Byron Crawford aka Bol (Swahili for "the gulliest one") is the founder of the critically acclaimed hip-hop blog, ByronCrawford.com: The Mindset of a Champion, where he discusses racism, homophobia, healthy living, respect for women, tolerance for religion, and who really runs the entertainment industry. Bol’s views very rarely, actually, never reflect those of XXL or its staff.
Stop talking out of your ass, Chuck D
I refuse to believe the US is not the best country in the world.
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A scathing new editorial by Chuck D over at AllHipHop begins with the bizarre assertion that if there were a such thing as a Rap Olympics, the US wouldn’t bring home very many gold medals, just like how the US apparently isn’t as competitive as it used to be at Olympic basketball.
Translation: Chuck D is upset about the fact that Public Enemy isn’t nearly nearly as popular here in the US as it is in the rest of the world, where people don’t know to let go of old music. That is, except for Flavor Flav’s series of hilarious reality shows on VH1, including the one where he was dating Sylvester Stallone’s gigantic ex-wife, which, I’m not gonna lie, I think I fapped to back in like ’03 (just thought you’d like to know), and Professor Griff’s hilarious and informative videos on YouTube (and thus World Star Hip Hop) about how hip-hop is run by the Illuminati.
But what does Chuck D have? He could try publishing a series of editorials in which he’s constantly bragging about the number of countries he’s been to, like my grandfather, the late, great Dick Dixon, and accidentally repeating himself over the course of a thousand words or so, because his brain is growing a thin candy shell, but people on the Internets don’t really like to read. Take it from someone who should know. I’ve published over a million words here in the past just-about-five years, many of them I made up myself, and I shudder to think what I’ve been paid on a per word basis. It might not even be possible to display on a calculator without that little e. Whatever that means.
Chuck D might be especially anxious these days, because, as mentioned in the piece, he recently turned 50, and people tend to get anxious as they approach those milestone birthdays, even though their actual significance is mostly symbolic. Jay-Z hasn’t had a good idea (well, one that was useful to me personally) since he turned 30, but I’m sure that’s a mere matter of coincidence. I’m only about two months shy of the big 3-0 myself, and my fear is that my peen won’t always work as well as it has (despite my lifestyle, nullus). Then what am I gonna do? Get another part-time job? Just because I’m old doesn’t mean that I’m not still black.
A year or so ago, or maybe even a couple of years ago at this point, PE tried to pull one of those moves where you get random people on the Internets (as opposed to a record label) to fund the making of your album, but it didn’t work out, because they couldn’t get enough people to donate. The way these sites like Kickstarter work is, you donate some money, but if the artist doesn’t reach the actual fundraising goal he set, you get your money back. That way, Ras Kass (to use an example) can’t just take said money and use it to buy a bottle of Ciroc.
I seem to recall reading that Public Enemy didn’t quite reach its fundraising goal – which I remember thinking was a bit much anyway, in this age when you can record an album just by plugging a microphone right into the side of your laptop. (How else to explain half of the shit on Nah Right?) But then, a while later, I read somewhere that they did finally get enough money. I wonder if Chuck D himself pitched in the remaining amount, to avoid embarrassment. You know good and well he’s got the money. He’s been on 71 tours. It says right there in his editorial.
I don’t know why he bothered trying to raise money via the Internets in the first place. Maybe because he knew the album was destined to lose money, and he didn’t want lose any of his own money. In the editorial, he prides himself on the fact that he drives a 94 Montero and a 97 Acura (perhaps the very same one mentioned in the song “All About the Benjamins”). I’m sure the idea there was to prove that he has no use for fancy material things, but you’d have to think he’s also a frugal motherfucker. I mean, if he’s been on 71 tours, and his cars are from two decades ago, just like my car. He’s probably one of these people who keeps a big Ziploc bag of fast food condiments in his pantry. As if it matters what kind of car he drives. By a show of hands, did anyone’s opinion on Chuck D change (for the better, I mean) when you found out he owns two POS cars? See, no one gives a shit!
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Your drop is incoherent Byron. You start the discussion with Chuck’s criticism of US rap Vs. NON US rap, and how he thinks the latter is better right now. Then you go on a random series of anti-Chuck D ribs…I don’t get it.
This could have been a great discussion. There is a lot of non-American rap that is making waves internationally. For example, Palestinian Hip Hop is really what’s up right now. It embodies what has been the myth of Black American Rap: that it is by and for struggling poor people/a way for them to express their pain and get their story out to the world. They are in fact acting as the ‘Hood (refugee camp) CNN. Revise the drop and let’s start a real conversation.
French and German hip hop is crazy. In Germany they have hip-pop and underground stuff. It’s a huge thang.
But…Palestinian hip hop??? Tha fukk?!??. Now I know you’re reaching to show you’re enlightened.
HellNah,
Actually, yes. Have you heard of DAM? Chuck D has met and interviewed them several times…and Shadia Mansour just did a track with Dead Prez. Yes, Palestinian Hip Hop in GAZA, the West Bank and in Israel is huge. Not reaching, you’re reach is apparently very limited.
Do you want to experience i-nterra’cial d’a-ting
— Bla ck whi teCu pid * C 0 M —–
It gives you a chance to ma’ke your life bet ter and open opportuni ties for you to me’et the att r’active inte’rra’c ial sin’g’les and treat you like a Qu’een or Ki’ng. Maybe you wanna check it out or tell your friends.
is this supposed to be provocative? it worked. yo bum rush the show, nation of millions, fear of a black planet, apocalypse 91. opening up the word to rap music. generating awareness to a whole generation of both black and white youth. part of the bomb squad: still unparalled and unimitable (all of the above plus amerikka’s most wanted). never danced, never sold out, never afraid to alienate people like you who don’t even get laid off of talking about people like chuck d. f*ck you. go listen to the knux and cry over girlfriends you never had.
Co-Sign. The impact Chuck D and Public Enemy had and have on the world is in umatched by any other rap group. As a lawyer, when I write something, I am forced to justify and support each assertion i make in a legal document. If only 1% of that rule applied to wack, lying, hating Bloggers.
Co-co-sign.
Chuck D is correct and of course Bol is going to cast it down because that is his job on the epic fail train that is the deuce x L(L is for lackluster, lame). American hip-hop has been reduced to commercials for products and guys with unrealistic fantasies about being these huge criminal boses who never get killed or go to jail(see the retirement plan of all crime bosses). They are kinda of like a gayer version of the narco music played in mexico because at least they are writting about real drug lords. Rappers that were born in the 90′s still talking about drug lords from the seventies because they watched B.E.T. American Gangsta series. No real authenticity and the only sign that cats even care about lyrics is drake crying over how rich he is and how he can’t handle all of the trim coming his way and its getting to him poor douche bag (take one dose of any poison and that will handle your dilema).
hahaha thats hilarious poor douche bag, i wish i had drakes problems lol!
Good music is out there, if u wanna look for it. Yes the ‘culture’has faded due to the mainstream, but that happens with everything that goes mainstream. Its for the kids and idiots, thats why its all flashy cars, jewels and naked girls. The real culture is were it always is………on the streets! U just gotta find it.
Stop talking out of your ass,
Chuck DByron Crawford aka Bol^ fixed…no matter what you tried to say here Bol, you just proved Chuck to be right.
Chuck helped the MLK holiday pass in AZ by setting the tone of the protests w/’By The Time I Get To Arizona’…you’re talking about some frivolous recording project that some Europeans who respect that man tried to accomplish. One can even say Chuck’s been more pro-Black with his VOICE than our president…
2dopeboyz.com/2010/09/09/public-enemy-tell-it-like-it-really-is-video/
^ banging song…
Correction: Chuck D is pro-equality and has done more to advance civil and human rights for Blacks, and consequentially all Americans, then our President.
Obama is a fraud homey. There is NO difference between him and any other R or D candidate. Nader, all day.
“Correction: Chuck D is pro-equality and has done more to advance civil and human rights for Blacks, and consequentially all Americans, then our President.”
^ i agree with this…Avenger mashed it up there too…
Chuck D’s assertion (did I spell that right?) on Non U.S rap being better than U.S rap might not be unrelated to his recent trip to Nigeria (where I’m from and live). He was here last month for the MAMAs (MTV Africa Music Awards) with P.E and they performed Rebel Without A Pause followed by an extended version of Fight The Power with a slew of young MCs from Nigeria (Mo’ Cheddah), Angola (Jojo) and Ghana (Sarkodie). All except Mo’ Cheddah spit in their native language. Despite our many dialects, English is our official language. What is amazing about the MAMAs is that it is probably the hardest MTV awards show to pull off considering you’re representing a whole continent where not everybody speaks the same language, yet they pull it off year in, year out. This was the 3rd MAMAs and it stayed fresh, unlike the American VMAs, which seems to get duller every year (I’m not hating, just stating the fact). Rick Ross & T-Pain performed too and Eve hosted. It was great to see that many cultures in one place, even if some of the artists had to perform over their own vocals. That bit they could try avoiding next year.
And on a sidenote: Chuck D gave it out the MAMA Legend award to South African legend and anti-apartheid and civil rights activists the late Mariam Makeba. This is probably the most knowledge I’ve dropped on this website… considering the lack of knowledge XXL keeps giving us!
TPAR I have a question I am not a DEM or a repub but I often wonder why folks call Obama a fraud? Also what would Nader do that is so different? It is easy to take shots at shit from an arm chair as Nader and Ross Pero often did. Though I agreed with them somtimes I look to the words of Martin Luther King who stated when asked did he feel good when certain cities elected black politicians did he see progress. “No black men in high public office are symbolic victories but we need real justice”. As I stated to many people upon this election the man cannot waive a wand fix the hood and undo every evil commited by past presidents in 1 or 2 terms. No matter how good your attentions are the system has a way of defending itself or destroying you if you don’t fall in line.
I still think we need more rational people to ingaged in the process and working on the ground to cause real social change. Real change don’t come from the top it often comes from the bottom while the top just tries to dictate based on the zeitgist of the time.
Avenger,
Obama has never done anything. He benefited greatly from the black leaders that came before him and paid no homage. He has never done ANYTHING. And there is no compairson between Perot and Nader.
Nader HAS done a lot! The reason we have nutritional information on our foods, airbags and a plethora of other pro-people laws that effect us on a daily is because of Nader’s life long work. Peep the documentary: An Unreasonable Man and you’ll be a Nader supporter. He is the truth…not for what he SAYS he’ll do but for what HE HAS done and stood for his ENTIRE life.
Obama’s foriegn policy, among other things is IDENTICAL to that of G.W. Bush. The guy merks out more innocent civilians abroad then Bush did…and has not done anything to change these horrific policies.
I will give you the fact that Obama is weak as rain water. But like I always said our presidents are figureheads. The so -called changes they oversee are often in the works before they come into office and they may give them the final push or be the guy who signs off on them but they don’t change much on their own. That is not how America is set to be run. Obama cannot pay much homage to former black leaders because America is not ready to admit that race in america is its cast system/social construct. So the only black leaders safe to say you care for is MLK everyone else is painted as a mindless radical unamerican reverse racist because they fought the opresssive nature they faced more aggressively. In fact Obamas hands are tied when it comes to black community because this bullshit media system will almost drive us to a race war if he address certain travesity head on.
I agree with you about Nader. But I feel men like Nader have more teeth if they can build a powerful lobby or create enough wealth in various sectors that lobby for change. If he gets elected to office the other parties will simply sabatoge him. (see tea party aka redneck pawns of health insurance and big business).
Obama can’t fix the foreign policy situation easy because once the u.s. invades and destablizes a country further they are almost obligated to stay around and try to clean the mess up for years but that causes even more death and destruction. Which is why the Bush administration should be sentenced for war crimes for starting two unfounded wars. Declaring war on terrorism was like trying to kill a nat with a sledge hammer. They further distablized the middle east by invading Iraq and they don’t understand you cannot create a democracy in a country like Afghanistan. These changes have to come from the people in some forms true revolution comes from inside and the you can choose a side to aide but you don’t go in all colonial style and say let me show you people how to run yourself nevermind the increased senseless civilian killings and loss of American life in the name of John Wayne style posing.
Chuck D is right. Non-American hip hop is much better than most American hip hop these days. If the American public opened their minds and accually listened to other countries there would be no “hip hop is dead” statements being said. I don’t see it happening though because people are scared of the “funny” accents even though they swear that they are all about the lyrics and dope beats. It’s a shame I guess. International hip hop is no longer a secret but it’s still a mystery to most.
TRUE! You should check out hip hop in Nigeria, M.I is arguably one of the biggest rappers in the country and even he had to tone down his style to sell records. We’re at that stage in Nigeria (though it’s been like this for a while), where record companies are trying to get artists to just make dance records or whatever sells fast. The blessing is most rappers here choose to or remain unsigned due to their lyrical content, so there’s always that “fresh” music as opposed to the generic.
I’ll do that man. Being that I’m from Australia I’m open to other countries music. Our hip hop scene down here is very strong too and the emcees here also remain unsigned from the bigger non-hip hop record labels. Keeps it fresh alright. I can also say the same thing for New Zealand. I know this Nigerian kid a few doors down from me and he’s one of the dopest emcees in my area. Americans just don’t get it.
Stop talking out of your ass, Chuck D Byron Crawford aka Bol
^ fixed…no matter what you tried to say here Bol, you just proved Chuck to be right.
Chuck helped the MLK holiday pass in AZ by setting the tone of the protests w/’By The Time I Get To Arizona’…you’re talking about some frivolous recording project that some Europeans who respect that man tried to accomplish. One can even say Chuck’s been more pro-Black with his VOICE than our president…
2dopeboyz.com/2010/09/09/public-enemy-tell-it-like-it-really-is-video/
^ banging song…
Co-sign this entire post. First off that song is fire!!! Dope video too…
Chuck D and PE changed the entire game of rap music. This is an indisputable statement. Rolling Stone has them listed 44 in top 100 artists of all time. There was no other group in hip-hop history that challenged political views and the media in which Chuck did. Nobody else in hip-hop with the exception of KRS and Gil Scott Heron were even approaching these topics in rhyme. PE was one of the fitst groups to thrive internationly so Chuck has seen the world and knows whats up.
Chuck and Flav challenged Arizona ( a still-racist state , just check the immigration stance) on refusing to recognize MLK Day as a holiday. ( By the time I get to Arizona)
Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos went at the prison system and government on wax..
Burn Hollywood Burn and She watch Channel Zero? went at the media.
911 is a joke threw darts at the response time of an ambulance when dispatched to a black community.
Fight the Power is one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time.
I know Bol wrote this knowing he would get an angry response from heads. If that was your motivation, good job, but to say Chuck D is just an angry old dude ranting is hip-hop blasphemy.
Peace to Chuck D, KRS-ONE, Dead Prez, Immortal Technique and Zack De LaRocha…real revolutionary artists yall
Peace to Don McCaine, Abdulnasir, AvengerXL, Q461 and the other intelligent homies who regulate this site. We are Hip Hop…keep coming. I learn a lot from ya’ll…and Byron, keep talking that shit as it provides us the platform to correct you and as a result, drop knowledge.
meant to say Burn Hollywood Burn went at the film industry and She watch Channel Zero went at TV media…
Peace to one more revolutionary cat … Saul Williams… spoken word hero… do the knowledge if you young kidz don’t know dude…..
remember too that artists across the board supported public enemy. Fresh Prince (Will Smith) stood up for them in the first PE home video (“speaks for us and need to be heard”), Ice-T had their back crazy on “This One’s for Me.” Ice Cube puts Chuck D in his top five rappers because he was “life changing.” p.e. changed one good black friend of mine’s life; from the south bronx and nothing to reading Malcolm X and seeing knowledge and learning as ‘hard’; getting a business degree, and getting his money, career, and mind right for him and his family. Changed an affluent white friend of mine’s life by setting a path for him as an advocate for blacks and latinos in the prison system as a career. why? “because I was a black revolutionary at age 12.” chuck d can say whatever he likes. his work is done.