‘Chuck D is a Signifying Monkey’… WTF?

This has to be the dumbest shit I’ve read in a very long time – Chuck D is a signifying monkey. The author of that article, Al Barger, made several statements that must be refuted. The first of which is this:

The greatest act in rap history, by any reasonable MUSICAL consideration, would have to be the Beastie Boys- hands down. However, they don’t have the cheap political rhetoric. More importantly, they’re not black. I can understand how it might pain some folk that the best rap act is not black, but them’s the facts. Given some of the particular racial pathologies of modern black America, that the Beasties are not just white but specifically JEWISH makes it that much worse.

The claim that the Beastie Boys are the greatest rap act is just laughable. I have much respect for the Beasties and I loved their first album. But they are by no means the greatest rap act ever. And what’s with the ‘MUSICAL’ reference? Is Al trying to say that most rap isn’t music? A ‘kick and a snare’ isn’t good enough for you? Too tribal for ya? If I were to use Al’s ‘MUSICAL’ stipulation, the title clearly belongs to the good Dr. Dre. Nobody can touch Dre’s music. And, as I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, I think that Dre’s ‘Chronic’ album is the best hip-hop album of all time. Other artists/groups that I’d put up against the Beasties are Boogie Down Productions, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, EPMD, Public Enemy, Run-DMC, The Roots…

The article goes on to say:

Public Enemy, on the other hand, can’t be praised highly enough among many people who care about rap. Besides the appropriate skin color, PE has the perfect schtick. They’re radical militant black nationalist freedom fighters. Therefore, they are Highly Important.

Except of course that they’re not. They’re musicians and recording artists. Chuck D makes records. He’s not in any significant sense a political leader or outlaw. For being a “public enemy,” about the only significant lawlessness PE has been involved with has been Flavor Flav beating his woman. Wow, what a rebel.

I think the importance of Public Enemy is that they raised the consciousness level among many Blacks. I know that I learned a lot about Black history just from listening to their lyrics, especially on the ‘Nation of Millions’ album. Just by Chuck dropping a name made me want to investigate to learn who and what he was talking about. But I have never looked at them as leaders. And I interpret the term ‘public enemy’ in a couple of ways. The first is that the Black man is generally viewed by society as ‘public enemy number 1’ (or at least that was the case pre-9/11). Just looking at the group’s symbol – the silhouette of a Black man in the cross-hairs of a rifle – should make that point crystal clear. The second meaning of ‘public enemy’ is that they are doing something that the government (school systems) have never done — teaching the masses of Black people the truth about their history. In doing so the group could be viewed as ‘working against the greater good’ by the powers that be.

Then we get this bit of ignorance:

In terms of music, you know, SONGS, PE is a third or fourth tier act. They have a few good songs, but they’re no Beatles or Prince. Fear of a Black Planet was a rockin’ good album, but that was all they had in ’em. Being highly generous, you might say that PE has ten worthwhile songs, eight or nine of them from Black Planet. On a musical level, their whole career might be the equal of Licensed to Ill.

‘Fear of a Black Planet’ is all they had in them??? Uh, excuse me, aren’t you forgetting the small fact that ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back’ is one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time? There’s no way in hell that ‘Licensed to Ill’ can compare musically or lyrically with ‘Nation’. You’ve got the incredible musical production of the Bomb Squad combined with Chuck’s incomparable lyrics. Not to mention his voice and delivery. I’ll put ‘Bring the Noise’, ‘Don’t Believe The Hype’, ‘Terminator X To The Edge Of Panic’, ‘Louder Than A Bomb’, ‘Caught, Can We Get A Witness?’, ‘Night Of The Living Baseheads’, ‘Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos‘, ‘Rebel Without A Pause‘, ‘Prophets Of Rage’ and ‘Party For Your Right To Fight’ up against any song on ‘Licensed’. So there are at least another 10 great tracks just from the ‘Nation’ album. Al is straight-up trippin’ to not consider ‘Nation’ to be PE’s best album. ‘Nation’ has been critically acclaimed as one of the best albums ever, regardless of genre. And I even rate ‘Yo! Bum Rush the Show’ above ‘Fear of a Black Planet’.

Then we get this:

However, at no time did I actually experience fear of a black planet from attending the Public Enemy show. Look, their Security of the First World were dancers doing pseudo-militaristic dance steps while toting plastic toy guns. What were they going to do, squirt water on Whitey?

Al, Al, Al!!! You just don’t get it. If you paid attention to the lyrics of ‘Fear of a Black Planet’ you’d understand that Chuck is talking about ‘the browning of the world’, not a threat of physical violence against ‘Whitey’:

Man you ain’t gotta
Worry ’bout a thing
‘Bout your daughter
Nah she ain’t my type
(But supposin’ she said she loved me)
Are you afraid of the mix of Black and White
We’re livin’ in a land where
The law say the mixing of race
Makes the blood impure
She’s a woman I’m a man
But by the look on your face
See ya can’t stand it

Man calm your ass down don’t get mad
I don’t your sistah
(But supposin’ she said she loved me)
Would you still love her
Or would you dismiss her
What is pure? Who is pure?
Is it European state of being, I’m not sure
If the whole world was to come
Thru peace and love
Then what would we made of?

Excuse us for the news
You might not be amused
But did you know white comes from Black
No need to be confused

Excuse us for the news
I question those accused
Why is this fear of Black from White
Influence who you choose?

Man c’mon now, I don’t want your wife
Stop screamin’ it’s not the end of your life
(But supposin’ she said she loved me)
What’s wrong with some color in your family tree
I don’t know

I’m just a rhyme sayer
Skins protected ‘gainst the ozone layers
Breakdown 2001
Might be best to be Black
Or just Brown countdown

I’ve been wonderin’ why
People livin’ in fear
Of my shade
(Or my hi top fade)
I’m not the one that’s runnin’
But they got me one the run
Treat me like I have a gun
All I got is genes and chromosomes
Consider me Black to the bone
All I want is peace and love
On this planet
(Ain’t that how God planned it?)

Excuse us for the news
You might not be amused
But did you know White comes from Black
No need to be confused

Excuse us for the news
I question those accused
Why is this fear of Black from White
Influence who you choose?

But wait, there’s even more…

Also, actually read some of their lyrics. There’s nothing to ANY of that bullshit. Any retard can be hostile and belligerant(sic). That’s not a political statement, merely a tantrum.

Woo-wee, I’m a big scary Negro. Boo! Riiiight. Now, coming from the Geto Boys, say, I’d believe it. I would in fact be at least a little scared of them and their audience. “Mind Playing Tricks on Me,” now that shit puts the fear of God and Negroes in me.

As I’ve just shown Al hasn’t read a damn thing. Or if he has, he didn’t understand what he read.

Thing is though, Chuck D is merely a signifying monkey. This goes back to an African legend about a weak-ass little monkey what signifies ie makes empty signals with no backing ie talks a lot of lying bullshit to try turning bigger animals against one another. As you might expect, the monkey generally ends up getting EATEN for his bother.

Chuck D talks a lot of big talk, but he ain’t Malcolm X. Those Uzis are plastic. Malcolm’s weren’t. The video for “By the Time I Get to Arizona” depicts the band assassinating various state officials for the crime of refusing to honor the MLK holiday. That’s a pretty good gimmick for a video, but there was never a moment of danger that they were going to lead any kind of insurrection. PE is a band trying to sell records, not any kind of political or religious leadership.

Why is it that people can’t separate reality from art? Yes, PE is a musical group, not a political organization. Just because they created a work of art depicting some event doesn’t mean they’re going to bring that artwork to life. I think the point is to raise awareness. And they’ve been successful at doing that.

However, he did mildly annoy me with his totally unwarranted disrespect for Elvis Presley. “Fight the Power” was definitely their best SONG, a career making record. On that ground, I largely overlook the pure demagoguery of

Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Motherfuck him and John Wayne

Very obviously, the charges of racism are precisely backward here. I’ve never heard of Chuck D being oppressed by anyone, and certainly not by Elvis. Elvis Presley never did one damn thing to a black man, other than providing numerous black folk jobs as musicians, dancers and songwriters. Chuck D, on the other hand, hates Elvis and curses him for absolutely no other reason than having been white. That is textbook racism.

I believe Chuck is on record stating that he was referring to this quote (and attitude) that’s been attributed to Elvis: “The only thing black people can do for me is shine my shoes and buy my music”. And let me get this straight, if Al hasn’t heard of someone else’s oppression then it never happened? Please. I guess Al believes that a Black man can get a taxi in New York too.

I think Al should stick to writing about Rock. I can’t wait for when he tells us that Elvis invented Rock & Roll music.