Chuck D doesn't believe the hype.
In July 2006, approximately nine months after a meeting with George Rivera, owner and landlord of Club Alegria and Alegria Liquors, Zia Cross and her business partner, Danielle Miranda, signed a lease and the newly minted "Alegria" opened for business.
Sadly, four and half months later, after exhausting all their resources, Rivera had no other choice but to close the place down permanently. The cold reality of another independently
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owned and operated business closing in Santa Fe is both regrettable and frustrating. So…what better way for a city that enjoys burning bad ju-ju effigies to regroup than throwing a wicked bon voyage party?
Chuck D, Flava Flav, Professor Griff and S1W (Security of the 1st World), otherwise known as Public Enemy, are landing at Alegria on Dec. 8 for the club's final concert. The PE show is possible through the efforts of many individuals, but primarily radio station Indie 101.5. "We wanted to step up and set an example by supporting our community," Eli Garrett, operations manager at 101.5, says. Brian Hardgroove, traveling bassist and bandleader for Public Enemy, who coincidently moved to Santa Fe on Aug. 12, greased the wheels as well. The acclaimed multi-instrumentalist has embraced the local music scene by joining Indie to spin records on
Hardgroove's Fusebox
every Saturday at noon. Garrett calls the show a "fitting farewell to Alegria, while putting a kick in the local music scene."
Chuck D, Public Enemy front man, isn't one for hyperbole when it comes to his band, his work or his politics, so it's no surprise that his 10-minute conversation with SFR managed to reveal his panoramic personality and world view.
SFR: You have a new album in the works, Beats and Places. It's a B-side collection?
Chuck D:
Beats and Places
is an interconnected project. It follows the Bomb Squad collaborative tradition. We have four studios-two in New York, one in Atlanta and one in California-so it's all of these different pieces that didn't really make it or fit into other albums.
Is it being released on your Slam Jamz Label?
Yes. Slam Jamz features urban-based hip-hop that the mass media niche doesn't cover. MTV turned everything backward on a mega mass level. Back in the day, the performers you would watch on
Bandstand
and
Ed Sullivan
would only remind you of what you heard on
records. MTV reversed this by seeing music first, so
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audiences parody the images of what they see. I'm fighting a new power, female empowerment. We just signed Crew Grrl Order. They're the first female rap group to surface in 15 years. The idea came to me when I was interviewing Le Tigre for Air America. We kept coming back to the same question: Where are the women in hip-hop? Slam Jamz is like Chess Records. We got laborers in the day and players at night. We're also trying to figure out and create a viable business model as we go.
Because you were one of the first hip-hop groups to ever tour, PE has been credited with spreading rap and hip-hop culture worldwide. This is your 56th tour. Has touring influenced PE?
From the second album on, as soon as we had our passports, we wanted to expand our base and our playing field and destroy concepts of complacency. Hip-hop is the epitome of record collectors, and as hip-hop artists we were an accumulation of the best record players. We were older and well read, so we were able to match the imagination with reality. We became students in international studies. Plus, when we started, rap music press didn't really exist. Rolling Stone and Spin would only cover groups with some recognition. The European press covered our ideologies with more detail.
You made your thoughts about racial disparities in America pretty clear in your song about Hurricane Katrina, "Hell No We Ain't Alright." Do you think the US will ever have a healthy dialogue about race?
No. There has been a policy of denial in the US, and for the last eight years there has been a policy of self-inclusion. There is an audacity and arrogance toward other nations that we don't acknowledge. Most people in the US are ill-equipped to deal with racism. They either overcompensate or don't do enough. The US first has to realize that there is only one race, the human race. Music can open that dialogue and embrace one world.
In 2005, Fear of a Black Planet was chosen by the Library of Congress to be preserved for future generations. How does something like that inform your art when the shelf life of a typical rap group is so brief?
Longevity only means something if you pay attention. Our policy has been to never repeat ourselves twice. Someone once told me that some people eat rice every day and some people eat chicken every day, and that's that. Some rappers want to write for the moment and get paid. When I write something, I want it to have a lasting impact for all generations.
