The Frederick Speaker Series presents Chuck D, public enemy frontman and Rock & Roll hall of famer.
Chuck D is the leader and co-founder of the legendary rap group Public Enemy, the author of two critically acclaimed books, and a political activist, publisher, radio host, and producer. He has been featured on, or interviewed in, over fifty documentaries on music, technology, politics, and race as well as appearing in numerous public service announcements for national peace and the Partnership for a Drug Free America. Chuck D has also been a national spokesperson for Rock the Vote, the National Urban League, Americans for the Arts Council, and the National Alliance for African-American Athletes.
He first rose to acclaim in the 1980’s with a string of critically lauded and commercially successful albums that addressed weighty issues about race, rage and inequality with a jolting combination of intelligence and eloquence never seen before. The New York Times named Public Enemy’s music to their list of the “25 Most Significant Albums of the Last Century” and in 2005 The Library of Congress added Fear of a Black Planet to their National Recording Registry.
For the past five years, Chuck D has hosted On the Real/Off the Record for Air America, on which some of the most important musical and political figures of our time have been interviewed. He continues to make music and to write prolifically on technology, politics, rap and soul music, and race in the US. His book, This Day in Rap and Hip-Hop History, was released in 2017. There are few artists who possess such sophisticated understandings of the music business, entertainment industry, and racial politics in America, and few speakers who can command an audience like Chuck D.