Top 80 Chuck D Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Most artists are always fighting for their fame. They have that fear, like the saying goes, “out of sight, out of mind.” They need to keep themselves out there. I have never had that fear. If I have any fear, it’s not doing enough to reach people.”

— Chuck D

52. “Why would twenty-six-year-old “teenagers” care about political ramifications if their backs are not up against the wall? But if their backs are against the wall they may be plucked to fight in Iraq, and all of sudden they become politicized real quick.”

— Chuck D

53. “I became tired of submitting my art to a panel of corporate strategists who decide if it meets their standard of what gets into stores or not. It was quite simple for me: they act like judge and jury of my art, and that is unacceptable. I wanted to give it right to the public.”

— Chuck D

54. “The Internet was a saving grace for promoting and exposing, and even creating. It’s a parallel world to the music industry that already exists, and I’m glad to be a part of it.”

— Chuck D

55. “The United States is like one big jail for Black people, because we’re locked into a mentality and a mindset that limits our potential. It has us against us.”

— Chuck D

56. “One of the problems with hip hop is lack of infrastructure and not being able to control its own course. I don’t like that hip hop is full of infantile 35-year-olds. Hip hop cannot afford to be lazy.”

— Chuck D

57. “As black people we were out to further our equality. I don’t pay attention to the controversial connotations put on by media and the undermining labels they place on us. We pay attention to what our community situation is and what we need.”

— Chuck D

58. “I’d rather have a hundred thousand or a million people saying I’m nuts and I’m crazy for my musical choices and what I’ve said lyrically, than a million people all raising their hand on the first day.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

60. “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.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

63. “Alternative spaces, independent media, satellite, these all provide some tools by which we can work more independently and deal more directly with communities we hope to reach. Distribution is key, and finding alternative ways to do that with new media is critical.”

— Chuck D

64. “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.”

— Chuck D

65. “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.”

— Chuck D

66. “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.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

68. “I think governments are the cancer of civilization.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

71. “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.”

— Chuck D

72. “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.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

74. “The Internet is one area that I have used pretty effectively to break free of corporate control.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

76. “I’m envious of the way that electronic dance music has organised itself. It has been able to understand what it ain’t rather than what it is. And I think that slipped away from hip-hop as soon as the DJs lost the majority of the say so in the direction of the music.”

— Chuck D

77. “Someone like Jay-Z does have a timeless quality, but it’s much different than ours. You can look back at something like “At the Hop” by Danny and the Juniors or the music that was on American Bandstand in the 1950s-’60s.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

80. “You can’t master time, but you have to work your hardest to manage it.”

— Chuck D

81. “You have to wait for people to program you. The only difference is the amount of people that you’re going to reach but that’s going to even out in the next two or three years anyway. Computers are being bought faster than televisions right now.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

83. “You’re always going to sound like yourself, but you can make really strong attempts to keep some similarities, but move away from what you did before for popularity’s sake.”

— Chuck D

84. “It’s not about what you get out but what you put into hip hop as a genre.”

— Chuck D

85. “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.”

— Chuck D

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

— Chuck D

87. “Some artists are told what to like and told definitions of what the music business is. That’s a problem. Music is artistry, and you want your music heard, your act known. But artists don’t know. They are ignorant the minute they sign a contract.”

— Chuck D