Legendary Rapper & Public Enemy Co-Founder Chuck D at DePauw Friday

September 14, 2004

September 14, 2004, Greencastle, Ind. - Chuck D, leader and co-founder of the legendary rap group Public Enemy, will be on the DePauw University campus this Friday, September 17, to speak as part of LACE (Ladies Aligning Cross-Cultural Excellence)'s Hip Hop Fest. At 8 p.m. Friday in Meharry Hall of historic East College, Chuck D will speak on "Rap, Race and Reality." His presentation will be preceded by a breakdancing exhibition at 7:30 by the group S.P.I.R.I.T.

At 4 p.m. Friday in the auditorium of the Richard E. Peeler Art Center, Chuck D will participate in an open class meeting of Matthew Oware's First Year Seminar on Hip Hop.

LACE's Hip Hop Fest continues Saturday with a 5 p.m. concert by S.P.I.R.I.T. in Thompson Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center. All these events are free and open to the public.

"Chuck D has always believed in the political power of hip-hop," notes MotherJones.com. "From his early days as the front man for Public Enemy (which captured black rage at the Reagan era with 1988's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back), his music has been a medium for the message. Or, as D once famously remarked, 'Rap is CNN for black people.'"

Chuck D and Public Enemy were celebrated in the May 2004 issue of Rolling Stone magazine as one of the "fifty most important performers in rock & roll history." The New York Times named Public Enemy on its list of "25 Most Significant Albums of the Last Century," and Entertainment Weekly listed Fear of a Black Planet as one of the most important records of the 1990s. The critical and commercial success of Public Enemy opened the doors for Chuck D to deliver his message through a number of different mediums, extending his reach to all segments of the population. He has hosted his own segment on the FOX News network and published a best-selling autobiography, Fight The Power. He served as national spokesperson for Rock The Vote, the National Urban League, and the National Alliance of African-American Athletes, and appeared in public service announcements for HBO's campaign for national peace and the Partnership for the Drug Free America.

Chuck D is also a major proponent of music on the Internet. In September 1999, he launched a multi-format "supersite" on the Web, Rapstation.com, "the ESPN of Hip Hop." Chuck has also launched a radio station on the Internet, Bringthenoise.com, and in a landmark move made Public Enemy the first multi-platinum selling act to release their album via the Web before it was available in retail stores. He challenged and expanded the traditional methods of retail distribution, arranging for the album to also be the first-ever to be released on a Zip disk. Chuck's involvement in the Internet has landed him on the cover of The Net, Wired, and Yahoo! Internet Life magazines, he's been profiled in Forbes, TIME, and USA Today, and he was named to Upside magazine's "Elite 100" list of Internet leaders, alongside the likes of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

Chuck D's DePauw appearance is co-sponsored by LACE, MECCA, PanHel, RSA, AAAS, Campus Life, UB, Student Congress, OMA, Student Services, and the Public Occasions Committee.

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