Latest Chuck D Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• You're always looking for somebody to love you, be accepted, and there's the insecurities that are even transmitted through rap. Everyone is trying to aim to please too much. Number one: They're trying to please whoever signed them to a contract. Number two: They're trying to appease a gigantic audience and they get this false magnification of love. I came from a thing which nowadays would be the exception to the rule. I came from a mother and father who always made me secure in my beliefs, and that's where the love came from. Which made me look at everything else as procedure.

  Chuck D

  Mother, Father, Love You

  "Rapping the Vote With Chuck D". Interview With Jeff Chang, www.motherjones.com. September/October 2004.

• I don't think a lot of people have been privy to understanding that there's this talent in hip-hop all over the earth that's just as good. It's just that everything out of the U.S. proclaims to be the best, especially L.A. and New York, being that they're the nerve centers and media capitals of the most predominantly media-emitting country in the world.

  Chuck D

  Country, Thinking, People

  "Rapping the Vote With Chuck D". Interview With Jeff Chang, www.motherjones.com. September/October 2004.

• When we worked on Ice Cube's Amerikkka's Most Wanted album. Before we talked studios, beats, or lyrics, I said, "Two rules: Only say what you're able to vouch for. Number two, never repeat yourself twice, because we makin' an album that people will play over and over.

  Chuck D

  People

• I have to be conscious of what I'm sayin' because people are gonna come at me about this sh*t.

  Chuck D

  People, Conscious

• I always tell people that I was fortunate I was able to come in with a group of men. We didn't come into the game with a group of boys. We were young then. So your cats keep you in check.

  Chuck D

  Cat, Boys, Men

• I think the problem for the future generations is a lot of people ain't takin' the time to look for galvanizing artists and give them their voice, so therefore for their voice to be heard, they gotta bang more pots on the ceiling, so to speak; they gotta do crazy things just to get recognized. I just feel that whenever you don't give a generation some kind of voice, then expect side effects.

  Chuck D

  Crazy, Artist, Thinking

  "Interview Ice-T and Chuck D. by Jorge Hinojosa". Interview With Jorge Hinojosa, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

• Let the voice be the voice of the voiceless and let it come from the world of rap music to keep the stereotype and the peace at the same time.

  Chuck D

  Rap, Voice, World

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• Truth is truth no matter what I think.

  Chuck D

  Thinking, Matter, No Matter What

  Song: RLTK

• Rap music and rap records used to always be like this: we get one or two shots to a piece cause it was a singles marketplace and when the major record companies saw that it could also handle the sales of the albums then they started to force everybody to expand their topics from 1 to about 10 and you gotta deliver 12 songs, so a lot of times if you took a person who wasn't really developed, and the diversity of trying say 12 different things, you know the companies were like "Cool! Say the same thing 12 different ways."

  Chuck D

  Song, Rap, Two

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• A visit to the hood through a record, or through a video, or through a film, is a lot safer than actually visiting the people in real life. It became a business model. It became a revenue engine that, you know, you can get to the hood without ever going there.

  Chuck D

  Real, People, Records

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• The real thing is the heart, you know the heart shouldn't be covered with concrete.

  Chuck D

  Real, Heart, Concrete

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• The truth has no form, you know. It's not like walking around trying to actually ask for favors and to be acknowledged, it is what it is.

  Chuck D

  Trying, Favors, Form

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• Money is created by a machine... but you can't really create respect with a machine.

  Chuck D

  Machines

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• Every time something tries to create respect with a machine it crumbles!

  Chuck D

  Trying, Machines

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• For a long period of time, the media covered rap music and hip hop the same way they cover a lot of black people, people of color, you know, the bad news happens to be news. They used to have these little stupid colloquialisms that pop up like, "You know what? No news is bad news!" They trick the masses into thinking that any news is great for you. And I just think that's a piece of crap.

  Chuck D

  Stupid, Rap, Thinking

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• Corporations have steered the industry into what it wants, and a lot of times they will make artists record what it wants or to make songs talk to who they want to talk to. But sometimes the heart and the head have to be able to talk and deal with a situation that's evident.

  Chuck D

  Song, Heart, Artist

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• I like to drive and I like to travel. When I drive on the open road, it's like sometimes the car turns into a pen and the road is a piece of paper.

  Chuck D

  Car, Pieces, Paper

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• You know, I've written many of my songs while driving - which is against the law in many cases.

  Chuck D

  Song, Law, Driving

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• No matter what's in your head, you go up into any hospital, up to a terminal ward and it'll smack you right back into reality that, "Hey man, whatever you're dealing with, if it's heavy on your heart and head, you're gonna have to let that go, because there, some people are dealing with unavoidable situations that they can't let go." And then they eventually let those go, so, I mean, that's helpful.

  Chuck D

  Letting Go, Mean, Heart

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• Getting on the road and driving along a road at night, or even in the daytime and seeing the oceans or whatever, is always liberating.

  Chuck D

  Ocean, Night, Driving

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• I let go usually by talking to many people in different areas, in different realms of life that make me look at what I'm dealing with as being small fries stuff, you know?

  Chuck D

  Letting Go, Talking, People

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• You can actually take your pain and processes it into some kind of form of art. So I mean, I've easily always been able to do that, but also I've always been able to give myself perspective - or, you know, older people always give you perspective.

  Chuck D

  Art, Pain, Mean

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

• The best medicine for pain sometimes is some kind of logic and common sense from older folks. They tell you, "Okay, you're not the only one who actually went through this."

  Chuck D

  Pain, Medicine, Common Sense

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.

• The minute I get swelled up about something, something has always brought me back down to earth.

  Chuck D

  Earth, Minutes, Down To Earth

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

• Ever since I was a teenager, I was always kind of, like, checking myself. You know, like, "Come on man, don't get your head all swollen. Life and time itself will give you perspective on what you're doing." So, that's actually what's always been a reminder in my own head.

  Chuck D

  Teenager, Men, Perspective

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. May 12, 2012.