Top 80 Chuck D Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “If I can’t change the people around me, I change the people around me.”

— Chuck D

2. “Culture is this thing that we can exchange among ourselves as human beings to knock aside our differences and build upon our similarities. Cultural exchange is the ultimate exchange.”

— Chuck D

3. “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.”

— Chuck D

4. “To live a life you love, you must Love the life you live.”

— Chuck D

5. “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.”

— Chuck D

6. “Being positive is like going up a mountain. Being negative is like sliding down a hill. A lot of times, people want to take the easy way out, because it’s basically what they’ve understood throughout their lives.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

9. “Black folks are judged by quantity, not quality. It’s a decimal point or figure. How different is that from slavery? There’s no moral code, it’s just about successful business for America.”

— Chuck D

10. “No matter what the name, we’re all the same pieces in one big chess game.”

— Chuck D

11. “The Illuminati is just the evil, ‘nameless’ people who are behind governments.”

— Chuck D

12. “Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps.”

— Chuck D

13. “Government and culture are two diametrically opposed forces – the one blinds and oppresses, the other uplifts and unites.”

— Chuck D

14. “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.”

— Chuck D

15. “I’d rather be hated for what I am than to be loved for what I’m not.”

— Chuck D

16. “Slavery was incredibly prosperous for some people, at that time. It was not a bad business plan, but it was terrible and inhumane. But as a business it worked.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

18. “I always remain optimistic.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

20. “I want to always move forward with everything I am doing. So, I do the radio show, speak at universities and other social institutions all around the world, appear on TV, and continue to create music all in the hope to keep the struggle alive.”

— Chuck D

21. “What made me want to become a recording artist; I was the first artist that was repeatedly asked by a label to record with them. That label was Def Jam Records.”

— Chuck D

22. “One side of the street is a Church; across the road is a liquor store. Both of ’em keepin us poor.”

— Chuck D

23. “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.”

— Chuck D

24. “The best way to boycott is to build your own.”

— Chuck D

25. “I spread the message of hope and of unity. That’s what gets me up in the morning. I can tell you what is wrong, but I can’t tell you how to fix it. I’m a raptivist, not a politician. I deal in hope.”

— Chuck D

26. “Real people do real things. A collective of a whole bunch of people who do things in their own locale, in their own neighborhoods – the sum is bigger than the parts, and the parts will grow.”

— Chuck D

27. “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.”

— Chuck D

28. “Minds are the real estate of the 21st century.”

— Chuck D

29. “Eminem has talent, and his talent is the thing that influences many young people who would have never gone anywhere near rap. White kids in different parts of the world use him as a barometer and the standard to live up to. In some ways, Eminem is an artist who has ushered in a new movement.”

— Chuck D

30. “I always remain optimistic. There are three levels of music production: the majors, indies, and what I call “inties,” music distributed via the Internet. The Internet is one area that I have used pretty effectively to break free of corporate control.”

— Chuck D

31. “Rap comes from the humble beginnings of rebelling against the status quo. Now, rappers have become the status quo themselves. You can’t rebel against the Queen and then become the Queen yourself. I attribute much of the blame to testosterone-male dominance and patriarchy.”

— Chuck D

32. “I adhere to the philosophy, “I don’t care who writes the laws, let me write the songs.””

— Chuck D

33. “People are so confused about race and hip-hop that people didn’t even consider the Beastie Boys one of the greatest rap groups of all time because they were white.”

— Chuck D

34. “I know I am judged unfairly by my physical characteristics and ostracized because of that so I say, “Yes, I’m a black man.””

— Chuck D

35. “Don’t anoint me when you can anoint yourself.”

— Chuck D

36. “When you travel the world, you have to watch and you have to listen. We’re not going to come in to Ireland without an understanding that there’s a history that’s very sensitive.”

— Chuck D

37. “Public Enemy is the security of the hip-hop party.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

39. “I grew up as a sports fan, and I know that a hall of fame is very different than an award for being the best of the year. It’s a nod to the longevity of our accomplishment.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

41. “Of course voting is useful. But then again, I don’t put a big glow to it. Voting is about as essential as washing yourself. It’s something you’re supposed to do. Now, you can’t go around bragging, expecting to get props because you voted. That’s stupid.”

— Chuck D

42. “Where else can you go with respect to the work, lyrics, and message of the music? If you are past high school age, you can get by with saying very little the first or second time around. However, after a while you know you are going to have to say something beyond high school stuff.”

— Chuck D

43. “You should be a person inside the world with knowledge of your terrain. And if you lock yourself into the 2,000-by-3,000-square-mile, lower-48 box of the United States, you’re going to be frustrated by its limitations. You gotta think outside the box.”

— Chuck D

44. “I was inspired by the classic rock radio of the Seventies. They separated Chuck Berry and the Beatles from the Led Zeppelins and Bostons and Peter Framptons of the time. In many ways, classic rock became bigger than mainstream rock.”

— Chuck D

45. “We don’t see the people who are doing real things getting enough props. We often see politicians who are everywhere but nowhere at the same goddamn time. You know the kind of person: You see them everywhere on television but nowhere in front of your face.”

— Chuck D

46. “I’m a multi-tasker. I was down with that stuff before they invented the term.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

48. “I’ve signed with major labels, and I haven’t had any control over the money.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

50. “Rap is supposed to be about keeping it real and not relinquishing your roots in the community. Without that, it’s just posturing. Somebody who claims to speak for the ’hood don’t need no private jet.”

— Chuck D