Digital Underground, EPMD. Groups toured with each other who didn't necessarily line up in their philosophies. It was the total extreme between one another. Then acts like Naughty by Nature came out in 1991 as introduced by Queen Latifah; Ice Cube's solo record comes out in 1990 as he leaves N.W.A, so it was a turning point into the '90s.

When I said, "Welcome to the Terrordome," it was an introduction to the '90s; that's what that song is about. As we were getting into the '90s, it's "Hey, OK, we made it through the terrordome, but there's going to be a test for a lot of people like us." And it was a test. And whether we got out of that decade unscathed is a point of debate because that was a rough decade on us. It affects us even to this point now.

How so?

Well, we fell asleep for eight years with [President Bill] Clinton [laughs], and then got the hell smacked out of us with eight years of [President George W.] Bush. So now we have a year of President Obama and haven't embraced that fully as a people, as a black demographic in this country. We're kind of shell-shocked and don't know where to start. Meanwhile, he's up there on the dart board.

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